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You Can't Afford Me
Making the leap from employment to entrepreneurship can be a scary time. The biggest fear people have is the unknown. Here on the “You Can’t Afford Me Podast” we speak with hustlers and innovators on how to make the most of your journey. If you have questions we have answers.
You Can't Afford Me
The Nonprofit Funding Blueprint For Bigger Gifts
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If your nonprofit is hustling for small donations but still feels broke, the math might be the problem, not your mission. We sit down with Trevor Bragdon, founder of Seven Figure Fundraising, and get real about where nonprofit funding actually comes from and why major donor fundraising is the lever most organizations avoid until it’s too late. One stat changes the whole conversation: a tiny percentage of donors giving $5,000+ can drive the majority of total giving, which means your strategy has to match reality.
We talk donor psychology in plain language: why people give (hint, it’s rarely just the tax deduction), how trust in the executive director shapes giving decisions, and why corporate giving is a smaller slice than most people assume. Trevor breaks down how to build visibility in your community without making it “the executive director show,” plus how recurring donations can create stable cash flow and turn small givers into long-term supporters. If you’ve ever served on a nonprofit board or tried to fundraise for a cause you love, this one hits home.
Then we get tactical: how to craft a six to eight minute fundraising pitch, where emotion belongs (and where it backfires), how to ask major donors only once a year on purpose, and how to time that ask around when high net worth donors actually make philanthropic decisions. Trevor also shares a smart “range ask” close for prospects, and how to follow up without chasing people through endless email threads.
If you want better nonprofit fundraising results, stronger donor relationships, and a repeatable major gifts system, listen all the way through. Subscribe, share this with a nonprofit leader, and leave a review, then tell us: what part of asking for money feels hardest for you right now?
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Real Unfiltered Show Welcome
SPEAKER_02Listen to the You Can't Afford Me podcast. Real unfiltered. Real fluffy. And the unfiltered journey is thanks for joining us on another episode of the You Can't Afford Me Podcast. Now, nonprofit leaders, this episode is for you. All right, if you're starting a nonprofit, if you're involved in a nonprofit, one of the biggest struggles for nonprofit is getting that funding, getting the grants, getting the donations. That's the lifeblood of any nonprofit. We have someone here from an organization today that has the blueprint on how you guys can get access to those funds, access to that capital. So today we have Trevor on the show. Trevor, how are you doing today, buddy?
SPEAKER_00Hey, good. Thanks for having me on.
SPEAKER_02Absolutely, absolutely. So give us a quick rundown of who you are and what you do.
SPEAKER_00Okay, sure. My name is Trevor Bragdon, and I'm the founder of Seven Figure Fundraising. And what we do is we work with nonprofit leaders to really figure out major donor fundraising. We help them come up with pitches, like what to say in a donor meeting, but more importantly, to feel comfortable making those ask, whether you're asking for a five-figure, six-figure, or even a seven-figure gift. That's sort of our specialty as those major donors.
From Politics To Behavioral Science
SPEAKER_02Sweet. So let's let's go back and get the story on you. Like where did your journey begin? Where'd you go to college? How'd you end up in this field?
SPEAKER_00Sure. So I grew up in Maine, a little town called Bangor, Maine, which is way, way up north.
SPEAKER_02So you gotta be a Patriots fan. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Hopefully that's not a problem. I didn't realize how few Patriots fans they were outside of New England until I moved to Virginia.
SPEAKER_02We we're just pissed. Every NFL team is just pissed off because if any of us had Tom Brady, we'd be on Cloud Nile and wouldn't be Hayden. But now you guys will come back way too quick into the Super Bowl conversation.
SPEAKER_00Well, we came to the Super Bowl. We really play in the Super Bowl, it seemed like, but you know, next year. Yeah, we'll be back. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Um so I grew up in Maine, uh, went to the University of Maine, which is a local, it's kind of like the VCU of that area, um, and started working in politics, spent a decade working in politics, and then while I was doing that, got really interested in the behavioral science and psychology of like what motivated people to go vote, yeah. What motivated people to um decide, you know, which party to vote for, which person to vote for. And so I went and got a master's in behavioral science over in London at the London School of Economics. Um that was fun.
SPEAKER_02That was that virtually or you moved over to London?
SPEAKER_00Uh so they have an executive program and you go over there for classes for a couple weeks at a time, then you fly back and you do work in between.
