 Welcome and thanks for joining us. It's another episode, a part of our nonprofit Power Week thanks to Fundraising Academy cause selling education. So Jack is back with us on a Wednesday or a hop day. Some people might still refer to it as that. We are so thrilled because Jack Alotto is a CFRE and a trainer with Fundraising Academy. So today as we continue this nonprofit Power Week we are talking about mastering nonprofit major gifts. So all week we're dedicated to this topic. Even our Freyé asked and answered, yes I said Freyé for our Fundraising Academy dedicated episode. So again thank you so much to this dedication and to all of our presenting sponsors that keep this organization afloat as well as hopefully many of your organizations as you move the needle towards success in the new year. So thank you to all of our presenting sponsors for your partnership and your belief and commitment to the nonprofit sector at large. We are so grateful to have your investment in the sector. Julia Patrick you're pretty invested in the sector too my friend and you just shared in the Green Room Tratter about your volunteer philanthropic efforts and how you have really been tapped on the shoulder throughout your volunteer time to serve as an asker. I'm gonna call you an asker. I love that. So it takes a special person. Julia is the CEO of the American Nonprofit Academy. I get to have fun each and every day and serve alongside Julia as her nonprofit nerd and your nonprofit nerd CEO of the Raven Group. And again today we have Jack Alotto with us to talk about major gifts and today Jack I think we're diving into the actual solicitation. Am I right? Yes which is that third phase of that traditional major gift cycle. So this is the exciting part. You've done all your work and now you're coming to that solicitation phase. In cause selling we actually break this phase down into three different sections. We talk about presentation. We talk about handling objectives and then I'm sorry hand handling objections and then we talk about actually making that ask. Okay so before we move into this which is is a big deal. Can you just help us reframe how we got to this third phase? So we started with that identification process where you identify potential major donor givers based on your prospecting. Then you qualify them. During that pre-approach is where you try to find out everything you can about this potential donor. What their interest is. What their motivations are. What they value. The second phase of that is the cultivation phase and that's where you actually approach the donors and start your need discovery. This is where you're asking open-ended questions. This is where you're trying to get to know them. What drives them to make gifts. Where they've given to other organizations. Why they've given. What moves them to make a gift to not only your cause but any cause. This is where we discover everything about them. Now the next and third part of that major gift fundraising cycle but later but also included in the cost selling cycle is where we do that solicitation. Okay so we've worked hard through these phases and you mentioned something yesterday to Jared and I which was really interesting to me is that these don't all take the same time. They can move more quickly. They can move more slowly. You have to be judicious about understanding where you are in that relationship. It's kind of like dating. If you know what I mean you go out the first day you know you you have to kind of figure out how things are going. It's been like 42 years since I've dated but I'm just I'm just figuring this out right. I mean there's a process to the human relationship that we have with our donors. But we get down to this big part and I it almost seems to me Jack that the solicitation is that point with which you do that famous Terry Axelrod statement bless and release. You work forward and you're going to move on with them or you're not right. That is that really where we are at this point. So the first part of that solicitation process is presentation. What we call in cost selling is giving them a presentation. Couple things about presentation. The first thing is face to face. You're dealing with a major donors so we recommend face to face. Now I know what you're going to ask me Julia. They're going to say how are you going to meet face to face with a potential donor during a pandemic. So that's that's your question. Everybody ask that question when we present this part of it. So there are some techniques that are important in a Zoom video and you know it's really funny because before I before we started recording you were giving me some of those techniques. One of the techniques was Jack sit up straight. Jack fix the back of your shirt. Jack lean into the camera. All of those are true and good things for us to remember when we are doing a virtual presentation to a potential donor. There are other things too you know that you you would would look at and those are just some of the really important things. Look into the camera like you're looking into the eyes of the potential donor on the other side of that Zoom video. The second thing you do in presentation which is so important here's where you provide that potential donor with the essentials your work your mission your vision your values how gifts advance your mission and what are the benefits to that potential donor to make a gift to your organization. The other thing to say in presentation is practice. Practice your presentation. It's so important and then finally we say what is your presentation style? Do you memorize your presentation? Do you add limit? Is there from notes that you have whether face to face or virtual? I like to give this example. I worked in a capital campaign during my career. We were going to ask for a million dollars. We did address rehearsal the night before we asked for the million dollars. It's really important to rehearse that presentation no matter what your style is. When we did the rehearsal it was myself a board member and the CEO and each of us had a role to play in that presentation. So it's really