Major Gift Solicitation: How to Get the Answer You Want Every Time

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Major Gift SolicitationHow to Get the Answer
You Want Every Time
CASE VI January 23, 2006
Ann Louden TCU Chancellors Associate for
External Relations
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People will accept your ideas much more readily
if you tell them Benjamin Franklin said it first.
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Securing Leadership Gifts

• What Are The Secrets?

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Bear Bryants Philosophy of Wins and Losses

• If anything goes bad,
• I did it.
• If anything goes semi-good,
• then we did it.
• If anything goes real good,
• then you did it.

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What This Session Will Cover

• Understanding Your Role
• Finding Your Voice
• Seeing the Ask Through the Donors Eyes
• What Positively To Do
• What Absolutely Not To Do

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• Wisdom is often nearer when we stoop than when
  we soar.
• - William Wordsworth

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What This Session Will Not Cover

• Moves Management
• How to Get an Appointment
• Writing Proposals
• Difficult Bosses

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• Its not the load that breaks you down. It is
  the way you carry it.
• - Lena Horne

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Exercise OneAsk Reluctance

• We would accomplish more things if we did not
  think of them as impossible.
• Unknown

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Exercise Two The Reluctant Ask

• Personally, I am always ready to learn, although
  I do not always like being taught.
• - Winston Churchill

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What is Your Role Taking Responsibility

• The institutional assignment
• The donor connection
• All the rest

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• Its not about doing your best its about
  knowing what is best.
• - My dad

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Finding Your Voice Creating the Plan

• Decide who leads
• Determine your style
• Have your story ready

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• I am fabulous, fit, fine and fantastic.
• - Spencer Hays, class of 59, TCU

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Exercise Three The Compelling Ask

• The future belongs to those who believe in the
  beauty of their dreams.
• - Eleanor Roosevelt

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Seeing the Ask Through the Donors Eyes

• Their emotions
• Their possible motivation for giving
• Their possible reasons for saying no

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• What lies behind us and what lies before us are
  tiny matters compared to what lies within us.
• - Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Top Ten What Positively To Do

• Make them comfortable

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Top Ten What Positively To Do

• Make them comfortable
• Include the right people

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Top Ten What Positively To Do

• Make them comfortable
• Include the right people
• Find their passion

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Top Ten What Positively To Do

• Make them comfortable
• Include the right people
• Find their passion
• Be flexible

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Top Ten What Positively To Do

• Make them comfortable
• Include the right people
• Find their passion
• Be flexible
• Advance the relationship

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Top Ten What Positively To Do

• Make them comfortable
• Include the right people
• Find their passion
• Be flexible
• Advance the relationship
• ASK for the gift

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Top Ten What Positively To Do

• Make them comfortable
• Include the right people
• Find their passion
• Be flexible
• Advance the relationship
• ASK for the gift
• Follow through

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Top Ten What Positively To Do

• Make them comfortable
• Include the right people
• Find their passion
• Be flexible
• Advance the relationship
• ASK for the gift
• Follow through
• Follow up

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Top Ten What Positively To Do

• Make them comfortable
• Include the right people
• Find their passion
• Be flexible
• Advance the relationship
• ASK for the gift
• Follow through
• Follow up
• Say thank you - well!

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Top Ten What Positively To Do

• Make them comfortable
• Include the right people
• Find their passion
• Be flexible
• Advance the relationship
• ASK for the gift
• Follow through
• Follow up
• Say thank you- well!
• Honor their requests

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• Compassion is an unstable emotion
• it needs to be translated into action or it
  withers.
• - Susan Sontag, author of Regarding the Pain of
  Others

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Top Ten What Absolutely Not To Do

• Meet in a distracting setting

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Top Ten What Absolutely Not To Do

• Meet in a distracting setting
• Rush headlong into the ask

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Top Ten What Absolutely Not To Do

• Meet in a distracting setting
• Rush headlong into the ask
• Take too long to make the ask

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Top Ten What Absolutely Not To Do

• Meet in a distracting setting
• Rush headlong into the ask
• Take too long to make the ask
• Make it too complicated

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Top Ten What Absolutely Not To Do

• Meet in a distracting setting
• Rush headlong into the ask
• Take too long to make the ask
• Make it too complicated
• Rely on printed materials

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Top Ten What Absolutely Not To Do

• Meet in a distracting setting
• Rush headlong into the ask
• Take too long to make the ask
• Make it too complicated
• Rely on printed materials
• Neglect to make it relevant

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Top Ten What Absolutely Not To Do

• Meet in a distracting setting
• Rush headlong into the ask
• Take too long to make the ask
• Make it too complicated
• Rely on printed materials
• Neglect to make it relevant
• Fail to mention past giving

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Top Ten What Absolutely Not To Do

• Meet in a distracting setting
• Rush headlong into the ask
• Take too long to make the ask
• Make it too complicated
• Rely on printed materials
• Neglect to make it relevant
• Fail to mention past giving
• Miss the highest motivation

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Top Ten What Absolutely Not To Do

• Meet in a distracting setting
• Rush headlong into the ask
• Take too long to make the ask
• Make it too complicated
• Rely on printed materials
• Neglect to make it relevant
• Fail to mention past giving
• Miss the highest motivation
• Ignore donor concerns

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Top Ten What Absolutely Not To Do

• Meet in a distracting setting
• Rush headlong into the ask
• Take too long to make the ask
• Make it too complicated
• Rely on printed materials
• Neglect to make it relevant
• Fail to mention past giving
• Miss the highest motivation
• Ignore donor concerns
• Never vary your approach

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When you are finished changing, you are
finished.- Benjamin Franklin
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• Insanity doing the same thing over and over
  again and expecting different results.
• - Albert Einstein

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• Getting the Answer You Want
• Is getting a thoughtful response
• to a thoughtful ask.

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• Short of my wedding day, this is the best day of
  my life.
• - Bob Schieffer, TCU alumnus, when journalism
  school was named for him.

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• There are only three colors, ten digits and
  seven notes. It is what we do with them that is
  important.
• - (You think maybe Ben Franklin?)