The goal of this book is to scientifically explain some of the reasons why and how much people give to charities.

As a person who has working in the non-profit industry for many years, this topic was very interesting to me.

I had not heard of this book before, and when I heard the report I was driving, so I couldn’t jot down a lot of notes, but a few things jumped out at me right away, and I wanted to share them with you. I will be searching this book out in the near future, however, as it sounds fascinating.

The first thing that caught my attention is that the author reported that people are more likely to give to a single person or small group of people as opposed to a larger group with many members. This makes sense to me. It seems that donors feel like they are more able to impact one person’s life in a positive manner, as opposed to an entire population.

What does that mean in relation to the school fundraising world?

Well, it tells me that it might be smarter for a school to frame their fundraiser in a way that highlights the impact on individual children, as opposed to the benefits the whole school may experience.

So, if I were running a school carnival, for instance, (or any other important school fundraiser) I would write my promotional material in a way that showed parents how their individual child would suffer and/or benefit depending on how much money the carnival was able to raise. I’d actually list out specific items that would impact each student.

Of course, the impact would be felt by the entire student body, but by bringing it down to a student-by-student basis, you’re speaking more directly to parents. It’s just how you deliver the message.

Think about it. If you were the parent who was being asked to donate time or money, wouldn’t you be more motivated if you knew exactly what was at stake for your own son or daughter?

Go ahead, give this strategy a try.

Photo by: Rennett Stowe

You’ll find resources to help you navigate every aspect of school life- from planning fundraisers to how to run PTO meetings, to being able to vent about your frustrations in a friendly forum. PTO Today is a site that everyone involved in school fundraising should be checking out on a regular basis.

The president of PTO Today is Tim Sullivan. Tim has spent his entire career in the education world. He has worked as a teacher and administrator at a NYC high school, then as a senior manager for a New England-based fundraising concern; and now as the founder and leader of PTO Today. He has spoken at hundreds of parent group meetings and to tens of thousands of parent group leaders all across the country. He also maintains a role as a senior writer for PTO Today magazine and is a leading voice on best practices in connecting with parent group leaders.

I spoke to Tim once about the topic of fundraising fatigue. Since he deals with hundreds of schools, he has a verey good perspective on how to ask parents for money without over-burdening him. Here are a few of the things Tim had to say on this topic:

“If you’re feeling the negative effects of fundraising fatigue—perhaps your latest sale didn’t go as well as last year’s or you’re having trouble finding volunteers to help out with the counting—then the problem is likely with your group’s fundraising habits. Nine times out of 10, fundraising struggles are self-inflicted.”

To combat the symptoms of fundraising fatigue, Tim suggests two strategies.

“First, we have to run fewer fundraisers, but run those few more effectively. (Dump a couple—you’ll live!) Two weeks of really hard work and focused fundraising attention is often way better than 12 weeks where some combination of smaller fundraisers are taking place.

“Second, we need to keep in mind the very reason we are engaged in fundraising efforts at all. “The reality is that fundraising provides essential funds for the extras that turn schools from piles of bricks with teachers inside into magical places of discovery and learning and community. Playgrounds. Field trips. A child’s first exposure to the theater or music. The family event that cements friendships that last a lifetime. These are the essentials of fundraising.”

Here is a short video Tim recently posted on PTO Today that covers this topic above, as well as how to grow parent involvement at your school. Thanks to Tim and his staff for doing so much great work that helps us raise money at our schools!

Since I have four school age children myself, I know who tough this can be. We juggle several balls at once, just like everybody else. So, even though it’s sad to admit, if something isn’t mandatory, there is a lot less pressure for me to show up at something. It’s just the way it is.

There are a couple of elementary schools in San Diego, California, that have recognized this situation, and they have taken a very bold step against it.

According to a report in The La Jolla Light,

The La Jolla Elementary School PTO and the Bird Rock Foundation have announced the dates for their Back to School sign-up days for the many programs and required forms for the forthcoming school year.

This marks the first year that Bird Rock Elementary School will host a sign up event.

