 Welcome, everyone. Thank you so very much for joining us for our third day of non-profit Power Week with Fundraising Academy. Today, we have with us our great friend, Jack Alotto from Fundraising Academy. He is bringing questions that you are going to want to have handy when it comes to handling donor objections. And these questions will help to provide you hopefully some ease in this conversation. So stay with us before we dive deep with Jack. We of course want to remind our viewers and our listeners who we are. So Julia Patrick, good morning, good afternoon. Thanks for joining me. Julia is the CEO of the American Nonprofit Academy. I get to play alongside Julia each and every day as our trusty sidekick. As co-host, I'm Jarrett Ransom, your non-profit nerd CEO of the Raven Group. And we are honored to have the continued support and investment from our amazing presenting sponsors. Thank you so very much to Bloomerang American Non-profit Academy, Fundraising Academy at the National University, Non-profit Nerd, your part-time controller, staffing boutique, and the non-profit thought leader. If you have been with us any episodes in the last couple of weeks, you've heard that we have over, we have passed our 600 mark. And so here's to 600 more episodes with the non-profit show. But you can find all of our episodes on Roku, YouTube, Amazon Fire TV, Vimeo, and podcast. So we welcome our podcast listeners as well. So Jack, we are thrilled to have you back my friend. Welcome. Thank you. I'm excited to be here as usual. And I'm working with both of you today. So that is a special treat for me. That's right. We have, we have taken turns with you on some frayas and are asked and answered. And, you know, that Friday is a dedicated day to questions, as this week is dedicated to questions from the Fundraising Academy, a cause selling education model. And so for those of you that have joined us Monday and Tuesday, we had other questions. And Jack's here to bring us questions about objections. So share with us a little bit about this eight step cause selling cycle and remind us about the phase two, step six that we're currently in. So as you can see from that concentric circle that we have up on the screen, the first part is where we're not actually meeting with a prospect. We're doing our homework. That second part, phase two, is where we're actually in face to face meetings. And this step six, handling objections is the step just before we make the ask. So this is really an important step in this fundraising cycle. And when we do it successfully, we could get to that ask and get to a successful close on the gift. So it's really important. But the first thing I want to say about this, and I love watching the previous two shows with Pearl and Mui, it's been great, is that this whole week about asking and listening. And I like to say this about asking, especially as it relates to handling objections, we have to ask in a way that expresses our belief that we want to get to the answer of what that objection is. And our tone of voice, our style of talking, and all of those things are really important. Once we hear the objection, then as Judge Judy says, put your listening ears on and listen real intently to what the objection is. But listen with an open heart and an open mind. And remember part of the hearing of objections, as Julia said earlier, is making us a little uncomfortable. And when we get a little uncomfortable, then we learn things from our prospective donors. You know, I love that you framed this up because you're right. If we are going into this with a more positive way and looking at objections in a different manner, it's going to reduce our stress. Right. And it's all about our attitude that we branch with. Remember what we say in cause selling, objections indicate a clear sign of interest. If you're dealing with a prospective donor and they're not offering you objections or questions, I am pretty sure you've lost them. When people object to things and want more information or want to hear more about some program or your cost, they are interested. And believe me, in my career, I could share many objections that I've heard. And when people share objections, I know that they're interested in learning and getting to some resolution to what their objection is. Great mindset because I know objections can be, as Julia shared, very uncomfortable. And so you're going to share with us questions throughout today's conversation, Jack, about how we can navigate these conversations in a positive way that ignite. I'm going to keep using that word throughout today's show. It just ignites that continuous interest of the donor. So let's get started with some of these questions. And you know, our first one here is, what are questions that might make you hesitant to make a gift? And we're going to do our best to share these questions for our viewers and our listeners. What do you say for this one, Jack? So that first one, what are questions that might make you hesitant to make a gift, which is a great question because they may say, well, this, you know, I like, you know, I'll both know I worked in healthcare. Sometimes I got this question. They say, well, you know, I came to your emergency room and I had a wait 30 minutes in the ER with my child. So that's a question that might make them hesitant to make a gift. So my typical response would be, especially when I worked in healthcare, I'd say, you know what, I'm going to find out what happened. I'm going to talk to one of the nurses or I'm going to talk to one of the physicians in the ER and see why it took so long. And that helps a person understand that you are going to get to the bottom of what their objection is. But you know what I like about this question? What are questions that might make you hesitant to make a gift? You know what the other part of this question is? What are some things that might help you make a decision about making a gift? The opposite. You see what I'm saying? So here, tell me what your hesitations are and tell me what things you want to hear about. So that you can get to making a gift. So that's sort of the opposite. And it's really an important thing. By the way, I'm going to, since you're using the word ignite, ignite this question, I'm going to quote one of my favorite songs, Jared, which is from The Doors. Come on, baby, light my fire. You just cannot amaze us enough, Jack. It's fantastic. I love your switch on, you know, keeping it positive in that question. And I think that's fantastic. The other question we had here, you know, is really about have we adequately addressed your concerns? So I can imagine with the same example, you can say, I talked to the ER, you know, this is what I found out. And then have we adequately addressed these concerns as a follow up question? How has that worked for you? Well, I think that's the way to do it. If they say, Jared, no, I'm not feeling, I don't think you've adequately answered my objection. Then you have to come back and give them an adequate answer. Because if you don't, that objection is going to linger on into the asking part of this fundraising cycle, which would make it much harder for you to close that gift. So this is a really important question and their answer to it. And hopefully their answer will explain why you haven't adequately answered. So in the example I gave, if she says to me, well, I was there 30 minutes with my child, he fell and, you know, it took so long. And I said to her, well, that day, we had this trauma patient come into the ER. And she may say, oh, okay, I understand that you have to work with the most severely injured first. Or she may say, I'm sorry, that's not good enough to answer. So then you have to figure out how that system works. And these are questions I got in healthcare, guys. I would say to her, well, our philosophy in the ER is that those who are most injured must be dealt with. We triage our patients. And maybe they looked at your son and thought he's going to need a couple stitches and he'll be fine. You know, Jack, one of the things as we move on to question three, I'm hearing you say, in a way, it's okay not to know the answer for that immediate objection. But the mindset is, let me investigate and come back to you. So the question, the next question that we have is, have I explained how our organization is uniquely positioned to address the problem that you care so deeply about? Like, have I navigated this in a way that's helping you make a decision? Is that the right spirit? Yes, I think this is, again, a very important question. So if someone is coming to you, if your program is in social services, and you are dealing with the homeless issue in your community, and they care very deeply about this issue, you have to make sure that they understand how your organization and what you're doing with that problem is adequate in fulfilling their needs to impact that homeless problem in your community. And if you don't do that, again, it's going to be a stopper, a blockage, to closing that gift when you get to the next part of the cost-selling cycle, which is making the ask. Yeah, interesting. Yeah, I think this is an absolute fascinating thing. And I'm really rethinking the process and seeing how I can be more comfortable in this objection piece. And that one of the things that I've learned that I'm learning from you today is it doesn't mean that the whole relationship's gone and that donor rejection is, goodbye, move on to the next, right? You know, I always like to say that those who are really done with your organization, they don't offer you objections. They go away. Right. So when people would call me up, like I would send a direct mail out and somebody would call me up or they'd send me an email, I loved it. I wanted to communicate with them because they needed something answered. And it could be something like a person who comes to the ER or even something more serious about a spouse of someone who died in your hospital. And people would call me up. They just want to hear from someone. And of course, I'm not a healthcare professional, but I would get the answer for it. And that's really the key there, guys. And I think Julia, you alluded to that a few minutes ago. If I don't have the answer and I don't know how to answer the question or an objection or whatever it is, you have to say, I will find out the answer for you and get back to you. That's one of the things that we do with volunteer solicitors. If we send volunteer solicitors, they don't have all the answers. They're not an expert in all of the programs. And believe me, healthcare, I'm not a doctor, although I kind of play one right now. But you know what I'm saying? So you have to go back and get the answer. And if you don't adequately answer their objection, it's going to be tough to get to that next step. So the next question that we have, which is really an interesting thing is, you start off by saying to this prospective donor investor, thank you for expressing your concerns. It's almost like you are, dare I say, encouraging them? Or what are you doing here with this question? Well, I think it's so important to acknowledge that they have a concern and then thank them for expressing their concerns. It's back to that principle that if they don't express their concerns and, you know, they're somehow stalling or don't want to talk to you about it, then you really cannot get, you can't move through the cycle. And that's so it's really important. And I think it's, I think it's really important when people have a complaint. You know, one of this, I like to use this example. If you lose a donor, a lapse donor, we talk about this early in our cycle. One of our actually in stewardship, which is at the end of the cycle, what we say is if you want to re-engage with a lapse donor, ask them why they stop. Ask them about their concern. This question is so much like that. What did you, what did we do that caused this concern with you? What did we do as an organization that made you stop giving to us? And when they give you the answer, it's going to be really enlightening and it may make you feel a little uncomfortable. But it's going to tell you so much about how to address that objection. Yeah, I