SPEAKER_02Nice!
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it's actually a really fun program. Yeah. Little known fact, it's cheaper than getting masters in the US because of how they structure it. So if you're interested in it, you should look at their program. All right, I might be going back to school. Yeah, and they they do it in 14 months, so it's actually really cool. Oh wow.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, that's awesome.
SPEAKER_00We uh we were having when we signed up and I got accepted, we were found out the next week that we were having our third kid. So I'd recommend not having a baby in between yet. But uh that made it complicated.
SPEAKER_02Hey, we got a new one-month old, I'll see you in a month. Yeah, exactly.
SPEAKER_00Exactly. She just turned 10, so it all worked out, it's all fine now. But uh yeah, that was a little bit of a low sleep time.
SPEAKER_02Um, I'm sure.
SPEAKER_00But while we were there, I started talking. Um, my brother had founded a nonprofit in Florida, and they were having some success fundraising. We started talking about how do we help nonprofits raise more money. And I had a bunch of nonprofit clients in my consulting company, and they were always struggling to, you know, either increase their fundraising or feel comfortable with it. And so we started looking at like maybe we can build a class or something like that, and we started it as a side project with eight nonprofit leaders in the room, and they really found what we put together helpful. We built it from there, and it went from a side project to a full-time uh job, and we'll be doing it almost a decade now.
SPEAKER_02Oh wow. Yeah, that's awesome. And you mentioned you you're married, three kids. Yep, three kids.
SPEAKER_00Boys, girls, what are they just the oldest is a boy, he's just turned or 13, and then we have two girls, uh, 11 and 10-year-old.
SPEAKER_02That's the era I'm ready for. Me and my wife have a soon-to-be six-year-old daughter and a soon-to-be five-year-old son. Oh, fun. And I'm just like, this age, it's like getting them to stop arguing every two minutes and all this stuff. I'm like, I'm ready to start teaching my kids. So that's an age.
SPEAKER_00They're all fun ages, though. Like five and six. Like my iPhone has their pictures, you know, the older pictures come up on this home screen. Oh, yeah. Look back on when they were that little. Yeah. I'm like, that's a fun time. Like, I think they're all fun times. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Parenting Moments Before The Money Talk
SPEAKER_02You're in a fun time. My my son said something to me. Me and my wife were just sitting on the couch with him yesterday. My daughter was upstairs doing something, and uh, I was joking with him and I was like, hey man, what you playing on the iPad? He looked at me dead over. It's four years old. Looking at me, he's like, mind your business, daddy. All I can do is laugh. I'm like, yeah, all I can do is laugh. I'm like, I don't know where you got that from, but it's funny this time. We ain't gonna keep that up.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, exactly. Like, how do you get a password once? That's it.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, so let's dive into more with the nonprofit side. Like prior to the cameras cutting on, like I told you, I've served on several nonprofit boards. Um, and I mean, just like with any small business, like if you don't have cash flow, you don't have a business, you have a hobby. Um, so you gotta keep that cash flow coming. What are some of the top give us like your top three things that you think nonprofits should be doing to make sure that they're getting those regular donations?
SPEAKER_00Sure. So I think the first thing is realizing who the donors are. So right now, like as you or I, when we go out and we're in the community, we get hit up for donations all the time. Like you're at CDS and you get asked to round up a dollar for something, you get something in the mail, you get an email.
SPEAKER_02Can't even go to McDonald's without having a donation. Exactly.
SPEAKER_00And it's like, you know, 50 cents here, 60 cents here, maybe give 25 bucks to you know the local animal shelter or something like that. So we tend to think most of fundraising comes from small donors. And it's true there's a lot of donors, but where the money actually is is in people who give more than$5,000 in their donations. So if you look at the like studies of all the nonprofits, it's about 2.5%, 2.6% of all the donors give more than$5,000. So it's a tiny percentage, two and a half percent about but how much do you think that represents of the total money donated? What would you guys?
SPEAKER_02Hmm. You mean all right, so total money averaging 2.6% of the donors given over 5k. That's gotta be a small, small amount. I I would think the majority of those donations are coming through like regular giving, like automated donations, so maybe 10% of that.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and that seems like that feels like what it would be, right? Yeah, if you're a small group of people, but actually it's 76%. It's almost three out of four dollars comes from people giving more than five thousand dollars.