The sign-up days are mandatory for all new and returning families, and will include information and/or registration for the following activities and events:

• Completing mandatory district and school requirements
• Purchasing products like yearbooks and logo wear
• Signing up for volunteer opportunities and after school programs
• Donating to the Annual Giving Campaign.
• Joining the PTO/Parent Foundation

“We want to provide parents with a convenient, one-stop approach to organize their child’s coming school year,” said Julie MacDonald, La Jolla Elementary PTO President. “By offering forms and information for everything needed to begin and progress through the school year, we free both parents and school staff to focus solely on the start of classes when September 6th arrives.”

Wow! What a novel idea! Make the parents attend by making the sign up event mandatory.

Does your school do this? If so, how has it gone over? Does every family show up? Do the families who do sign up actually follow through on what they commit to? Is there visible resentment from some parents at being forced to attend a school function?

I ask these questions, because this approach is new to me.  I’m fascinated to learn how common this very smart approach is.

In the near future, I will attempt to contact these two elementary schools and see how things have gone for them and what advice they have for other schools considering such a move.

Photo by: Libelul

There is also very little doubt that every other school in your town, plus every other non-profit agency, will be asking those same businesses for a donation.

Unless you live in a massive metropolis, that means many of your local businesses will be inundated with fundraising requests. It is unlikely that they will be able to give as much as they would like to, so some schools and non-profits will be turned down.

So, how can you position your school to receive those highly sought after business donations? Here are a few tips:

1. Make sure that you are an active shopper at the businesses you solicit for donations. If you don’t spend money on them, they will NOT spend money on you.

2. Make sure you make personal contact with the owner or senior manager at the store, so they know your school is actively supporting their business. When you finally ask for the donation, go straight to your contact.

3. Make sure that your school families know to shop at the businesses who support the school. Your “consumer base” (school families) are your greatest asset in the eyes of potential sponsors. Use them wisely.

4. Don’t hesitate to put out fliers or brochures of your corporate sponsors in your school office or on bulletin boards.

5. Send thank you notes, newsletters, and photos to your sponsors in a timely manner. Very few organizations follow up with donors, so they are often left in the dark about how the school made out in their fundraiser. This will make you stand out.

6. Don’t go to the same sponsor more than once per year, unless you specifically know they are open to that. Most businesses want to spread their donations around as much as possible, so don’t be greedy. Target certain business for certain fundraisers and stick to that list.

Photo by: jenny downing

While we were standing in line, waiting to get into the auditorium, two women from our local Humane Society arrived and began to set up a table right beside the entrance doors. Everybody walking into the auditorium had to walk past it.

The table was complete with brochures, a stand up display board with attractive photos, and a laptop computer that showed a continuous Power Point presentation. There was a stack of humane society coloring books to hand out to the kids. Pictures of stray dogs being hugged by new owners, that sort of thing. They even thought to bring with them a very handsome and well-mannered black mutt to show off as a living, breathing example of the kind of love families could find at the shelter.

As I watched these ladies unpack their display items and set them up, I thought to myself, what an excellent idea! Here we are, waiting to see the play 101 Dalmatians, and we’re all thinking about adorable black and white spotted puppies. We’re here to support our children, and we’re in a good mood- why not make a donation to the Humane Society?

It was so natural.

This is the stuff non-profits have to do to survive these days. They need to find partnerships, even temporary ones, that are a good fit, like the Humane Society teaming up with the 101 Dalmatians play.

By bringing the dog with them, the folks from the Humane Society were able to “break the ice” with the people in line, who might not have otherwise stopped by the table or even made eye contact. But, put a little doggy with sad eyes in front of them, almost nobody can resist. And then the conversation can begin. Brilliant.

If you are a school or a non-profit, take a few minutes to think about how you could replicate this kind of interactive fundraising approach. What assets do you have and what creative ways could they be used to promote your organization?

Ideas? I’d love to hear them in our comment section. Thanks!

Photo by: DougieBoss

So, what would I suggest then?

