Joy Myers was nervous. The director of development at the Arlington Food Assistance Center, in Virginia, was planning to do a cash call at an upcoming fundraising event, during which attendees would be asked to make donations on the spot. The technique was new to the organization, and she worried it might make people uncomfortable.
She described her concerns to a board member, who asked what she hoped to raise from the roomful of people. The goal was $20,000, Ms. Myers said.
The board member replied, “It’s been a really good year for me and my family. I’ll give you $20,000.”
Sounds like an easy win, right?
Ms. Myers sees it differently.
“What if I had asked for $40,000?” she says. “I didn’t pick up on the cues that she was speaking to me as a donor and not as a board member.”
Quick Reflexes
An unexpected donation offer can catch even seasoned fundraisers off guard. And even during a planned solicitation call, they’re so used to anticipating rejection that they tend not to be prepared for positive outcomes, says Marshall Ginn, managing director of the consulting firm Capital Development Strategies, of which the Arlington Food Assistance Center is a client.
“‘Going into battle,’ ‘pulling the trigger’ — we use such harsh language to talk about the solicitation moment,” he says.
“Yes” is not the only word that throws off fundraisers. As donors become savvier, they ask increasingly detailed questions and expect fundraisers to provide answers, Mr. Ginn says.
While it’s impossible to anticipate every scenario, fundraisers can improve their flexibility and sharpen their reflexes with practice.
The skills they need are similar to those used in improvisational theater, or “improv,” the performance genre popularized by The Second City comedy group and the television show “Whose Line Is It Anyway?”
The goal of improv is “being totally comfortable in the uncomfortability,” explains Christopher Ulrich, an improv performer and a teacher at DC Improv in Washington, D.C., who also works as a communications and body-language consultant.
The natural response when caught by surprise is to turn inward to analyze the situation, Mr. Ulrich says. By contrast, “listening with all of your senses to what that person before you is saying” could produce a better response.
Improvisational thinking “keeps you in the moment of what that conversation is about,” he says.
Drawing from Mr. Ulrich’s improv theory, Mr. Ginn’s practical advice, and Ms. Myers’ experience, here’s a guide to how fundraisers can learn to expect the unexpected and improve their solicitations.
1. Yes, and ...
One of the core principles of improv is captured in the phrase “yes, and.” Performers collaborate to build a scene, picking up on their colleagues’ contributions (“yes”) and adding something of their own (“and”).
“You bring a brick to the conversation, I’ll bring a brick to the conversation, and by the end of the conversation, we’ve built a cathedral,” Mr. Ulrich says, quoting the comedy coach Del Close.
If a donor suggests something new or different, employ the “yes, and” strategy to keep the conversation flowing and the atmosphere positive. Rather than closing off the idea, try a variation of the phrase “Yes, and I’ll need some time to adapt,” Mr. Ulrich says.
Such open-mindedness can yield good results. Earlier this year, Ms. Myers met with a donor whose family foundation had previously given generously but didn’t make its usual gift last winter. Ms. Myers didn’t know going into the meeting that the donor’s investments had been doing especially well.
The donor asked what the food-assistance center was planning for the summer and seemed interested when she explained that the nonprofit’s priority for the season was making sure kids who usually got free meals at school had enough to eat during the months-long break.
“If those were my kids, I’d want to do something, too,” Ms. Myers recalls him saying.
The donor offered to double his gift from the previous year — and he wanted to offer the increased amount as a match challenge for a new summer campaign he hoped would raise an additional $30,000.
Ms. Myers might have balked at the new idea. But instead, she said, “‘That’s wonderful! How do you want to do it? We’ve never done that before.’”
They worked it out together.
“I was able to present an immediate and pressing need to a donor with the capacity to meet that need. He walked through that open door,” Ms. Myers says.
“Yes, and” can also prove useful when a donor agrees to give so quickly that a fundraiser realizes it would have been better to ask for a larger gift. In such situations, Mr. Ginn recommends accepting a donor’s offer and then suggesting that the person consider making that same gift annually, or making it in addition to other gifts, or also serving as a volunteer fundraiser.
When a donor wants to vent his or her frustrations, “yes, and” can help defuse the tension. Acknowledge the concerns and offer to bring them to the attention of the appropriate person within your organization, Mr. Ginn advises.
If a donor is worried about money going to support overhead rather than program expenses, for example, Mr. Ulrich suggests that a fundraiser should channel his or her energy into finding a solution that makes both parties happy. The response might be something like: “We are always trying to cut our costs, and here’s how we do that now. We’d love your feedback about how to make that happen more.”
Even if the conversation grows so uncomfortable that a fundraiser has to politely bring it to a close without asking for a donation, “yes, and” preserves the possibility of a more productive meeting in the future. Say to the donor: “I appreciate your time, and I will call you next week to discuss this further.”
That kind of meeting is not a failure, Mr. Ginn says. Just as the goal of improv is to sustain a scene, the objective of the conversation is to reach the next phase in the conversation.
