Asking made SiMPL

Asking made SiMPL

Remember your first major gift ask?  Or perhaps you are about to make one and the thought of it is causing you concern.  I remember waiting in the car outside the very grand home where, for the very first time, I was about to ask for a major personal gift.  Until that point, I had been a corporate fundraiser, skilled in crafting proposals and negotiating with company executives.  Here I was, about to enter a person’s home and ask them for quite a considerable amount of their own money.  I managed to stumble through my first attempt at asking.  We got the gift.  But it was more beginner’s luck and the belief the donor had in the organisation than my skill as a fundraiser!

Three decades later I’ve come to enjoy the craft of major gifts.  More importantly, I’ve come to understand how important and rewarding major gifts are both to the donor and to those from whom the gifts they make benefit.  There are two techniques that I recommend, and one important re-frame.  Together they create a model of Asking Made SiMPL.

The Re-frame

First, an elegant and powerful reframe.  As humans we are not wired to “ask”.  In Western culture we have the iconic image of Dickens’ Oliver Twist - his ragged arms stretched out with an empty bowl.  That’s not you!  Your role is to engage with a potential donor who has values and beliefs that are consistent with a case for support you represent.  And you are there to offer them the opportunity to make a difference.  That’s not asking, that’s giving someone something they are looking for.  An opportunity.

The technique of match, pace, lead

Match, pace, lead mirrors the martial arts philosophy of going with the direction of the movement and using the energy of your partner to take them to where both want to be.

In marathon racing, cycling competitions, and even in horse racing, competitors often have a teammate run alongside or even just ahead of them, matching their pace and speed.  From time to time, the teammate picks up the pace a little.  Miraculously, the runner alongside follows, exactly as though their pacemaker’s thoughts have communicated directly to them.  With no observable change in demeanour or effort, the other runner picks up their partner’s pace, until eventually one takes the lead and goes on to win the race.  Sometimes their partner will come in second.

Pacing is also highly effective in sales and negotiations, and similarly highly effective in asking for major gifts.  The key to pacing and leading in gift asking is establishing rapport with your prospect and holding shared values, ideas and beliefs around your organisation’s case for support.  More on that in a moment.

Get in sync with your prospect ahead of time

In major gift asking, matching begins before the ask meeting.  You prepare for the meeting by considering how nearly you can match your prospect's preferences.  Match what the prospect is likely to wear.  If they tend to dress in business clothes, do likewise.  If they tend to dress casually, do the same.

Match the meeting place to the prospect.  You might invite the prospect to suggest the venue (perhaps their home, office, or club).  However, the prospect may prefer to come to your site or some other place where you can show them progress, plans, models etc.

Of course, because you have thoroughly researched and cultivated the prospect, you already have a good sense of their preferences.

Match body language & speech patterns

Have you ever observed people engaged in really passionate conversations; or couples together in a restaurant sharing a candlelit dinner One of the clearest signs that two or more people are in rapport is that they will naturally match one another's body language.

If the prospect is sitting back, relaxed in an easychair, sit back yourself.  If they lean forward to make their points, incline forward yourself.

To maintain engagement, you can match their speech patterns too.  Is the prospect speaking fast or slow?  Soft or loud?  Is their rhythm steady or variable?

The technique of showing (genuine) interest

However, by far the easiest and most enjoyable way to establish rapport with anyone is to show genuine interest in them.  Rapport is a natural by-product of showing interest in what someone has to say. And the great thing about that, and the great thing about being a major gift fundraiser is that you will have wonderful conversations with some extraordinarily interesting people.  Major gift fundraisers get to meet artists, scientists, business and political leaders, and many other fascinating people. As a major gift fundraiser, you will have the privilege of doing so in a context where it is possible to hear their stories and learn from them about matters that mean a lot to them, all by showing your genuine interest.

You will demonstrate your interest to a potential donor by asking open questions – about their experiences, their views, the stories they can tell.  Ask questions relevant to the reasons they are likely to support you.  school fundraisers could ask questions about the prospect's schooldays; international aid fundraisers about experiences of foreign countries; health fundraisers about family medical history, and so on.  Your role is to listen, to observe, to show empathy to the feelings expressed - and to continue asking open questions, allowing the prospect time to speak, to relax and to open up.

Match then pace

Your next step is to gently take more control of the meeting.  You begin to shift the focus of your questions to your case for support.  You will find that if you start matching some of the prospect’s language back to them, particularly relating to their beliefs and values, your rapport with them will grow.  You can say things such as, “So you believe that….?” “You said that…” You agree with us, then, that…?”

Gently take the lead

Now you can begin to use closed questions ("Did you see how successful our program has been?" Or "Did you hear about the changes we are making?").  If, as you ask these types of closed questions, you are able deliberately, elegantly and not abruptly to shift your posture and voice to contrast that of the prospect, you will notice an unconscious shift in their posture and voice too.

As you observe this shift and as you receive positive, affirmative responses to your closed, assumptive questions (e.g. "Do you agree with us that the best way to make a positive difference is ...?"), you are ready to lead to the ask itself.

"Would you consider making a gift of $X toward our goal of ...?"

Now, remain silent

Once you have asked, stay silent.  Your work is done.  Remember that when you do make the ask, to WAIT for the answer for as long as it takes—don’t rush to fill the silence and pre-empt their response; you remain in control of the conversation until its close.

The aim of the meeting is to the person an opportunity to make a gift.  Its success lies in leading the meeting to a close, maintaining the same rapport whether the next step is to accept a gift, negotiate a detail, or continue the relationship with a view to asking again another day.

Congratulations, you have successfully Shown Interest then Match-Pace-Led to the offer of an opportunity to support.  The response and any negotiation should flow comfortably because rapport has been built throughout. Asking has been made SiMPL.

Will philanthrocapitalists and hyperagents really change the world?

"As philanthropy enters a second golden age, real social change is getting lost in the hype of market-based giving," writes Linsey McGoey in Fortune.

The first 'golden age' was the 19th century, the time of Andrew Carnegie and John D Rockefeller Sr., McGoey reminds us. According to her, "From Carnegie’s spending on public libraries to Rockefeller’s investment in biomedical advances, their giving helped to shift charity from the dispensing of alms in a largely unsystematic manner to a business in itself, overseen by paid philanthropic advisors".

One trend in the ‘second golden age’ that is significant, she suggests,  is 'philanthrocapitalism'. This she summarizes as "a more muscular philanthropy that seeks to combine profits with poverty alleviation".  She is not entirely accurate. Matthew Bishop and Michael Green, who coined the term, described the concept succinctly as "philanthropy led by the world's wealth creators... applying business techniques and ways of thinking to their philanthropy".

Paul Schervish, cited several times by Bishop and Green, is the scholar who has, more than any other, studied the philanthropy of US wealth creators. He described one of the characteristics wealthy philanthropists' as 'hyperagency'. Hyperagency means “… being able to construct a self in a world that transcends the established institutional limits and, in fact creates the limits for others”.

Schervish also points out that these hyperagents are the 'producers' of philanthropy in a market where the currency is not money but emotions, and the producers are not troubled by competition.

Another trend in the second golden age, according to McGoey is the effective altruism movement, championed by Peter Singer. Singer has declared Warren Buffett and Bill and Melinda Gates  “the most effective altruists in history.”

McGoey's concern is that the hype around the second golden age is ignoring questions about its effectiveness. "Its progress," she says "often seems to be measured and underpinned by self-sustaining feedback loops". Giving in the US has remained stubbornly around 2% of GDP. 

Foundations are a growth industry in the US yet extreme poverty , meanwhile, continues to rise.

"Today’s philanthrocapitalists see a world full of big problems that they, and perhaps only they, can and must put right," Bishop and  Green wrote. 

Another commentator, Michael Edwards, sets that notion to rights in 'Small Change: Why Business Won't Save the World', his rebuttal of Bishop and Green’s book. Edwards believes that “business thinking and social transformation operate on entirely different logics”.

Finally, McGoey points to an alarming paradox from the first golden age which, hopefully, is not destined to be emulated in the second. She quotes from David Nasaw, Carnegie’s biographer, “Carnegie … became, if anything, more ruthless in pursuit of profits once he had determined that those profits would be distributed during his lifetime.” Then she juxtaposes this tweet from Martin Shkreli, “I donated a total of $5,000,000 to various causes recently. Looking forward to telling you all about it.”  Shkreli is the former hedge fund trader, who was vilified for raising the price of Daraprim - a drug that fights parasitic infections in AIDS and other immune-supressed patients - by 5,000%

Indian Giving

Ninety percent of what is written about philanthropy is based on info from the USA. Yet, philanthropy is but an infant in North America.
 