SPEAKER_01Wow.
SPEAKER_00So that's why you need to focus on these major donors. It's not that we're not appreciative of people rounding up and doing that, but where the money comes from is people giving those larger checks.
SPEAKER_02So you're saying most of these small nonprofits are only taking in about 15, 20 grand a year?
SPEAKER_00No, but so it's but most of their revenue does come from usually a handful of donors in a big way. So sometimes people think like this is a bad thing, like you're too overconcentrated, but in a lot of ways it's a good thing. Like you have successful people who are bought into the vision of your company, probably like the executive director, yeah, and then are giving in a big way because they want to have impact. And the reason for this um and why you see, you know, those sort of big numbers, you know, it's almost three out of four dollars that are raised comes from major donors, is because of like the life cycle of a donor. Most people don't give in a big way until their kids are grown out of college. Like you're in it, you're building a business, you have little kids, like you're worried about all the cost of everything.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I can't write$20,000 checks to nonprofits.
SPEAKER_00You're trying to like keep your business going, you're talking about cash flow. Like all so most major donors are entrepreneurs. Sorry, not to hit the mic. Um but most major donors are were entrepreneurs at some point in their life. They built their wealth creating a company. And that's like the 70 to 80 percent of all major donors in America, like especially as you get to the higher numbers. Yeah, and so that life cycle of a business owner is they don't earn a lot of money in their 30s. You know, typically they're putting it all together, figuring it out, and then in your 40s, maybe you start to hit it starts to hit a little bit, but any extra money you have, you're pouring back into your business. Yeah. And then in your 50s, like your kids hopefully, you know, get out of the house, graduate, go to college, you're done paying those bills. And then you start looking towards legacies, you know, in your 50s to 60s, and you have two, three decades where you can give in a big way because your business is doing well, creating a lot of cash, and there's causes that you want to be involved in. Yeah. That you're probably involved in, like you were talking about being on a board, you gave time, now you can give time and money as you get older. So that's sort of the general life cycle you see. Um, and that's why, like sometimes with nonprofit leaders, they'll see people who are own businesses and they're younger, you know, and are I'm 41, but you know, younger in your 1940s. Yeah, 1984 is good. Yeah. Um and you see those young uh or these younger middle-aged, I guess, I guess we're technically middle-aged now. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Uh, but we look better than our parents did though at this age. Oh, that's true.
SPEAKER_00Um, but you see these people and they'll ask for money, but you don't have money because you're pouring it back into your business, you're trying to grow, you have kids, and all these things.
SPEAKER_02But it is a good long-term strategy, like develop these relationships when they're in their 20s and 30s.
SPEAKER_00Right. Figure out who the people are who are going to be that next generation of philanthropists. Um, but usually, most people who write big checks, they're over 55.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And that's just it's almost always been that way. You know, there's a joke, the average age of a donor is always 73. Because, you know, of a donor portfolio, you have some people older, some people younger, but that's usually of your major donors. They tend to be um in that season of life where they're looking to legacy, looking to have a big impact.
Recurring Giving That Actually Compounds
SPEAKER_02Yep. All right. So that's the first thing they need to be looking for. Yes. Let's talk about well, um to cut you off, sorry. Yeah. Um, one thing I pushed with a lot of the nonprofits I work with was just getting people on a consistent recurring donation level. And we did this specifically with uh Fatherhood Foundation of Virginia, where you go on the website and you can sign up to regularly donate$10,$15,$25,$30 a month. Something so small that like people even forget that they're being charged for it. Like, I think it's the stat is like 80% of people who have a gym membership don't actually go to the gym, but like they don't want to cancel their membership because it's a whole process. And then it's one day you'd be like, oh well, I maybe want to hit the tannin bed, so I'll keep paying us 30 bucks a month type thing.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and that really works well. If you're gonna have a small donor program, have them as recurring donors because you can turn somebody who's happy to give 30 bucks into somebody who's worth almost, you know,$400 a year,$360 a year. And the cool thing about that is you have this long-term commitment with them. They start getting the emails, the updates, and they start being part of it over time. And then hopefully their income will go up and they can be bigger givers as time goes on.
