Unlock Your Fundraising Potential: Overcoming Fear and Building Confidence
Let’s face it - Asking people for money is hard.
No matter how worthy the cause, when faced with the choice of getting a root canal or looking someone in the eye and asking them to give you something they have worked and sacrificed a long time for, most people might opt for the root canal.
Most of us struggle with asking for financial support from others because we typically don’t have a plan, or the plan we do have feels pretty flimsy, and not likely to work. Then, the first time we try something and don’t get amazing results, well… as humans, we are quick to give up on stuff that makes us uncomfortable. Trying something that is difficult without a plan creates a sense of fear.
Fearless fundraising is about fixing all that and taking away the fear. By equipping you with the tools and training you need, you’ll feel more confident and excited to invite others to support you financially, and when you have a proven plan like the Nonprofit Launch Plan Fearless Fundraising 5 Step CORE fundraising framework, asking others to join you financially can actually be fun.
Let’s break down the 5 main fears around fundraising and give you some practical tools to overcome them.
//Fear #1: They might say NO.//
No one likes rejection, because rejection feels a lot like failure. As humans we intentionally avoid situations where rejection might occur… including asking other people to support you financially. It is very hard to not take a NO personally, particularly when we are very passionate about our non-profit work.
Overcoming this fear:
The key to overcoming the fear of a NO is first to realize that it’s going to happen, and there’s nothing you can do to avoid it. Not everyone will say yes to joining as a financial partner. Often when a person doesn’t make a gift, the reason they don’t give is because the they’re actually not very clear about what the person asking actually wants them to do… so, in their confusion, they don’t do anything because they don’t feel a personal connection to it. So, the first step to reducing the number of no’s that you hear in a fundraising campaign is get clarity around your message of what your non-profit does, how it impacts the community, and how your donor’s gift will make an impact.
//Fear #2: They might get mad.//
This fear comes from the internal voices we all have telling us things that aren’t true. Think about this rationally for a moment - Even if you walked up to a total stranger on the street and asked them for $20, they might not give it to you, and they might look at you as a little odd, but chances are high they’re not going to get mad about it, and that’s a complete stranger! Deep down, most people want to help because when they are able to help someone else, they feel needed.
Overcoming this fear:
Ask a lot of questions. Find out all you can about what this person cares about and what motivates them, what they do for a living, etc., not because of what you think this person can do for you later, but because building genuine relationships with others is good for your life, and good for your non-profit work. As you get to know this person better, your fear that they might get mad when you talk to them about what you do and how they can get involved will disappear.
//Fear #3: They might feel uncomfortable.//
No one loves putting another person in (or being in) an uncomfortable situation particularly surrounding the topic of money. Web platforms like Carvana have made zillions of dollars because they have eliminated that discomfort - the awkward, often hours-long painful dance between a used car salesman trying to make a few bucks and the used car buyer trying to save a few bucks from the car buying process.
Overcoming this fear:
Good news, this is the easiest fear to dispel – if you get your messaging right, and you follow the 5 step framework that we teach at Nonprofit Launch Plan. Working through the framework will help you clarify your fundraising message, positioning the person you’re talking to as the hero of the story you are inviting them to be part of. When the potential partner is the hero, they are far more likely to embrace the idea of joining your giving team with excitement, rather than feeling uncomfortable or driven by guilt to make a gift.
//Fear #4: They might not care.//
The fear that another person might feel “indifferent” about something that you are so passionate about is perhaps more crippling than someone saying no. We think, “if they only knew what I know about why the assistance we provide is so necessary, then they’d want to give…”.
Not everyone feels a connection to every kind of work. Some people naturally gravitate toward certain causes over others, and that is okay… in the end, your non-profit will benefit most when people who are sincerely passionate about the cause and people you serve are excitedly giving, even if the number is slightly smaller.
Overcoming this fear:
Like the #1 fear above, it is important to realize that not everyone will catch your vision and there is nothing you can do about that, so there’s no need or value to taking it personally. For a number of reasons, some people feel a passion or incIination to giving to certain kinds of work over other, equally meaningful or impactful work… that is okay, and in God’s kingdom, there is more than enough resources to properly fund all of His work. The best tool in your tool kit to overcoming this fear is to have some solid stories of impact that demonstrate the value on an individual level that your work provides. As your non-profit grows, treat the stories of impact that you gather like currency.
//Fear #5: They might judge me.//
This fear is the ultimate deep-down culmination of all of the previous 4 fears.
Overcoming this fear:
Getting past this fear is all about shifting your mindset from fundraising as a transaction to fundraising as a partnership relationship. Fearless fundraising is based on the big idea that your job as the fundraiser is to connect the giver (aka the hero in the story) through a gift to the impact of the work. You are the guide in the story. Some will choose to become a part of the story (by making a gift), and others will not and as the guide, you are simply leading those that join with you to the experience of joy in generosity. Whenever fundraising becomes about the giver giving you money so that you can go do something - that is a transaction. Fears, worries about rejection, etc., all creep in because in transactional giving it is impossible to not take rejection and indifference personally.
//Conclusion://
Overcoming your fears and growing confident in your fundraising ability is possible when you have a plan, and in order to design the right plan to get your nonprofit dreams funded faster, you need the help of a coach. At Nonprofit Launch Plan, we can help! The first step is to set up a free, discovery call with me today!
To set up your free discovery call, click HERE: