Learn – Network – Grow

How to Ask for a Gift: Successful Face-to-Face Solicitation

Friday, August 10, 2007
12:00-1:30 p.m.
Location: The Foundation Center in San Francisco

Let's face it many fundraisers, Board Members and Volunteers love to do everything in fundraising except ask for money. Usually it is because they have never learned "How to Ask" The fear of asking for a gift from a complete stranger (or worse from a close friend) are legitimate. After all, it puts everyone in an uncomfortable position. The strategies in this workshop will help you overcome the fear and ask a potential donor for money. In this workshop you will learn how to prepare for the donor visit, anticipate and overcome donor objections. You will find that "Asking" is merely a matter of nudging them to gently do something they were already thinking about doing. Building confidence requires success, and success is built on experience with techniques that work. Invite your Board Chair, Campaign Chair, and Volunteers for this training session

Panelist:

Phillip Brydsong, Development Consultant

With over 10 years of fundraising Philip is a member of the Association for Fundraising Professionals, Northern California Planned Giving Council, National Center for Black Philanthropy, and Development Executive Roundtable as well as Disabled American Veterans. He had given presentations at Council for Advancement and Support of Education, Compass Point Funder's Fair, Multicultural Alliance of AFPGGC, Bay Area Black United Fund, National Association of College Admissions Counselors, NAACP, and Lafayette-Orinda Presbyterian Singles. He has raised funds for United Way, California Peace Action, Central American Resource Center, A Better Chance, NAACP, East Bay Conversion and Reinvestment Committee, International Association of Machinist & Aerospace Workers, and local charities. He is a graduate of the Director of Development program at University of San Francisco, graduate of the The Grantmanship Center Training Program, B.S. in Aviation Business Administration form Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, B.S. Marketing from University of Phoenix, MBA from Alameda University. In the Spring of 2001 he was one of 60 African American fundraisers asked to participate in "Privilege to Ask" a national research and leadership development project co-funded by Lily Endowment and The Ford foundation. "Privilege to Ask" provided a qualitative national report on how African Americans view and practice fundraising in the United States