important. That is a great insight especially as you make it so relevant to current events and one of the aspects of presentation that I have found challenging in my community. I live in Arizona. There's a lot of individuals that may leave town in in the summer months right. So we're really talking four or five maybe even six months. So I'm curious how you can digitally prepare more or less a resource folder. So let me go back. If I were to meet someone for coffee I would gather additional resources that that I I would intuitively think that this individual might ask. Okay and so I would say well I brought this you know for you to take a look at how do we provide that in this digital space now. I'm curious how you address that. Great question. It's a really important question but I think the techniques of first of all during your needs discovery think back to yesterday during needs discovery this is where Jared you're going to anticipate potential questions based upon your conversations with the donor. One of the questions might be that that they may ask you is will my gift have impact and you could anticipate that based on the conversation you had with them during need discovery. They may ask things you know it's really important for me Jared that when I make a gift to a nonprofit organization I want to make sure that my gift is meaningful and makes has an impact and is it changing something in our community. So anticipate all those questions so that when you're in the virtual environment or in the live environment you already have an idea what this potential donor is going to be asking based upon your needs discovery. And that's active listening right. I feel like active listening. I'm channeling a previous episode with fundraising academy talking about the cause selling education model and and how you know this this moves along. I love that and and literally you know when it comes to that presentation taking a look at how you show up on video and minor adjustments make a major impact. We've seen it here Julia throughout our episodes and so I love that you brought that into the solicitation. You know I do this all the time because I'm on video pretty much every day between my work at the fundraising academy with you guys and other work that I do. So what I do is sometimes I schedule a Zoom meeting for myself and I just go on I record it. I look at you know how do I look am I too orange you know which I think I'm kind of orangey today is my head too shiny you know what's going on with this and then I look at it and I critique myself and then I tweak things change things. Okay let me bump back to what Jared asked because I can see you Jared sitting in a restaurant or someone's home with your resource folder and you have all these data points you have graphs you have stories whatever. I mean is that Jack that you're saying that we should like PDF those and send those in advance or do a share screen or what looks like the mechanic. I wouldn't send it in advance you know I you know I think so I think it's okay to to look at your notes. I think when you're talking with a potential donor and you're you're saying hey I wrote if you explain to them hey Jared I've written some I've written some notes based on our previous conversation some questions to ask you some things that I think are important and meaningful for our discussion that's respectful. Okay. That's say you paid attention to her and what she said to you mattered and you remembered it and now during the presentation you want to address some of those things. Remember remember the whole relationship building model of cause selling. We build relationships by mutually respecting the people who we are about to solicit a gift from. So Jared let me put you in the hot seat given what Jack has said I know you're like okay I'm ready I can do this you can wait for God's sakes you're on with me every day I know you can do this. What do you think about this like what are you seeing with fun development folks reaching out across you know zoom or what is your take on this because we're not moving away from this anytime soon. We're not moving away from it so many more people have become very accustomed to it and so even you know mitigating that travel time sitting in traffic or just going to meet for coffee 30 minutes away or what that might look like so you might still live in the same geographic area but still people are going to say hey I prefer a zoom. It's going to happen and you know I shared a little bit about my own family member my brother who works for a large university and he has not only done this via face to face but via a phone call so I think we as professionals are becoming more and more accustomed and it's really knowing the donor right it's knowing the donor and what he she or they are most comfortable and to ask them right what is your preferred way of presentation perhaps. Yeah absolutely that's very donor centric Jared I asked them what what matters if they say you know one of the things we talk about in cost selling is if they say hey yeah I'll meet with you let's go to a restaurant let's have lunch let's have coffee you know picking the right space and I'll face to face meeting is so important we think oh let's go to Starbucks or let's go here and then you go there let's go to this restaurant and it's so loud it's so noisy or or it's it's too quiet I mean so really understanding the space remember this whole thing you're about to ask someone to make a gift to your organization it has to be in the right setting and we talk quite a bit about that during this this module presentation in cost selling well and let's move into those objective objections because I do feel right so not only do we need to have the listening skills to identify and to be able to prepare for the questions but I feel like we need to prepare for any objections that we might need to start developing a way to overcome that's about that Jack yeah so the first thing we love to say one of the epic fails that fundraisers make is to fail to understand what objections are remember objections are not a no they're not the