Connecting with People

In the fundraising consulting business, we deal with people every day. If we are to work with them effectively and successfully, we have to be able to make personal connections. Connecting with people allows us to create the conditions for our own success and the success of the organizations we strive to represent.

Connecting with people is about learning to listen carefully and find out the things that are important to each person. You must do this before you can try to move them. If you do not know what is motivating a person now, how can you effectively work to change it?

This is true with your prospect, your client, your boss, your spouse, etc. If you know what interests them, then go there and spend time drawing their conversation in that direction. Once you get them talking, simply listen, affirm and learn. If you spend this quality time early in the conversation, it will pay remarkable dividends afterwards.

You cannot get someone to a new place unless you know where they are coming from. After you have done your diligence and you know where this person is coming from, you are now in a position to work to achieve the desired end. Listening carefully will have enabled you to build some rapport. Now you can attempt to move this person in the right direction—not necessarily to your position, for your reasons, but to a common ground which benefits you both.

Focus on the Right Approach

Many fundraising directors focus on boring and difficult directives, such as, “We need to make more calls if we are going to raise more money—and you know we need to raise lots of money.” That is what got you into the fix you’re in now.

Try taking a more creative and less heavy handed approach. Appeal to their team spirit or their personal sense of responsibility. For example, tell your leading volunteer, “You are the most important person on our team right now, and the others are looking to you for leadership. I just know if you and I can go make these top two solicitations, the million dollars that brings us will fire up the rest of the team. Plus, if you get them fired up, each of them will get out asking several large prospects themselves. This will build the essential momentum that leads us to exceed our campaign goals. Isn’t it exciting that with just two calls, you can set so much into motion?”

Fundraising campaigns feed almost exclusively on momentum. If the right things happen in the right order, success takes on a life of its own and grows exponentially. Be sure that you and your leaders never underestimate the value of momentum. 

CDS has been a leader in nonprofit fundraising for the past three decades. Contact us if you need more intensive help with your major gift fundraising, strategic planning, or in preparing for a capital campaign.