The JN Tata Endowment  pre-dates the Carnegie Foundation. There are suggestions that that Rockefeller’s philanthropy was influenced by Swami Vivekananda. In any case, philanthropy in the US did not really take root until the early 20th century.

In Europe, philanthropy is in its childhood. Philanthropy came to Europe from Arabia, in the 11th Century. Ancient philanthropy however, traces its roots back to Islamic and Hindu scriptures. The Laws of Manu (first century CE) are among the earliest quoted by scholars, writing about philanthropy.

Yet, today, if you talk to people in the West of ‘Indian’ philanthropy their faces tell a story, even before they open their mouths: "Indian philanthropy… What, is there philanthropy in India?"
In the course of the last two years I have been interviewing around 30 major philanthropists India.

There is no doubt in my mind that, "There is much philanthropy in India".  Nor do I agree with those pundits who bemoan the failure of India's billionaires at philanthropy. Comparisons are odious and, frankly, comparative data simply does not exist. In fact, what is needed is more study, more constructive debate and more enthusiasm for the philanthropy of the wealthy that definitely does exist in India today. I suggest that there are four broad sources of philanthropy currently in India.

The old business families, the Tatas, Bajajas, Birlas and Godrejs, to name some, undoubtedly play an important part in India's philanthropy - as they have done for at least three generations.
Major Indian philanthropy, has emerged from Indians who have made their fortunes through the IT sector; the professional sector, notably financial services; and others, who have successfully grown businesses in emerging sectors, post 1991.

The categories of philanthropy through which these flow, in my view, can be described as institution building; risk taking; 'new’ or 'venture' philanthropy; and major gifts.

Examples of institution building are the founding of hospitals and universities. This is a practice that goes back centuries. Though it predated the British, they encouraged this by awarding titles to prominent philanthropists. To this era belongs the tradition of attaching family names to institutions such as colleges, schools and hospitals. Whilst names may not be as well known today as they were then, second and third generations of these philanthropic families of the colonial era continue to oversee family philanthropic trusts Today’s exemplars of institution building are those founding eponymous universities, such as Infosys founder's, Azim Premji University or Shiv Nadar University. Biocon Founder, Kirin Mazumdar-Shaw has her name attached to the Cancer Center her philanthropy funds.

Risk taking philanthropy is exemplified by organisations founded by individual philanthropists such as the Screwvala’s Swades Foundation, with its unique 360 degree approach; or Padmini Solami's Salaam Bombay Foundation with its creative approach to empower slum kids. These are philanthropists who are applying innovation and entrepreneurial acumen to grass roots challenges.

Venture philanthropy - sometimes irreverently referred to as ‘philanthropy for bankers’ - is philanthropy which emulates financial investment or venture capital structures. It places emphasis on measuring impact and return on investment. A notable example is Ashish Dhawan’s Central Square Foundation, in education.

Major gift donations are made to established organizations such as schools, universities and hospitals, and existing NGOs. Major gifts may support causes close to the giver’s heart, such as alma mater, arts, crafts, historic monuments, or endangered animals.

Today's younger major gift philanthropists tend to differ from earlier more traditional donors by actively overseeing and contributing time to the NGOs they support. 

The practice of any of these categories of philanthropy is not exclusive to one or other of types of philanthropist. Members of business families are involved in both traditional and risk taking philanthropy. Many who have made their wealth through financial services favor philanthropy which emulates investment or venture capital structures.  However, others follow the major gift route.

There are noteworthy differences between philanthropy in India and that of the West. First, and most significant, is that a large amount of philanthropy is dedicated to fundamental, grassroots challenges – education, health, economic uplift - often after some firsthand investigation by philanthropists themselves of the issues to be combated.

American commentators frequently point out that there, much philanthropy is directed at causes from which philanthropists and their families directly benefit. This, so-called ‘consumption philanthropy’ is given to universities, schools and arts institutions the philanthropists and their families attend. This seems true of only a small fraction of philanthropy in India.

In the West, especially in the United States, many philanthropists see themselves as offering an alternative, better solution and a substitute for government funding. They are dismissive of and reluctant to deal with government.  The rationale for enjoying a tax deduction on their donations is that they are saving the government money and doing a better job.

Indian philanthropists seem to follow a much more pragmatic path. They recognize the importance of collaborating with and enhancing government programs. Collaboration, including with other philanthropists and NGOs, is common amongst India’s major philanthropic names.

Tax, in contrast to the West and especially given the absence of estate duties in India, is of little or no incentive to donors.

Most are candid that their primary motivation is their recognition of the enormous gap that exists between their great fortune and the lot of those at the bottom of the pyramid.

It is commonly assumed that much giving in India is religiously motivated. While some whom I interviewed follow religious practices, others claim to be spiritual rather than religious. Few make significant donations to church, mosque or temple.

Added to all the above, there is the philanthropy of the middle class and the poor - pointing to a wider-spread story of charity and philanthropy. The Charities Aid Foundation (CAF India) 2012 India Giving report told of a clear majority (84%)of Indians who had given money to a good cause in the previous year.

Indian philanthropy is significant, different and worth celebrating. It is not without its faults and challenges, though not dwelt on here. Ways need to be found to give it more oxygen and light. The media and academia have an important role to play in this endeavour.

[An edited version of this piece was published as 'The art of giving, the Indian way'  in Live Mint on 2 October 2015]





 

Giving crowdfunding a go

So far, I have never run a crowdfunding campaign. But I'm willing to give it a try. 


After all the Royal Academy turned to crowdfunding to raise the money to bring Al Wei Wei to London. And the Smithsonian is using crowd funding to save Neil Armstrong’s Apollo 11 spacesuit.
 
Some years ago I worked with an organization in Australia which supported artists and arts groups in their fundraising. One of its most successful programs was to promote crowdfunding, which proved especially useful for emerging artists seeking funds for new projects, or for touring.  Even for young artists seeking funding for study overseas.

Going back to the basics - always a great place to go - why wouldn't crowd funding be a great way to fundraise?

First of all you need a compelling case for support. What about bringing Chinese dissident art great, Al Wei Wei to London? Or saving Neil Armstrong’s spacesuit? Not bad, don't you think?

Then you have to establish your constituency. Whom are you going to approach? Who is most likely to give to this cause? In crowd funding, that decision is pretty well made for you. They will be people already close to you. Your friends and friends of friends. The people on your database, the people who have come to your events, your school or college, made a donation in the past, or signed up to your newsletter.

What are you offering them? You are offering them an opportunity to become further involved with what you do.

You will be benefiting from that fundraising 101 perennial, the Pareto principle. By offering a hierarchy of gift levels much of your targets will come from the small number of donors who have the greatest capacity and inclination. At the same time you will have been democratic and given as many people as are interested a chance to support you.

(The author of a Harvard study has concluded “Crowdfunding has enabled a democratization of access to funding.”)

Most importantly, you will be recognizing and involving your donors. They will get a piece of you, some part of your cause as a thanks and reward for their gift.

I'm not an expert in crowd funding but I'm willing to give it a try. Meantime, here is a blog on 5 Ways to Supercharge Your Next Crowdfunding Campaign, from the excellent 101Fundraising site.

If anyone is willing to give me a go, I'd be happy to help put together a crowd funding fundraising campaign. Send me a message.

Has quality of donors been sacrificed for quantity

The month since the death of 92 year old Olive Cooke has been filled with extraordinary commentary and concern about fundraising in the UK.

Nonprofit 'trade' journals have run articles featuring an array of the UK nonprofit sector's biggest names:

• 'Charities in crisis over Olive Cooke case, Shawcross says' (Third Sector).
• 'Shawcross and Bubb lock horns over the fallout of the Olive Cooke case' (Third Sector). 
• 'Rob Wilson writes to IoF asking for greater protection for donors' (Civil Society UK).
• 'Etherington’s suggestions ‘won’t address public concerns’, says Peter Lewis' (Civil Society UK).
• 'Fundraisers should need a licence to practise, says former IoF chair Mark Astarita' (Civil Society UK).

A quick guide to the cast of characters - William Shawcross is the chair of the Charity Commission, Sir Stephen Bubb is the Chair of the Association of Chief Executives of Voluntary Organisations (ACEVO);  Rob Wilson MP is the Minister for Civil Society, Sir Stuart Etherington is the CEO of the National Council of Voluntary Organizations (NCVO); Peter Lewis is the CEO of the Institute of Fundraising (IOF). Unmentioned in the headlines yet central to many of the arguments is another organisation, the Fundraising Standards Review Board (FSRB).