same as no in fact they're a sign of interest interest in our program when people give us objections they're telling us they want to know more they're interested in what we're doing they're not saying no i'm not going to give you a gift they're saying tell me more remember back to the pre approach and the approach and remember jarrett you mentioned active listening you may be able to anticipate objections you may encounter by actively listening during those previous stages of the cost selling cycle and when they present an objection to you that's great prepare your response get those responses written down based on what you're hearing them say during that need discovery that pre approach the approach etc remember this is so important guys if you donors will continue to object and resist until they get an answer to their objection so don't uh just ignore it address it hit it uh head on some objections you're not going to be able to respond to because they may be so out there but the majority of them 90% of them you are going to be able to anticipate and respond to them that will help get you to that gift okay that it really seems to me when i hear you say that it seems like we're going all the way back to the very first point and that is understanding their value and why they're investing with you yeah that's right that's the beauty of the cost selling cycle it's a cycle that builds and grows and flourishes as you move through that cycle so can you give us some ideas before we move on to the big the ask like what are some objections that that you might encounter that are going to be you know across your story career you've seen these come back any any guidance there so um you know sometimes you'll hear what we call the stall they'll say well we're not ready to make a decision that might be an objection you're here so you know and when i've encountered that in my career i've always said okay when can i circle back to discuss this not where you just leave it and say oh okay bye see you later nice knowing you i'm glad we had coffee you see you you usually have to come up with a response like well when can i circle back with you but it might be where they need to consult with someone else so you might say oh well and if you've done your your approach and your need discover you would have discovered this and you would have invited that other person but maybe you didn't see that maybe it wasn't anticipated so you might say okay well when can the three of us get together you know always what is that next step after you hear the objection that's really key and i'm hearing as you say this make sure it's in your donor database make sure you create a task or a calendar initiative to remind you so you don't let that time go by and that's right all there needs to be you know continuous um you know contact here and to really keep that top of mind yeah how about the objection that you've asked them for way more than they thought they would give to you you know that you know you asked them for i don't know a hundred thousand dollars and they were thinking more fifty thousand what do you do do you is it over is that a no of course not you might say well what what gift level are you more comfortable with you know always anticipating what that objection would be so that you get to yes you close the gift so i think those there are lots of things that we talk about these are just a few of the objections you may encounter and i think that you know some of them are more you'll see them more in your career than others okay so i'm smiling because when you say you know perhaps you ask for a hundred and they come back and say fifty that sounds great and it seems like we're right in line for you to do fifty this year and perhaps you'd consider another fifty next year you know i mean just as a little aside i always say if i asked julia julia give me 1200 dollars and she says no i can't give you 1200 dollars but if i say to her hey julia how about a hundred bucks a month for the next 12 months that may be more palatable love it i love it so i'm a big component if you ask for a big gift and they say oh i can't give you 12 000 dollars i don't have 12 000 dollars but how about a thousand a month or how about you know three thousand over the next three years or you know whatever the math is there so always always always have a response ready right i love it and i also think too that um it's the reality of cash flow and understanding you know how you've navigated to the point where somebody believes in you and wants to invest in your organization and and they're searching for impact it's a manner it's a matter of what is the process of it right you know how how about have you ever heard this objection guys uh julia i can't make that gift right now because my son is just starting stanford university i have a big tuition welcome now so what do you say well when can we revisit this let me come back to you in six months let's talk about where you are then not where you just ended it's over okay have fun at stanford you know but where you say listen this is not over we still want to have this conversation with this prospective donor okay so we've we've really got to get to the ask and this is where i personally love this piece yeah you know one of some things that are different you know one of the things that i love about the cost-selling cycle when we get to the ask what we talk about is have a closing frame of mind to close the gift okay so when you start that pre-approach you are closing from the very beginning of the cost-selling cycle we are starting that process of closing the gift one of the things that i love to say about the beauty of the cost-selling cycle is that when you get to the ask you've done so much of your work in advance that you're going to close the gift it's going to happen so one of the second thing we look at always have that closing frame of mind and sometimes it will be very quick and you close immediately and sometimes it may take a little bit more time some of the things you look for are body language donation signals of body language open open frame with you