SPEAKER_02Plus, you look at if you sign up 300 people and they're all spending paying you 35 bucks a month. I mean, that stacks up over time.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, absolutely. And again, you can get those, and usually you can bump them up over time too. So now you get them for that first year for a couple hundred dollars, and then you can move them up over time. Yeah. So that's a a really good strategy. Like, I think you want to have both strategies, having a good uh recurring program that kind of find the right hook for it, and then also having that major donors in both of those working together. So you have a broad base, yeah, future like major donors, hopefully, and then your core group that are driving a lot of the funding.
SPEAKER_02I mean, the nonprofit side, like as you're breaking this down, I'm like, this sounds a lot like my model for a for-profit business. Like I have some clients that are on the lower scale, and I'm thinking through the ages of like our top tier clients. I'm like, yeah, they're a little bit older and they got more money.
SPEAKER_00Businesses usually they've kind of figured it out, they're profitable. Yeah. Right? They've been in like most consultancies, sort of marketing firms, you have maybe 10 major clients that drive 80% of your revenue, and then you have a handful of other ones that are either could grow, or they're you have them for other strategic reasons, or they're just like fun to work with.
Corporate Giving Myths And Tax Talk
SPEAKER_02Yep, absolutely. Um, and you talked about the psychology of like when you're in the political space of like, why would somebody vote for this party over this one? Um, talk to us about the psychology of donorship because there's one element that we haven't talked about where I I don't want this to come across the wrong way, but uh there's several reasons to give to any type of organization. Um, one major thing for business owners is the tax break that we get for that. Um so kind of talk about the strategy that nonprofits can use and and being able to get some of these bigger individuals or bigger businesses, like, hey, you need to get some money off the books by the end of this year, like, hey, here's what we can do for you.
SPEAKER_00So I think kind of I'm gonna answer this two different ways. Uh the first thing is while we think businesses are probably the ideal thing to go for to ask for gifts, because you know, they have big companies, they're in a nice office space, like all these things. They're on a podcast, uh, you know, these different things. Businesses, corporate giving only makes up seven percent of all the donations.
SPEAKER_02Wow, that's surprising.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so last year or 2024 is the last year we have data for, there's about six hundred billion dollars given in the US, which is tons of money. Yeah. But only seven percent of that comes from corporations. So we think it's more because you hear about it, like the NFL, you know, they have crucial catch, they have these different programs, which are all good things, but it's kind of advertising a little bit. Um, for sure. And so it's good PR for them. Right. And you what you find with corporate giving, and this isn't to denigrate any of it, but like sometimes it's more transactional, like it's they're focused on cancer this year, and so they give to cancer, but next year they shift focus to like ALS or something like that. And again, it's their money, they can choose how to spend it however they want. Um so corporate giving is its like own thing, and usually if you're a nonprofit and you have corporate donors, what we suggest is you have two people that you have a relationship with the company, because usually how they fall off as donors is the person you've worked with for years and they move on to it or get promoted and they m leave the role, and then you're re-establishing a relationship. So if you have two people, you can sort of keep that relationship. Um but to your other point on like what's the psychology with a tax deduction, is we find the tax deduction is like nice and that does move some people to give more. Yeah. But if you think about it from the donor's perspective, they would be better off not giving their money at all. Like if they're giving a thousand dollars and they pay taxes on it and say they're in the highest tax bracket, and you know, they keep still keep six thousand six hundred and fifty dollars if they didn't give it away. Yeah. So the deduction's nice, but they would still be better off paying taxes if they wanted to keep it for themselves. So usually people give like the deduction's nice, but they give for other motives, like they want to have an impact in their community. A lot of times, um, it's because they like the executive director, like they trust that person, they have a personal relationship. They might not even know all the things a nonprofit does, but they just like that person. I like Sam, so I'm just gonna trust whatever he's working on. You just tells me to give, and I give to that group.
SPEAKER_02So let's pause on that for a second because I've all I've said this in so many trainings. People do business with people they like.
SPEAKER_03Yes.
Executive Director Branding Without Ego
SPEAKER_02It doesn't matter the organization. Like, if you walk out of here and this wasn't a media firm and we were selling cut code knives, you're probably walking out of here with a new set if you if you if you dig me. Um so talk about that side of things where should executive directors, should nonprofits be focused on building the brand of the executive director and make sure that their face is getting out there more. If you're saying that's where a lot of donations are gonna come from, should nonprofits be focused on branding that executive director?
