Fundraising fundamentals:Part 2

💸 ​Positioning your non-profit for success💸​

If you read my first post on the eight steps to securing fundraising, here as promised is a follow up focused on positioning your non-profit brand and building connection with your donor.

Being able to build rapport with others takes knowing who you are and what you represent. A key component of this is being clear about your non-profit's brand. Knowing this will help you craft messages and conversations with your donors that are authentic and persuasive. 

Once you know what your organization should be known for, you can accurately represent your non-profit’s cause and direct prospective donors into gift-giving decisions.

How you position your non-profit can either make a donor feel like your non-profit is desperate, ineffective, or exactly the cause they have been looking for. With the right positioning, you can elicit sincere emotion and connection that represents a mutually beneficial relationship. So, think about what you're sharing with a donor and ask yourself,

▫️​ Does it add value? 

▫️​ Am I telling them information that goes "beyond what can be found online?

Building connection through Units of Conviction

Units of conviction are a great way to help connect your donor's interests, aspirations, or concerns with your non-profit’s goals. Units of conviction are concise, carefully prepared mini presentations used as building blocks to construct the information you present. 

Each unit of conviction consists of a feature, a bridge, a benefit, evidence, and an agreement. 

▫️​ The feature is a program or initiative to highlight. 

▫️​ The bridge helps your audience see how the feature is connected to their goal or aspiration for giving. 

▫️​ The benefit provides the value or result that a person’s donation helps make possible. 

▫️​ The evidence are the facts, figures, testimonials, demonstrations, case studies, and samples that support your stated benefit. 

▫️​ And agreement is the question that engages the prospect and checks for understanding, so you can continue the conversation. 

Each of these units of conviction should be sprinkled through your communications and presentations. 

Cause selling technique

Another tool to use to help create the right messaging is by using the ‘cause selling technique.’ By using this technique you can help your prospect connect their contribution to your cause. The cause selling cycle is a helpful tool in achieving this goal because it helps you learn to identify a donor's passions, values, and goals to determine their alignment with your non-profit’s mission. 

Instead of just asking for money, cause selling tells prospects what you do, how it affects them, asks them to support the cause through a donation and tells them what their support accomplishes. 

Developing your messaging around this technique can lead to honest, heartfelt content that is linked to long-term success. 

One last point. While donors are likely to be passionate about your cause. You need to go beyond the passion. Before you make your next connection with a prospective donor, think about tangible data-driven ways that you can highlight your cause to align with their passion.

When you understand a donor's decision-making process, you will build rapport, no matter what a person's reason for giving.  

In my next and final post on Fundraising Fundamentals, I will share tips on how to maintain lasting mutually beneficial relationships with your donors!

To learn more about fundraising check out this training with Fundraising Academy by clicking here.

📷 Image by Markus Winkler from Pixabay