2. Watch and Listen
Keen observation is key both in performing improv and in cultivating a relationship with a donor. Building on what someone has said requires listening closely to his or her words and watching body language for subtle hints.
In particular, improvisational listening involves letting go of the script in order to pay attention to what someone else is saying.
“I do have my elevator pitch, my best-case scenario, but often it doesn’t happen that way,” Ms. Myers says. “I really am conscious of listening more than I’m talking. It sounds easy, but when you’re nervous, you tend to just ramble. I try to be aware of the ways I can relate our mission to the things they’re vocalizing as important to them.”
If a donor interrupts a pitch to say something like, “Just tell me what you want,” that offers a chance to listen and gauge his or her interest, Mr. Ginn says. Possible responses include: “Well, what would you like to see this campaign accomplish?” or “Right now I’m looking for your thoughts about our program.”
Paying attention to details can help in tailoring a solicitation. For example, if Ms. Myers notices that a donor doesn’t have children, she might not try to sell him or her on supporting a kids’ program.
Not surprisingly, ignoring details can derail a fundraising effort. “Most awkward moments are ones where you show you haven’t been listening,” Ms. Myers says.
For example, the food bank had a corporate sponsor for one of its events a few years ago, thanks to a personal connection between one of the company’s employees and the nonprofit. The company typically did not sponsor events, but there was no note in the food bank’s files indicating that it should not approach the company again for its support. The next year a fundraiser asked the company whether it would again like to serve as a sponsor and “got an earful,” Ms. Myers says. “Somebody wasn’t listening at the outset.”
Body language is as important as words are. Mr. Ulrich recommends observing a donor’s typical body language and responding to that if there are signs of discomfort. “Ask an open-ended question,” he says. For example: “Maybe I’m wrong here, but you seem uncomfortable. Is there something we should talk about?”
If there’s nothing at issue, it’s okay to move on. But if something is troubling the donor, that acknowledgment offers him or her a chance to discuss it.
“Make them feel understood,” Mr. Ulrich says. “That’s how likability happens, trust and rapport.”
And it’s important for fundraisers to be intentional about their own body language, since donors may be observant of that, too. Mr. Ulrich says a fundraiser should sit with his or her torso directly facing the donor, offering full attention, making eye contact about 60 percent of the time, and reserving smiles for key moments.
Ms. Myers says she tries to smile and nod often and make enough eye contact to signal that she’s listening, without using such gestures so much that the encounter seems “creepy.”
Listening and observing helps build a reciprocal relationship. “If you validate what they say first, they’ll hear what you say,” too, Mr. Ulrich says.
3. Prepare
Although improv performers make things up on the spot, they use games and exercises to hone their skills. Fundraisers can adapt these practices to prepare for conversations with donors.
To cultivate observational prowess, a fundraiser should learn to pay attention to the surroundings, Mr. Ulrich says. That means, for example, noticing the kind of clothing people wear and what objects they keep on their desks. Fellow fundraisers could practice by telling one another brief stories and having those who are listening recall the key details. Another good exercise is to practice extemporaneous speaking by selecting an ordinary object and talking about it for a minute.
Role-playing is helpful, says Mr. Ginn. A pair of fundraisers could practice making telephone solicitations, he suggests, by sitting with their backs to each other and conversing as though one were a donor.
Unlike improvisers, fundraisers usually have specific information they need to convey. It’s important for staff members to determine and articulate what the nonprofit’s priorities are, so everyone offers a consistent answer when approached by donors, Mr. Ginn says. Then practice talking about those priorities in different contexts.
With enough practice, fundraisers will be prepared when a general conversation turns unexpectedly into a fundraising opportunity, calling for what Mr. Ginn refers to as an “emergency ask.”
It’s a situation Ms. Myers has encountered. One day she was walking through the assistance center’s warehouse, where volunteers were working. A woman approached her.
Ms. Myers recalls the woman saying: “This is an amazing place, you have all these people helping out. My family has a family foundation, and I would really like to make a gift.”
Ms. Myers was happy to hear it, she says, and assumed the woman would contribute a relatively small amount of money, maybe $500. When Ms. Myers expressed excitement and asked the donor what she had in mind, the woman noted that some of the warehouse equipment seemed old and offered to buy new jacks for moving pallets and a new refrigerator.
“It was thousands of dollars of equipment for our warehouse that they provided for us,” Ms. Myers says. “If I hadn’t taken the time to talk to her, if I hadn’t been prepared to know what we needed and know what to ask for … it would have worked out totally different.”
The best part? That improvised conversation was just the start of a fruitful relationship.
“They’ve continued to help us through this year,” Ms. Myers says. And that donor, she adds, “continues to volunteer.”
Correction: An earlier version of this article credited the quote about bringing bricks to build a cathedral to the improv performer Christopher Ulrich. Mr. Ulrich was quoting comedy coach Del Close.