First of all, the PTO bulletin board should be updated regularly. I know this is a hassle, but it is a primary communications tool and shouldn’t be ignored. Think of it as a 3 dimensional Facebook page. Heck, a creative person could even decorate it as such. That would catch people’s eye when they walked bye for sure.

On the bulletin board, there should be a list of the schools fundraising priorities for the year. These are the things the PTO will be raising money for between September and June, and perhaps into the summer, as well.

Click here to enroll in Jim Berigan’s FREE year-long school fundraising e-Course!

There should also be a printed calendar of what fundraisers the PTO will hold and when. I would even suggest listing the financial goal next to each fundraising event or sale.

In addition to these two items, I would further suggest that there is a clear explanation of the school’s passive fundraising campaign. Clearly state what kinds of items you are collecting, such as ink cartridges, soup labels, box tops, cell phone, or grocery receipts. Explain where the collection point is for each item and also what your goal is for the year. Be specific- 5,000 soup labels will get us “such and such” equipment. I would even create a mini-thermometer that you can color in to track the collection’s progress.

I would also try to find room on the bulletin board for updates on past fundraisers. People want to know if their donations were useful toward the goal. Don’t leave them hanging.

Of course, you can post announcements of upcoming fundraising events on the bulletin board as well. List dates, times, and any other pertinent information. And when that event has passed, write up and then post a report about it.

This bulletin board needs to be a living breathing document of your fundraising efforts. If it doesn’t change for weeks or months, I would bet that fundraising is not a priority at your school.

Besides the bulletin board, it wouldn’t take too much effort to create a few simple poster boards that encourage kids to bring in their box tops or remind them of their goal.

Some people may say, including folks at my kids’ school, that I’m placing too great an emphasis on fundraising. That the school should be a refuge from all the marketing messages our kids get assaulted with everyday.

I agree that in a perfect world it would be nice to protect our kids from all this money talk, but we don’t live in a perfect world. If our school has items it would like to purchase or field trips it would like to schedule, but the budget won’t allow it, we have to fundraise.

And if we have to fundraise, then let’s do it right with a full, concentrated effort.

Photo by: ilovebutter

Today is such a day, when we pull out our microscopes and peer deeply into our organization’s image. Let’s talk about voice mail and answering machines. We’ve all got ‘em, but are we getting the most out of them that we can?

This may seem like a very basic point, but I do believe it is worth covering, since I’ve heard many, many dreadful messages that have spoken very poorly of the people who recorded them.

10 Cardinal Rules of Recording Answering Machine Messages

1. Keep it up to date.
It’s embarrassing when you have a message that talks about an event or a date that is two weeks old. If you ever change your outgoing message for a time-sensitive purpose or event, make sure to change it immediately afterwards.

2. Make sure you actually have an outgoing message.
Some schools, who don’t have a fancy voice mail system, still use an old-fashioned answering machine, and these can lose their memory if there is a power outage. Don’t have a client or a school family member have to tell you you don’t have a message on the machine. This is the equivalent to being told your zipper is undone.

3. Don’t be dull.
“You’ve reached Eisenhower Elementary School. Please leave a message.” Come on! That’s terrible, but believe me, such messages are out there. Use a welcoming tone of voice, provide key information about your hours of operation, or at least give your web address to point them toward more details. If your enrollment period is coming up or is ongoing, make a point of that. Once your caller hangs up the phone, he or she should have a warm, fuzzy feeling about your school.

4. Leave an emergency or after-hours number.
A lot of school business occurs after regular office hours. It’s easy to say, wait until morning or wait until Monday, but really, you can’t afford to do that. If you have an auction or a golf outing coming up, leave a secondary contact number of a committee member. What if the caller was a business that wanted to donate an item for your auction, but they didn’t feel like leaving a message and they weren’t able to call back? That kind of thing happens and happens often.