SPEAKER_00Yes, but I think you want to be thoughtful on how you position it.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00So you don't want it to be just about like if you were running a nonprofit, it couldn't be just like you're branding the Sam show, right? Like you'd want to think about how do we highlight stories of the people we're helping, almost like what you're doing with your podcast, where you're bringing on not uh local businesses and talking about the work they do, you're making them sort of the hero, and you by association though, are viewed as oh, this guy's good at marketing, he's great on uh doing a podcast, like those sort of things. So I think that's important because at the end of the day, people give to other people. So your executive director having a brand, going to events, like even going to other nonprofit events in your community, like sometimes you can go in for free because you know the other executive director and they let you in. But also, like if you have some cash, like you're cash flow positive as a nonprofit, it might be worthwhile to pay to be in the VIP room at some other nonprofits in your community where you know you have overlapping donors.
SPEAKER_01Yep.
SPEAKER_00And it's not that you would go to that event and have a co-donation, right? But you sort of get known, particularly with local donors, like in a local community. You go to the same events, you know, it's the same 400, 500 people that give in a community, because again, two and a half percent drive, 75%, um you kind of get known, and people will start thinking of you as someone they know. Um, this nonprofit leader I know was doing this strategy, and this donor who is a multimillionaire, like very, very wealthy, came up to them and said, I think we've met a few times already. They'd never met. Because if you're the nonprofit leader and you want to ask this person for money, you've thought about it a long time. And you don't forget that meaning. But because he had been at all these events, that person had thought they knew them. So some of that is like your brand, both like on social media, on your website, like on your emails, you want to build it that way. Plus, it's just showing up to events and being in the community and being awarded.
Nonprofit Pay Reality And Fundraising Careers
SPEAKER_02For sure, yeah. That networking is key no matter what industry you're in. Um, I think I think nonprofits have gotten a I think they've been misrepresented in terms of so my wife's best friend, she's one of her best friends, she's looking at a career change. And at every turn I've seen this woman just she loves give back, she loves helping with people. I was like, girl, you need to stop messing around and just go work for a nonprofit. And the response I hear from people all the time, well, I'm not gonna make any money if I work for a nonprofit. Um, since you have the numbers and you see those things, um, and tell me if I'm off base, but some of the nonprofits I work with, it seems like we take pretty good care of our executive director, um, obviously at the top of the organization. But I think there's money to be made throughout. So kind of talk on that in terms of the structure because a lot of people don't realize like the YMCA is a nonprofit.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Pulls in millions and millions every single year. Um, so I think people need to get this idea that out of their head that like every nonprofit is struggling and can barely pay anybody. Like, what's your viewpoint on that?
SPEAKER_00So the people who are the most highest paid at a nonprofit tend to be people who do fundraising. So it's your executive director, if they're good at fundraising, they tend to earn more. If you're a development director, you're good at fundraising, you're good at making the ass, you tend to earn more. So you do see people who shift over from like sales and marketing and that world, come over into nonprofits and do okay. Well, usually it's a little less, like you're 15 to 20 percent less than what you would earn, maybe more, depending.
SPEAKER_02Um But I think a lot of people think they're just gonna be making 35 grand a year working for a nonprofit.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I mean, sure, you could take a job like that, but you could also be selective because there's a lot of great nonprofits out there looking for really talented uh team members to bring on. And if you have success in the business world and you can come and sometimes it's like having a new lens on you know the work they're doing, you know how to build systems or your scale things, that team might not have that and you're not um have a big impact. But I think like if you want to go to a nonprofit and like earn a comparable salary, do fundraising.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Because it's just you get paid more if you bring in the money. It's just like the top sales guys at women at any non uh any for-profit business tend to be the most paid, and then the owner at almost any small business or mid-sized business has to be a good salesperson. Yeah. Um, or really good at the technical side and maintaining customers, but usually there's somebody there that's good at sales.
