Do You Keep These 4 Things in Mind While Presenting to a Donor?
When talking about your nonprofit to a potential donor, it’s easy to begin by enthusiastically rattling off everything that you know about your organization and all of the great things you do. You tell them about every aspect of your mission, where you think the organization is headed in the future, and how your organization is just the BEST. Isn’t it?
Well, it might be. However, that is not the point. The point is that it is a slippery slope when you start off by monologuing about everything that your nonprofit does without putting your focus where it matters: The Donor. Here are some things to keep in mind while presenting to your potential supporters no matter what your mission is.
Complete the presentation around what their values are, and what matters to them - If one day you are meeting with or presenting to five different donors in five separate meetings, you should be having five different conversations. If you feel like your conversations with donors are all fairly similar, you probably need to focus more on your prospect. You should customize each presentation based on each prospect’s values and what you have learned is important to them. Never do cookie cutter presentations or your prospect will never feel like their desires are understood.
Use stories to drive home your points about how important your mission is - Facts tell. Stories sell. Make sure that you are using stories of individuals whenever possible to demonstrate the outcome of what you do. A statistic of how many people have been served by your organization is never as powerful as a compelling story about one individual with a significant impact.
Ask engagement questions throughout the presentation - You want to get feedback during your conversations with your prospects throughout the entire process. It makes the whole experience feel collaborative and less one-sided. You also learn valuable information from your prospect about how receptive they are, and if your organization is in good alignment with their values. Questions like, “What are your thoughts on that?”, “Does that make sense?”, and “Are you with me on this?” can really help your prospect feel like they are a part of the process.
Ask qualifying questions to dig deeper and learn more about what is really important to them - While you definitely want to work on getting to know your donors on a surface level, eventually you should do a little bit more digging and learn about your prospect’s real motivations. Most of this is just asking the right questions at the right times. Questions like, “Is it important to solve this problem in your community? Why?”, “How important is this to you?” and “How important is it that you do something about this issue? Why now though?” can help get to the real reason that they are even talking to you and considering a gift.
Want even more specifics of how to present to a potential donor? Schedule a free call with us! We would love to chat and learn more about your organization!
