How non-profits can improve their fundraising

Let’s Make SausageMaking the Ask is Not Like Making Sausage: You Need to Know What Goes in There - Mark Zmarzly

Who am I?• Mark Zmarzly (Za-mars-zlee)

• BA & MA in English (Creative Writing)

• Got into Bank Consulting/Sales in 2005…not as sexy as it sounds

• Have sold & serviced clients ranging from 1 branch to 1,700

• Other things I have sold: Tacos, video rentals, office equipment/supplies, my mom’s jewelry, beer, literacy, and the secret recipe to green slime.

@BankMarketing www.ihelpbanks.com | @MarkZmarzly www.markzmarzly.com

Selling green slime

• I learned quickly how management can kill motivation.

What do you think of the corporate world & sales?

• 1: Sales is the most important part of the corporate world…nothing happens until someone sells something!

• 2: It’s important just like service, good product, etc.

• 3: Indifferent/No opinion.

• 4: It’s the equivalent of cleaning toilets: necessary perhaps, but unpleasant and a bit unclean.

What do you think of fundraising?

• 1: Fundraising is the most important part of my organization…if we neglect this, we cannot serve!

• 2: It’s important just like our service, good product, etc.

• 3: Indifferent/No opinion.

• 4: It’s the equivalent of cleaning toilets: necessary perhaps, but unpleasant and a bit unclean.

• 5: I just wet myself (metaphorically of course) when you asked this question.

“Fundraising is a practice, a craft, characterized at its best by creativity, collaboration and a deep, human connection. It is about enabling people to discover what is important in their lives, and it is much more about transformation than it is about transactions.

We miss something very important when we are focused on selling people. Selling implies that money is the most important part of the relationship. When money is at the center of the relationship, it distracts us from our mission.

When we remove this buyer/seller dynamic, we move away from dependence and a relationship that favors one side over the other. It moves into a place of effortless flowing, growth and discovery, sharing, trust and co-creation.

From the Internet: “Fundraising is not selling”

http://jennifermccrea.com/2010/03/fundraising-selling-5/

“Fundraising is a practice, a craft, characterized at its best by creativity, collaboration and a deep, human connection. It is about enabling people to discover what is important in their lives, and it is much more about transformation than it is about transactions.

We miss something very important when we are focused on selling people. Selling implies that money is the most important part of the relationship. When money is at the center of the relationship, it distracts us from our mission.

When we remove this buyer/seller dynamic, we move away from dependence and a relationship that favors one side over the other. It moves into a place of effortless flowing, growth and discovery, sharing, trust and co-creation.

From the Internet: “Fundraising is not selling”

http://jennifermccrea.com/2010/03/fundraising-selling-5/

Asking for money in any form does not take delicate genius…but if you think it does, you will always be afraid.

“The 2012 State of the Nonprofit Sector Survey found 85% of all nonprofits experienced an increase in demand for their services in 2011 (and 88% expected to experience an increase in demand again in 2012) but 57% of all nonprofits have barely enough cash on hand to last them three months or less.”

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/richard-dare/nonprofit-funding_b_1471726.html

Who watched Dan Pallotta’s TED talk?

My experienceCrafting a new way

Crafting a new way

What I was told:

• “You have a lot to learn about selling”

• Fill the funnel

• Solve the problem

• The recession is causing a lack of sales

What I sought & discovered:• Info is abundant, curation is

difficult. Seek, sense, share.

• Qualify like crazy

• Identify the problem, then solve

• Track and evaluate

Why am I here? Why are you here?

• New role of sales in the corporate world

• You and your organization are the base

• The ask is the apex

• If you are at the fundraising pinnacle, you can be excused

Building the BaseYou & Your Organization

Your roleYou have full control over this

The evolution of sales

• Balance of power

• Now it’s about moving people

• Segmentation is over…elasticity is in. You cannot do one thing, you must do many and that involves a lot of moving.

• In traditional sales, the Internet was the great equalizer…it’s not just for astronaut sloth and grumpy cat

The evolution of sales

• “The balance has shifted. If you’re the buyer and you’ve got just as much information as the seller, along with the means to talk back, you’re no longer the only one who needs to be on notice. In a world of information parity, the new guiding principle is caveat venditor—seller beware.”

• Your reluctance to see the new form of sales will be an impediment to your success.

Here’s an experiment

• Have a post-it-note and pen in front of you.

• Hold the paper up to your forehead with your NON-dominant hand.

• With your dominant hand, snap your fingers five times as quick as you can.

• Now as quickly as you can, use your dominant hand to draw a capital E on your forehead.

• How did you write it?

• “It’s about stepping outside your own experience and imagining the emotions, perceptions, and motivations of others.”

• In the E test, “high-power participants were almost 3x more likely as lower-power participants to draw the self-oriented E.”

The E test

Get out of the building

• Ask what other organizations are doing to generate funds

• Ask your friends and neighbors where they donate and why

• Seek to understand…to demystify the process

• It will help you:

• Find potential new donors

• Practice!

• Discover new ways to communicate your passion

• I did such a good job that they went out of business.

A blockbuster of a deal

The future is now… consultative + perspective

• What is holding you back from embracing fundraising?

• Are you visible? If you are absent, who is filling that gap?

• Which way is your E facing? Reduce your power to sharpen perspective.

• How can you curate content (seek, sense, and share) to help potential donors make sense of how they can contribute and the difference it makes?

Your organizationYou may have less control over this

Where is the focus of your content?

At the center of Vancity’s brand is the concept of ‘balanced prosperity,” a strategy driven by a “triple bottom line” of financial returns, social returns, and environmental returns. – Jeffry Pilcher of TheFinancialBrand.com

Is your organization utilizing all the new tools?

• Curating content and reach can be scaled

Is your organization utilizing all the new tools?

• What about listening?

• Use Google Alerts for donors, other non-profits, funders, etc.

• Reach out to engage and ask questions.

• Cultivate a culture of involvement and education in the lives and roles of those around you.

How does the organization view the evolving landscape?

• In just three years, Kickstarter surpassed the U.S. National Endowment for the Arts as the largest backer of arts projects in the United States.

Will your organization adapt?

• “My cause is sufficient to generate results.”

• “It’s too competitive…we’re fighting for smaller pie.”

• Opinion doesn’t matter

• Experience matters a little

• Both are irrelevant in the face of results

The ask: apexBuilding on the foundation

Prepping for the face-to-face: asking better questions

• What does your customer want?

• What are their felt needs? (what do they say they need)

• What are their actual needs? (what do they really need)

• What are their aspirations?

• What obstacles are in their way?

Prepping for the face-to-face: asking better questions

• Generate a list of questions by writing as many as you can. Don’t edit…just write.

• Go through them and label open or closed-ended. Rework as needed.

• Choose the three most important questions. Why did you choose them?

Prepping for the face-to-face

• What do you want them to know?

• What do you want them to feel?

• What do you want them to do?

After the face-to-face

• Analyze what happened…what went right, what went wrong?

• What crucial steps led to your success?

• Think back to the beginning

• One of the biggest predictors of success in sales isn’t experience or talent…it’s how you analyze and explain your failures.

• Improving your close rate

The true apex for any ask is this:

• If the person you’re “selling to” agrees to buy, will his or her life improve?

• When your interaction is over, will the world be a better place than when you began?

• If yes, you owe it to yourself and the world to make these types of ask a priority!

The true apex for any ask is this:

• If no…

www.linkedin.com/in/markzmarzly

@MarkZmarzly

m_zmarzly@yahoo.com

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