How to Ask for Money Without Fear and Loathing
/Guest Article by: Zach Clark
Asking for money can be awkward, uncomfortable, difficult, and frustrating. When it comes to raising money, I find that most leaders have two things in common.
First, I think it’s very common for any human being to have some sort of emotional baggage they bring with them as it relates to money. Anything you read about finances and money talks about this. Money has this emotional quality to it that goes back to our upbringing and childhood.
Second, there is often a segregation in the mind of leaders between the actual work of the organization, especially if it’s a faith-based organization, and the actual work of raising money. Leaders sometimes see these as two non-related things. One work seems “missional” the other seems a “necessary evil.” You can hear it in the language used by the leaders. Be careful to not suggest that the work related to raising money is not ministry or the overall mission of what God has called you to do.
If you can relate to either of the above, here are 3 things you can do today to change the way you think about fundraising:
1. Re-engage with your passion. Passion is critical when it comes to development. We try to teach that development is really less about raising money and more about the language of leadership. It’s a set of skills. The currency you’re after is not money. You are trying to grow the currency of influence. You need influence to move people forward in doing the work of your mission and advancing toward your vision.
Passion is also critical because the authenticity and drive you have for the work God has called you to as a leader, and bringing other people into that world with you is what really connects the dots. It helps you integrate the segregation of your mission and raising money. It becomes less about, “What is your need?” while holding your hand out for money and much more about, “This is what we’re doing, and this is what we see that God is doing. Will you come along with us? How is God going to use you in this?”
2. Refocus your message. You have to get your story straight. Take your eyes off of the projects and the dollars and really take time, pray, look in your heart, and think this through with this question in mind: “Why are we really doing this? What are we really trying to accomplish?”
That starts, of course, with the vision. You can get yourself out of the frustration, self-loathing, doubt, awkwardness of fundraising by just going back to the core of what it is God has created your organization to do and why you are involved, whether you’re the head of the organization, the development leader, or in any influential position.
Ask yourself these questions to refocus your message and get your story straight.
Why do we do what we do?
How did we get here?
What are we working toward?
What are the steps we are going to take to get to where we want to be?
What are we asking others to do to partner with us?
3. Decide who your audience is. You need to think carefully about who you want to tell your story to. In a faith-based, mission-driven organization, you start by looking for anyone who is interested in seeing lives changed or lives saved.
That gives you a very, very broad audience, but it means you are looking for people who have the gift of sight. They like seeing people change. They like seeing lives saved. If you’re a faith-based organization, they love seeing God at work, and they want to be a part of that.
I think oftentimes we think way too narrowly. For a school, we think we’re only going to be able to talk to people whose lives have been touched by the school. If we’re a service organization, we tend to think only the people who might have an interest in our particular work would give to it, but the unfortunate reality is that there are so few examples of true excellence and effectiveness in the areas of life-saving and life-changing that when you are on the journey to being effective, that’s attractive to people. There is no question that generous people are constantly asked for money, but they feel that opportunities to give to truly excellent and impactful work are relatively few and far between.
If you can apply these three things with discipline and seriousness, you will find a way to connect the core of your vision to your efforts to ignite the passion of those around you to move forward with you. This will grow your giving to levels you’ve always thought impossible.
Click here to connect with Zach personally via text! He loves to hear from leaders, just like you!