5. Use the voice of authority.
The person who leaves the message should be the person who is in charge of the organization. I know that many people like to have a secretary with a pretty voice record the message, but personally, I like to know and hear that the head honcho is involved with what’s going on in the office. Unless the leader has the voice of Elmer Fudd, he or she should put a personal stamp on the outgoing phone message. And I think it’s poor when somebody else records another person’s voice mail message on a personal mailbox. Unless there is some sort of top-secret reason, that’s just the height of self-importance.

6. Use a script when recoding the message.
It sounds really cheesy if you are just “winging it” when you record your outgoing message. You shouldn’t have any “umms” or “ahhs” or awkward pauses when you can’t remember what you wanted to say next. Take a few minutes and write down what you are going to say. Then practice it a couple of times to get a flow to it, then record it. It will sound much more professional if you come across as if you know what you’re doing.

7. Pretend you are talking to a real person.
When thinking about the right tone of voice to use in your message, give the impression that you are actually having a conversation with one of your school families. That’s a mixture of politeness, interest, confidence, and just a little bit of salesmanship. You want to make sure the caller gets the impression you really are talking to him or her.

8. Enunciate.
If you have the habit of speaking quickly and sometimes slurring your words, slow down in your message. Don’t be nervous when recording. You don’t have to rush- there is plenty of tape. The last thing you want is people wondering what it is you just said.

9. Don’t say too much.
On the other hand, you don’t want to prattle on forever, either. There is a limit to people’s patience, so be very judicious in picking what you are going to say. Think about how long you would want to listen to a recorded message and don’t go any longer than that.

10. Repeat key information.
It always kills me, when a message does something good like leave a secondary number to call, but says it really fast and doesn’t repeat it. So, I have to call the machine back to catch it again. Do it right the first time. If you are leaving information that the caller will have to write down, repeat it twice and go a beat slower when speaking. I actually had a grandparent of a student compliment my phone message once because I did that, so I realized that many people appreciate that sort of attention.

Why is all this important for school fundraising?

Someone may read the above suggestions and really get the notion that I am crazy. Wound way too tight. Why on Earth could the answering machine be so important? Everybody has voice mail, everyone knows what to do, why waste valuable breath on leaving a fancy message?

The answer is simple. You, as a school, are serving customers. You, as a school, want those customers to donate money, whether it’s enrollment tuition, tickets to an auction, or cookie dough dollars. And by and large, people won’t give money to organizations that are sloppy. That is why you have a dress code for the staff at your school. That is why you want a well-designed website. That is why you want to have an inviting entrance to your school. You are trying to make an impression on your customers.

Don’t go to all the hard work of creating a positive image and then blow it by having a terrible answering machine message. I know it sounds unbelievable, but there are plenty examples of this out there in the non-profit and school world. Remember- be polite. Be fun. Be inviting. Give lots of important information. And be thankful they called you and not someone else.

Photo By: Alexander O’Neill

Of course, as a dad, I was feeling like a big spender ($7.99) and enjoyed basking in the adoration of my off-spring. Therefore, I wasn’t really paying attention to the lady at the cash register. We exchanged a brief hello, but I quickly went back to talking to my boy.

As he was showing me how cool this Lego set was, the check-out lady interrupted and asked me for my phone number. I looked up at her quizzically. Her long, red fingernails hovered expectantly over the number pad, waiting to key in my digits. I really didn’t like that question, so I told her that I didn’t have a phone. That wasn’t exactly the truth, but why should I volunteer my personal information at Toys R Us?  What business of theirs is my phone number?  In this day and age of identity theft and robocalls, that’s really crossing the line.

She looked at me with unmistakeable indignation and quickly pressed a button that must have been labeled “difficult customer”. She then asked me for my zip code. I understood what she was doing, but I just didn’t want to play along. So, again, I refused to answer, and she once more pressed the difficult customer button.  Twice for emphisis. 

I thought that would be the end of the pop quiz. But it wasn’t.  Ignoring my previous two answers, she then asked if I would like to join the Toys R Us Rewards program. However, I knew that if I did, she’d need my phone number and zip code, so I passed.  She wasn’t going to outfox me!