think it's just all, you know, peeling back those layers of getting to their core interest. And I've shared my example, one of many, Jack, because I too have, you know, had to handle, handle objections is, you know, and it came from left field, but I should have been prepared for it. It was a couple that had, you know, looked at GuideStar and they didn't like some of the ratings that they were seeing. And so for us to be mindful of some of those ratings that are public knowledge, and really, you know, addressing that concern of theirs, and, and really just letting them know, very similar to the ER triage, you know, I will look into this absolutely find out what we can do, you know, to shore up your concerns. And, and that is something that could very well come up for any of you watching and listening, because savvy donors definitely do, you know, they, they Google and they search all kinds of things, and this is public information. Right. And I, you know, savvy donors are constantly testing you. And part of that testing phase happens when you have objections. They're testing, they want to know that you're going to, you know, we're a relationship building model. Cause selling is about relationships and testing and objections. And all of the things that we talk about throughout the cycle is all about building relationships. And those things that they object to, they're testing your ability to adequately answer those and to, and that strengthens the relationship. Yeah. So when you say that, I guess a question that I have or I'm looking for a comment on this is that even though I see the logical progression that the cause selling cycle goes through and navigates through so brilliantly, this is not just a one point in time. Right. Objections and maybe the better word are questions are going to be coming up throughout this. Sure. Absolutely. The moment you sit down with that donor in the pre approach or the approach before you even get to this phase, they may offer some objections. They may say things like, you know what, you're a human, you're an animal welfare organization. Well, there are three or four animal welfare organizations in our community. Why should I support yours over the humane society or some foundation for animals or whatever it is. So they're going to be asking those questions all the time. That may not sound like an objection, but questions kind of have this sort of tint of their wondering what's going on here. And answering those questions or finding out the answers is the key. It's just a great thing. I have met, you know, I get, you know, it's not a battle. We're not at loggerheads when they offer an objection. They want more information so they can get to yes. You want to give them more information so they can get to yes. Well, let's get to another question. And this is a kind of an interesting thing because this in some ways is, I've got to believe different pre pandemic, but it's, it deals with when a donor has to leave. And that question, can we reschedule a better time for you? Walk us through that, the realities of, you know, how maybe our time together gets disrupted. So I think this is a great question. And it's related to a lot of other things that the donor may say as part of an objection, like we're sitting together and the donor says, you know what, Jack, I got to go. I got to pick up my kids from school. So what do you answer? You say, okay, bye. See you later. Have fun. Safe driving to your child's school. Now you say, when can we talk again about this? When can, when is a better time for me to have us to sit down with you? The same thing with somebody who says to you, you know what, I need to consult with my spouse, my partner, my children, my parents about this gift. So what is your response? Always be prepared to have a response. My response to somebody like that, shut, should, would you like to invite them to come to a meeting with us? When can I reconnect with you? When can the three of us sit down, your spouse and you and me to talk about this issue or our cause? So always be prepared. What is, what happens next? When a donor has an objection, always answer in your head, what do I say next to make something happen? Like I got to leave. I got to pick up my kids. Well, when's a more convenient time for us to sit and talk? It seems so natural because if you want to continue, to continue the conversation and, you know, you certainly want to honor their time and respect, you know, their other commitments. So you make it seem so natural, Jack. And I'm sure, you know, at this point, you know, it just kind of flows off your tongue for those of us that are thinking, oh, that seems pushy or that just doesn't seem like my natural cadence of conversation. You know, I probably would say, oh, good luck with that carpool pickup line because I know it's a bear. You know, but I love saying when would be a great time for us to reconnect. Yeah. When can we talk again? Who should I invite to our next meeting? You know, who should be there? Who needs to be in the room? You know, I want to work with them as well. And all of these things tell your prospective donor that you want to build a relationship. And it may be with them as a couple or a family unit or whatever it is. I've worked with family foundations where their three children have to be in the room. They're teaching their children about philanthropy and they want to make sure that their children are in the room as they decide to make a gift for your organization. Yeah, it's huge. You know, we've got time for one more quick question. And this is kind of that, are you ready to support this project, which I love. It's not quite the ask, but it's allowing to move forward. Talk to us about this. Am I reading that question right? Oh, yeah. I think this is a great question. Because here's where you say, are you ready to support this project? And they say, you know what? I'm not ready. So what do you say to yourself? Or what do you say to them? What other information do you need? What other information can I provide to you? All open-ended questions. And I love a questioning