On reading this you might be surprised at the number of worthy sounding bodies and their titled representatives and wonder how fundraising in the sceptred isle could have fallen into such disarray. Here is a brief sypnosis.

A 92 year old lady, known to have complained about the high volume of charity appeals directed her way was found dead beneath a 245 foot high bridge. The media instantly linked her death to the pressure of the incessant fundraising approaches made to her. Within days the British Prime Minister, David Cameron urged action be taken. Both the FRSB, the independent regulator of fundraising, and the IOF, a professional association for fundraisers and fundraising, responded to the incident and ensuing media pressure. The FRSB launched an inquiry into charity fundraising approaches.  The IOF announced strengthened rules for its fundraiser members.

The media pressure continued, notably in the tabloid press. The Mail on Sunday for example ran a story written by an undercover journalist who underwent training with telephone fundraiser, Listen Ltd. The journalist described  how "staff are trained how to cynically squeeze cash from potential donors including 98-year-olds and cancer sufferers." Several household name charities such as Oxfam, Cancer Research UK and the RSPCA were forced into defending their links with the telephone fundraiser. A commentator described the entire ongoing saga as a “a pent-up stream of concern and complaint” [12].

The debates signalled by the trade press headlines above are indicative of the discomfort of the charity sector. NCVO chief executive, Etherington pointed to the conundrum of “The Institute of Fundraising’s dual identity, being both the champion of fundraisers, and a body with a key role in regulating fundraisers". He noted that the IOF as the representative of fundraisers sets the code which the Fundraising Standards Board adjudicates fundraisers against". The players, in other words, are setting the umpire's rules.

The commentary has been joined by the academic and research community. Jo Saxton, chief of an independent  a research consultancy, NfpSynergy wrote: "The sector needs to get its house in order, providing donors with a much better sense of their rights when it comes to giving".   He reminded fundraisers of an apparently forgotten 'Fundraisers Promise", published on the FRSB website.

Among the Promise's statements are: “If you tell us you don’t want to be contacted in a particular way, we will not do so” and “we take care not to cause undue disruption or nuisance”.

Plymouth University’s fundraising think tank, Rogare, is responding by bringing forward a project to develop new ‘normative’ fundraising ethics.  The core of the new norm will be presented at IOF’s Scotland conference in October.  It is that, "ethical fundraising balances the duty of fundraisers to ask for support, with the rights of other stakeholders not to be put under ‘undue’ pressure to donate", says Rogare Director, Ian MacQuillin.

Most interesting to me, of all the various opinions expressed, is one by a veteran of  charity fundraising, Chris Washington-Soare. In a blog he bemoans fundraisers "have fallen for the growth-over-quality revenue generation model for far too long" [16].

In the future, Washington-Soare argues, "Our focus needs to be on nurturing high-quality, high-value donor relationships and slowing down the hamster wheel of growth".

A version of this blog first appeared as an NPQ Newswire on 22 June 2015

Building profiles is good fundraising

What are we to make of this announcement in the Sydney Morning Herald? 



"Elite private schools are using sophisticated technology in order to tailor their fundraising pitches."

The piece then went on to say that schools use software that:

"Builds profiles on each donor, using census data to estimate wealth based on the average wealth of their suburb and the likelihood of them donating to the school.

"It stores every email a parent or donor has ever sent to the school's fundraising body, their payment and donation history, their volunteering efforts, event attendance and community involvement, to build a profile of the donor and measure their propensity to give."

In other words, schools identify and research fundraising prospects. This is exactly what schools, universities, cultural organizations and other charities ought to be doing if they are serious about fundraising, especially if they are serious about attracting major gifts.


Alfred A. Blum, Director of Advancement at Boston College Law School is cited as the source of the following fundraising maxim:

“The best solicitation occurs when the right prospect is asked for the right gift by the right solicitor at the right time in the right way... For that to occur, research is essential”. [For non-North Americans substitute 'ask' for 'solicit'!]

You as a competent fundraiser will also be able to justify good prospect identification and research from a donor's point of view.  How would you as a donor feel about sitting and listening to a pitch from a fundraiser for a project or cause in which you have absolutely no interest? What if you were asked for an amount that would be impossible for you to consider?  Or, conversely, you were approached for a small gift for something toward which you are strongly motivated and would like the opportunity to be significantly involved with?