After I declined, she then had the nerve to ask me if I would like to apply for a Toys R Us credit card. Was she kidding me!? Here we are, in an absolute credit crisis meltdown in this country, and she’s asking me if I want to pay 22% interest per month on TOYS?

I suddenly felt some pity for her. She was just doing her job. She was probably in no better position to get a Toys R Us credit card than I was. But her job depended on her faithfully asking me these questions, so I decided to cut her some slack and take a more humanistic view of her. Besides, there was nothing else, I thought, that should could ask me.

I looked back down at my son and tussled his hair.  He smiled up at me, it was truely a priceless Master Card moment.

And then: “So, do you need any extra batteries today?”

Arrrrrrrrrrgh!   I gave up. All I could do was just smile. “No thank you. I’m all set.”

She finished running my DEBIT card and put the Lego set in a bag that was way too big. I finally said to her, “Wow, they certainly have you asking customers a lot of questions.”

She sighed and said to me, “I just want to make sure you have all the information you need.”

That last statement of hers really hit me.

“I just want to make sure you have all the information you need.”

Since my mind is abnormally and freakishly tuned into to non-profit fundraising, I immediately wondered how such a process of “up-selling” (as the check-out lady was doing) would work in schools.

As many of my readers know, I was once an elementary school principal. Here’s how I imagine an “up-selling” conversation would go in the school office.

“Ok, thank you Mrs. Van der Parent, very much for your tuition payment. May I ask if you’d had a chance yet to sign up for the bake sale next weekend?  I’ve heard you bake a mean chocolate chip cookie! We could sure use your help.”

“Um, I don’t know. I think we’re going to be out of town, but I could try. Write me down for three dozen.”

“Great. Thank you so much. Hey, speaking of signing up, were you aware that we are still in need of volunteers for our golf outing in May?

“Yes, I did see that in the newsletter. Unfortunately, I’m not going to be able to help on that one. It comes at a really bad time for us.”

“Ok, no problem. I totally understand. While you are here though, can I ask if you’ve been receiving our emails? I just want to make sure we’ve got the right address for you and your husband.”

“Oh yes, we’ve been getting them each week. We appreciate that type of communication. It really keeps us up to date.”

“That’s great. We’ve been getting a lot of very positive feedback on our email newsletter this year. Hey, last question, and I’ll let you get out of here. What was your opinion of our last cookie dough sale? Did we present it well, was the product high-quality enough, were the prices reasonable?”

“Oh, I thought it was fine. We love the cookie dough, especially the triple fudge. The prices seem fine… we sold a couple hundred dollars worth, I think. Overall, I’m happy with it.”

“Great. Thank you so much for your time. If there’s ever anything I can do for you or your family, please let me know.”

There, that wasn’t so hard, was it? During the course of a school day, I had so many opportunities to interact with parents. My office staff had even more. Whether it was in person or on a phone call, we had dozens of personal conversations with moms and dads each day.

If you are able to train yourself and your staff to take the lead from the retail sector and always remember to “up-sell” the parents of your students, you could potentially raise volunteerism, increase donations, solve problems, and provide a much higher level of customer service.

I recommend that you take a few minutes to come up with a script for you and your office staff. Figure out what kind of feedback you would like, what fundraisers need promoting, and which volunteer opportunities are most pressing. Walk your staff through what an “up-selling” conversation would sound like, both in person and on the phone.  Of course, this script will change from week to week, so you’ll have to always keep up with it.  Your staff should make this up-selling a habit.

You may encounter a little resistance at first to this blatant form of marketing, but remind everyone that fundraising is just another form of sales. It is our job to convince parents to donate their money to us. We have to make our case any way we can at every opportunity we can.

Oh, and don’t forget to ask them if they need any extra batteries.

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Sometime during the course of your school fundraising experience, it is likely that you will send out a solicitation letter to parents. Maybe you already have. From my own experience, I don’t think this kind of a letter is anybody’s first choice of a fundraising strategy.