strategy that's open-ended. And we talked about this quite a bit in the cost-selling cycle. Open-ended questions help you know that prospective donor, that donor, and then you can get to what the objection is or what the concern is, and you build that relationship. Every single time we adequately respond to an objection, we build relationship. Yeah. I love that. That's the bottom line. I love that. Well, I would really encourage everyone to go on to fundraising-academy.org. And you can access through the My Learning Portal donor conversation questions. And there are a ton of them. We are just scratching the surface, aren't we, Jared? I mean, this is just a small amount. But each part of the cost-selling cycle, the fundraising-academy folks have come up with questions. And more than a dozen, pretty much for each part of this, they are fascinating. They're natural. They are part of a conversation. It's really been interesting, Jack, to look at these. And I will say that you guys have lit a fire under me and ignited my interest in handling donor objections. Yes. Well, fantastic. You know, I said it earlier, you really do make this so natural for our viewers and listeners. Just to remind us, Jack, how long have you been in this profession? Yeah. So I have to really confess to that. Well, let me tell you this. When I first started, I had a full head of hair. So that's how long it's been. I think I've probably been doing this 30, 40 years. Fundraising for me is a passion. When we raise money for those causes, when we handle those objections and we get to and ask that it's successful, we're helping the world be a better place. Well, and you helped so many others through your CFRE coursework and mentorship with that. And so, you know, I just think you're such a natural at this, the objection component of the cause selling, you know, model. It's just fantastic. If I could take you with me to all of these conversations, I certainly would. But the best I could do is channel Jack. So thank you for being here today. Well, thank you guys for having me. I love being with you too. And, you know, when I say you help the profession, you do. I may be a mentor at CFRE, but you are a mentor to a lot of people, even beyond the CFRE. So that's great. Thank you, Ignatius Elotto. You have really been great. Now I'm going to call you Ignatius because that's a power name, my friend. That's a power name. Check out Jack Elotto, CFRE, one of the, I'm going to say master trainers at Fundraising Academy. Jack, interestingly enough, also guides CFRE training. So for those of you who want to prep for the testing and things of that nature, Jack is the spirit guide, as we like to say, going forward. We also want to make sure that everybody knows about this really exciting national online cost selling accelerate. It's developed by Fundraising Academy to be a cohort. It's 10 weeks. It's pretty intense. You have to apply. It's not just open to everyone because it is a cohort, meaning that folks are going to be learning from one another and creating a system of support as they navigate their own profession. And so it's national. You'll get voices from all other parts of the country. Hannah Berger, who's going to be on with us on Friday, she's actually going to be running this cohort. So check them out. CEP 13 cohort. You can find that through the Fundraising Dash Academy. Yeah. And you know, you talk about a master trainer, trainer. That's Hannah. She's a master trainer. I've learned so much from watching her in webinars and other things. She's awesome. And I totally think this is really a great thing to get involved with. No matter where you are in your career or in your understanding of Fundraising, you are going to learn a lot in this cohort. Okay, cool. Good to know. You know, it's going to be, this is something that you all have been doing over the years, right, Jack? So this is a tested process for developing even stronger fundraisers, correct? Absolutely. And we're going to go through that cycle and some other things about social styles and time management and not only running the fundraising cycle, I know we're at the end here, but also we give you so many tools to be better at running through that cycle, that relationship-building cycle. So that is really awesome, guys. Yeah. It's really, it sounds wonderful. When talking to Pearl about this, it makes me like, well, I want to join it, you know, take a break and add this to my world because I'm so intrigued by it. I really, really am. So check that out. Hey, again, thank you for joining us. I'm Julia Patrick, CEO of the American Nonprofit Academy, been joined today by the non-profit nerd herself, Jared Ransom, CEO of the Raven Group. Jared, thank you so much for bringing forward your time and your talent with us. And also thank you to our amazing sponsors. I always like to say, they're with us day in and day out. That includes Blumerang, American Nonprofit Academy, your part-time controller, non-profit nerd, Fundraising Academy at National University, Staffing Boutique, and Nonprofits.Leader. Again, these are the folks that help us bring this amazing content. And this week is really special. You know, Jared and I only do this a couple times a year. We call it the Nonprofit Power Week. It's where we do a specific group and drill down. And it's really an intense thing for ourselves, our viewers and our listeners. But we are really excited to have this different approach for what we think will help you be more powerful with your non-profits. So it's been a lot of fun. Hey, Ignatius Lotto, you're a rock star, my friend. Thank you. And so are the two of you. I appreciate being on. Love being on with you guys. It's a lot, a lot of fun. Get it? A lot, a lot of fun. I got it. I got it. I mean, I'm sure you've never heard that one before. Oh gosh. And other things I can't repeat to a family audience. No, no. We are, we are a family show. Hey, and as a family show and as family does, we want to remind everyone to stay well so you can do well. Thanks so much, guys. We'll see you back here tomorrow for another day of Nonprofit Power Week. Yeah.