Good prospect identification and research stops fundraisers wasting the time and effort of donors (as well as their own time and effort). Good prospect research builds a portrait of a door that tells us their interests, their ability to give and their links with your and other organizations. Good fundraising requires keeping and constantly refreshing this information. Most fundraising software provides ways of doing this.

Additionally, there is a heap of web-based software and searchable databases, freely available or paid for, that can provide valuable information to answer the questions you need to ask about someone's interests, ability to give and linkages.  From this information, you will be able to carefully plan your fundraising approaches so as to not waste the precious time and good regard of people.

The most important consideration though is to once again put yourself in the prospect's shoes.  Every time you record and retain some data about a prospect ask yourself, "If I saw or heard that this was being kept on my record how would I feel?"

If you have any doubts about storing information remember these five principles (adapted from the  Association of Professional Researchers for Advancement Ethics and Professional Standards):

• Keep confidential information protected
• Be sure data is accurate
• Be sure data is relevant
• Be clear about the purpose of your research
• Take responsibility and be accountable for your actions as a professional fundraiser

No idea where to start interacting with your prospects?

"I have to start raising funds from individuals in a country where HNWIs have a very poorly developed culture of giving.

"...We have no idea where to start interacting with our prospects"

This message could have come from any number of schools and universities that I know of and, I suspect, a large number of other nonprofits. It has certainly been true of several organizations where I have worked either as a manager or a consultant. I've seen the problem, heard the challenge and felt the anxiety. Or you might say "Been there, done that and bought the T-shirt!"

In my experience there is a simple solution. Get out there and start talking to these HNWI prospects. It's not as difficult as you might think. The second part of this reader's problem – "a very poorly developed culture of giving" – could be precisely the hook on which to start the conversation.

The process starts as with almost all fundraising by identifying and researching the people whom you want to go and meet with. The criteria that you used to identify such people will vary according to your situation. However, in some way it will be related to their capacity to give (not just money but also experience and networks) and the strength of their connection to your institution or cause[1]. Writing this causes me to hope you are reflecting on the importance of fundraisers or someone on your fundraising team doing proper prospect research.

Having identified and qualified a list of prospects with whom you have some connection then the message I suggest you send them goes something like this:

Dear Name

You are one of our most significant supporters/friends/alumni and we are very proud of our connection with you. We know we haven't spoken with you a lot in recent times and now we would like to do so with a very specific purpose.

You, I am sure are aware, that institutions such as ours thrive, grow and make a difference in the community because of the support we receive from many quarters.

However, we recognize that one area where we have a challenge is that we have a very poorly developed culture of asking for gifts.

The purpose of this letter is to ask if we can come and talk with you to get your advice on how we might begin to approach this challenge. We feel that because of your experience and success in your field you will have faced similar challenges and will have a great deal of wisdom to offer us.

I will telephone your office sometime next week to see if I can arrange a time when we can meet you.

Yours sincerely

Of course the actual wording of such a letter will vary with your specific situation. However, the basic structure suggested above is:

• One or more opening factual statements showing that you identify with the reader.  Put yourself in their shoes. What is true about them and what is important to them enough that they will continue to read the letter?

• A short phrase summarizing your mission or case for support.

• State the specific problem (note the re-frame as “asking” not “giving”. Us not “them”).

• A request for their advice (remember the fundraising adage, "Ask someone for money and they will give you advice. Ask them for advice, and they will give you money")

• Timeframe and an indication that you intend to follow this with an action.

Then, do follow-up. Make a time to go and talk. When you do have the conversation remember another important piece of fundraising wisdom: "you have two ears and one mouth - use them in that ratio!" You will learn more and develop a better rapport by listening. 

Ask them what they think about you. How well do they think you are performing? What could you do differently? What would they do in your shoes? Who else do they know who it would be worth having a similar conversation with?

Then you will exit by saying “Thank you for those important suggestions. I will keep you up-to-date on our progress and, if I may, come back and bounce a few ideas of you at some other time.”

Of course, this is only the start of a relationship. However, you will have broken the ice. In all likelihood, you will come away having gleaned some valuable nuggets of information about the prospects, her interests, values, and connections.

This first interaction should only be the beginning of a series of interactions which you will use to bring that person closer and closer to what your organization does. If you treat their ideas and connections with respect you will undoubtedly when their support and that of others like them.

In another blog, I will suggest some ideas on how to continue to bring major prospects closer and closer.

---

[1] Your target here will be someone who is one of the “wealthy, wise and well connected”.