You probably arrived or will arrive at this point when you realize that you just can’t, in good conscience, ask parents to partake in another product sale or purchase tickets to another fundraising event, but your budget is still short and so you have no choice.

Why not just put it all out there in a well-written letter and ask parents to pony up to cover the shortfall? I mean, the logic is sound- all parents have to do is write a check- no twisting arms of co-workers or relatives, no volunteering on a Saturday morning for bake sale duty, no decorating the church gym for an auction. Just a few strokes of the pen and the problem is solved. Right?

The real challenge in this strategy is crafting the right kind of letter. This is a very tall order, and if not handled properly, you won’t be receiving very many checks.

Just recently, I came across a blog post that offered a sample of such a letter. The folks who run this blog have offered the letter up for any school to copy and customize as needed. I think that there are some very good parts in this letter; however, I do believe that it significantly misses the mark in convincing parents to take the action step of sending a check.

Because they offered this letter up to the public, I’m going to re-print it here and point out a few of the areas where I believe it goes astray. Please feel free to link to the original, as there is much helpful information at their website.

My comments will appear in the shaded boxes.

Dear Parent,
First of all, let me say: Thank you. Thank you for your tireless support of your child in OurSchool. Through fundraisers, exams, parent-teacher meetings, discipline notices, school sports, after-school activities, and everything else that happens in the course of a school year, you have shown your commitment to giving your child the best possible education. As we partner with you here at OurSchool for the education of your child, I want you to know, it does not go unnoticed. It certainly does not go unappreciated.

It is partly because of the busy lives we all lead that I am writing. As you know, OurSchool customarily has a fundraiser in the first part of the school year to pay for things that are not fully covered by the school budget: art and music classes, field trips, science fairs, and so on. This year the school board met and discussed a variety of options for our annual fundraiser, but no consensus on what we should do was reached.

First of all, I wouldn’t write that the leadership board of the school met and couldn’t decide on a course of action. This makes the board look ineffectual and indecisive. As a parent, I would lose confidence in the school board if they couldn’t come up with a plan for securing the funds needed to operate the school for that year. And, if I lost confidence in such a manner, I wouldn’t feel motivated to give my money.

Instead, if you really wanted to mention the board, I would write something to the effect that the board was concerned for the time burden placed on parents and to help reduce this burden, the school has decided to offer parents an opt-out option. This puts the board in a compassionate and visionary light.

Finally, one person proposed that we simply write to the parents in the school, let them know the amount of the budget shortfall, and ask if they can each contribute a little bit towards that amount, so that we can continue to offer the wonderful programs and extracurricular activities that OurSchool the highly respected school that it is.

To be fair, I do think that being honest with parents about the school budget is a great idea. However, once you open this door, you should be ready to discuss your projected income and expenses in an open forum, like a public board meeting. This kind of a process can be very healthy for an organization, but it can also become awkward if not handled properly.

And that brings me to you.

I wish I could tell you that we are raising money for something terribly exciting, like a class trip to Europe; but the reality is that we are raising money just to continue the programs we have been able to offer in the past.

Again, I think that the honesty in this section is commendable, but I wouldn’t set up necessary school programs as a “boring” alternative to a trip to Europe. If something is worth asking parents to donate money to it, you darn well better be able to sell it with genuine enthusiasm. After reading this line, I’m wondering how passionate the folks running this school really are about the place.

And partly out of consideration for you, one of our esteemed parents, and your valuable time, we have decided to ask if each parent could contribute $60 over the course of the next 3 months to help make up for where the state budget has fallen short.

I do like that they named a figure; however, I might suggest writing “three monthly payments of $20 each” instead of a flat $60. Maybe that would be easier to digest for some folks.

Like I said, we’ve considered many options. Candy sales, magazine subscriptions, walk-a-thons, and many other ideas were put forth. But in the end, we felt that the parents at OurSchool have all given so much of their time already, the easiest and most convenient way to raise the needed money would be to just lay it at the parents’ feet and ask if we can all work together to share this burden.