leaning in all of those things are clues that tell us this prospective donor is getting to the point of saying yes or now's the time to make that gift remember in that in the ask to always summarize the benefits based on what you learned about their interest vision values what motivates them what you learned in discovery okay so always summarize the benefit julia if you make a gift to our homeless shelter we are going to be able to house more people and take and into some permanent housing always the the other thing we always say directly asked for a gift you know right i i i like to say this i get i get this i get this all the time i i see this in students in classes that i've taught they say won't you please support our organization let me tell you something i support a lot of organizations but i don't give them all money now jack following that would you say and identify because we've been talking about major gifts for this week would you say this is a major gift yes i mean you know you actually along that i agree with you support is well yeah everybody can support you yeah will you invest with a major yes and let's really put it out there and that investment asking them to make an investment in your organization by making a cash gift and be specific as to the amount i mean you don't say oh can you uh julia would you make a gift between five thousand and ten thousand you know it's just it's just not done that way and some people do that actually they do that ask directly for a gift you're asking for them to and to join you and your organization in solving some community problem well and i love what you said yesterday jack about you know you are acknowledging this is a major gift and we are we are we have identified x amount of individuals right part of this exclusive investment group yes towards the mission and i think all of that language is very important throughout the entire cycle beginning you know with the prospecting certainly within the presentation you know portion of the solicitation and most definitely to reiterate that in your closing of the task right that's the impact that's we are so grateful for you joining this exclusive supporter group right and you know Jared so many organizations create that exclusivity really well arts organizations they say you want to support our ballet company at this level you're in the golden slipper club yeah oh yeah at this letter you're a choreographer club and you know what people say oh for ten thousand dollars I could be in the choreography group and I wanted in that group because here are the benefits to me of being in that group and this is a way to move people to higher giving levels by the way you know so if I'm in the golden slipper squad and that's five thousand dollar gift and I say oh but for another twenty five hundred I could be in the director circle right that's the exclusivity Jared you're talking about that's right I love it all of this has really been fantastic Julia I'm circling back to if only we had had this cost selling education and this model you know twenty plus years ago we would be so much better for it but you know what we have it now and now we're able to use it implement it execute it so grateful to you Jack for coming on and sharing this valuable insight and expertise with us and of course thank you for all you do in the sector and then also throughout your certified fundraising executive cohorts in the training that you provide professionals thank you you're welcome thank you guys for having me I always love talking to the both of you I learned so much from you guys too I love your questions I love the culture that you guys create on this show good the whole culture thank you that means a lot you know I was thinking Jared what you said about this time and there's this you know this old adage it says when is when is the best time to plant a tree and it's 30 years ago but when is the second best time to plant a tree and it's today so you know you you've got to look at some of these things and no matter how long you've been in the game if you're new maybe you're looking to move forward now's the time get started and really perfect join us back tomorrow where we examine the stewardship of this and all of the things that we've talked about that's going to be really a great discussion because it will pull a lot of this together and make sure that some of these back issues or episodes and you can find in the archive if you want to get a viewing party together maybe with your development team or yourself or you want to refresh this has been really great information because it is a strategy and you'll know that a lot of the cause selling features dovetail to this major gift process but it is a little different and so that's why we really wanted to pull it out on its own and talk about it and then again Friday we're going to be here by be joined with Tony Bell and it'll be amazing here's Jack's information if you are thinking about joining the CFRE ranks Jack might be someone to talk to about it because he's been an active part of it and is a national trainer and so we want to also point that out because it's really I think some excellence in our profession again I'm Julia Patrick I've been joined by my intrepid co-host the non-profit nerd my non-profit nerd your non-profit nerd Jared Ransom CEO of the Group we are so delighted that all of our sponsors are here with us day in and day out joining on this mission that we have Jared we're now in our third year sister we are as you say we are a going Jesse 400 and close to 75 episodes now with over 800 additional not additional 800 total archive video elements still the only national broadcast providing service to the non-profit sector Jack thank you for being a huge part of this and especially your service of this week into fundraising academy and to all of our sponsors that keep this going and growing throughout our nation it's been amazing it's been amazing you know every day we end this our episodes with this mantra and we truly believe it stay well so you can do well thanks so much everybody we'll see you back here tomorrow