“Many hands make light work,” so the saying goes. If each of the parents in the school can give an extra $60, we will have enough for all programs and extracurricular activities to carry on through the year. If not, well…hopefully we won’t have to consider that option.

Maybe it’s just a personal preference on this point, but I would not include an open, hanging threat. Instead, I would have laid out a detailed list of the programs that were on the chopping block, in order. That kind of detailed glimpse of reality would, I think, encourage people to act more than some nebulous fear that has not been named.

I want to end this letter by thanking you again. Thank you for taking the time to read it, and whether you are able to give or not, know we deeply appreciate your dedication to your child and our school.

Sincerely,
Your Principal
Principal at OurSchool

P.S. Don’t forget, whatever you give towards the school is fully tax-deductible! Thanks again!

Overall, I would approach a fundraising solicitation letter with much more specificity. I think it is wise to put a face on budgetary needs, so that people can identify with them. For instance, I know that I, as a parent, would be much more likely to give even if I was told the money would be going to pay for something as mundane as “carpet cleaning” if that weren’t covered in the school budget. I know that I wouldn’t want my kids crawling around on carpets that haven’t been cleaned in three years (gross!). Now I have a specific reason to give.

I do think that this letter does a great job of being thankful to the parents, and that is definitely a must when trying to solicit donations.

Writing effective fundraising letters is a very difficult task.  So much psychology and so much social awareness is necessary in order to strike the right tone, not offend anybody, and send a signal of consistency and strength.

If you are finding your organization in a position where you may be sending such a letter in the near future, I would recommend asking many people from a diverse background to review it for you.  The more input you receive on a letter like this, the greater the chance of success you will have.

For further reading on this topic, I highly recommend a book entitled the 7 Essential Steps to Raising Money by Mail by Sandra Sims and Sandy Rees. It features 29 sample letters, including one for schools.

In part one and part two of this series, I have been examining Chris Matthews’ book “Life’s a Campaign”. Specifically, I’ve been looking at the chapter called “Ask!” in which Chris gives examples of how politicians raise millions of dollars for their campaigns. I have been suggesting that many of these strategies are applicable to the life of a school fundraiser, just like you!

With this post, I’d like to share with you the practical advice Matthews shares about how to approach any kind of fundraising campaign. While this advice centers on collecting votes for an election, it is very easy to see how it parallels with fundraising.

“Imagine that you’re running in an election for president of your class or social group. To win, designate a number for each person in the group. Give a 1 to all your friends, a 2 to all the people you regularly say hi to, but don’t consider that close, a 3 to people you feel are probably truly undecided about you, and a 4 to those you figure are strongly against you or loyal to another candidate.

“Here’s your campaign: approach those you’ve give them number 1 to and say that you know you’re friends, but you’re asking them to vote for you. This should nail down your base. Then approach each of those you’ve tagged with a number 2, and make your basic campaign pitch. Tell them what your plans are if elected and how you believe you can really do the job. Ask them for their vote. The important thing with this group is to treat them as people you have to convince. They will appreciate your direct, positive, respectful approach. Finally, go tot the people you’ve marked with a 3 and give them an aggressive, extensive case for your election. They are the persuadables—so persuade them! Do not approach the people you have categorized with number 4. It will only get them aroused. If you bump into them, just be friendly, non-confrontational, and dull. Any active campaigning will simply provoke them. You want them to go to sleep.

“The most vital category of voters for you are the 1s. When my boss Tip O’Neill ran for the Cambridge City Council back in the 1930s, the woman living across the street complained later that O’Neill, still at Boston College, hadn’t bothered to ask for her vote. “People like to be asked,” she said. Tip O’Neill lost that race, but never another.”

I know that this sounds pretty obvious, pretty basic. But, I have been involved in enough capital campaigns and fundraising efforts to know that this advice is often forgotten in the hours and hours spent planning, organizing, and strategizing.

At the end of the day, it’s all about human contact. Get out and make your case. Be brave. Ask!

Link to Part One in this Chris Matthews’ Series

Link to Part Two in this Chris Matthews’ Series