Why Nonprofits Collapse And How To Prevent It
SPEAKER_02That's that's facts. I've I've told people all the time, like, because I'll coach a lot of college students and stuff like that. I'm like, you don't know what you want to do yet, find a job in sales and start honing that skill because every area of your life you're selling like when we got married, we had to sell ourselves to our wives at the time. Like, if you're going to apply for a job, you got to sell yourself in that scenario. Like you're constantly always selling yourself. Um, let's talk about that because we hit on with the cash flow and the fundraising piece. Um, what is the biggest reason you see a lot of these nonprofits end up shutting down? Obviously with cash flow, but like what's preventing them from doing that? Because Richmond is like nonprofit central. Like and I've talked to so many people that are like, oh, I want to go start a nonprofit and do this. And I'm like, why would you do that? There are five other organizations doing the same thing. Just go partner up with them and do something. You need to start this thing over from the ground up. Um, but what are some things that you see with these nonprofits that have ended up collapsing? What would be the tips that you would give them in terms of keeping the doors open?
SPEAKER_00So it's a lot of the same parallels you see with small businesses, where you get people who are good at the technical side of the business. Like you have a graphic designer in your world who's great at that design side.
SPEAKER_02Doesn't mean they can run a business.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, they kind of go open up their thing, they're really passionate about it, but then they have to figure out, you know, invoicing, employees, benefits, like all these things as a small business owner. Some people can make that jump and some people don't, you know, and or they figure out how to do it with hiring a team that can do that. And so usually what you see with nonprofits is somebody as a founder gets really excited about their mission of you know changing something, like this one I'm on the board of does work in Ethiopia. And she was over there in um her late teens, got really interested in the Marik region, the northern Ethiopia, and wanted to find found a center there. And then they started, but then no one's ever taught them fundraising. Like there's they're figuring out their hands-on um day-to-day work and they're really good at it. Yeah. But they either don't figure out fundraising or they are not as good at selling the big vision. So the cool thing about nonprofits is you can almost change the trajectory of your nonprofit by re sort of almost repositioning yourself as a nonprofit. So one of the exercises we always do with nonprofit leaders is we ask them to, like, what's your big vision for the next three years? Yeah. Like, where do you want to be as an organization? Like, write it down less than 75 words, like a couple sentences. And then we ask them to look at it. And we say, okay, read that. Think of one of your top donors. And is that compelling enough to get that top donor to double their giving? And most of the time, they answer like, ugh, you know, this hurts or whatever. We don't like try to shame people or anything.
SPEAKER_02But it's got to have the hard conversations.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. And so what happens is a lot of times there's a little misalignment with the work, not necessarily the work that's going on, but how we're talking about the work to our donors.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
Reframing Your Mission For Donors
SPEAKER_00And how we're thinking as an organization. So if you start thinking about it as a leader of an organization, you're like, okay, well, maybe we need to get a little clearer on our vision, but we also need to think about what's the framing that's going to appeal to our donors. Like, what's the problem we're solving? Present that from the donor's perspective.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Um, there's a nonprofit I work with that's does entrepreneurial training in the Midwest schools. And so they teach high school seniors how to start a business. So it's a pretty cool nonprofit. I might want to get involved in that one. Yeah, yeah. Well, maybe we should partner in part of Richmond Chapel. Let's do it. They keep talking, I should start one here. Um, and they're a cool nonprofit, and so they do all this stuff, but how they talk about it with their major donors who were all employers in that, you know, area of their state, they're based in Illinois, uh, in that area of Illinois, is they talk about it as they help fix the brain drain in rural America because that's what those donors see. You know, they have their grandkids go to the high school, are in the area, go away to college or trade school, never come back. So they talk about the problem from that perspective. Although when they talk about the problem, like in an interview like this, they talk about how they believe every entrepreneur, every high school senior can be an entrepreneur, and they have them like do three different business challenges, and they talk about it that way. Yeah. But what they're what their donors are buying is stopping the brain drain, investing in the community. Yeah. So sometimes just a little reframing on how you're talking about the problem to your donor to get them excited to give more.
Free Tools And Paid Training Options
SPEAKER_02Love it. Talk talk to us. Let's go a little bit more in depth about you guys' services. So say I'm a nonprofit.
SPEAKER_00Yep.
SPEAKER_02We're struggling with donations. What do you guys have available as a team to help us out?
SPEAKER_00Sure. So we have a couple of things. Uh, free version first. You know, the easiest is we have a podcast called Seven Figure Fundraising. Uh, you can get that, download that for free. It's on um all the major platforms. I think there's like 40-something episodes where we go through different things, different aspects of fundraising. Um, and then the other thing is we have a book also called Seven Figure Fundraising right here. Yeah, you have a copy right there. Um Boom.
SPEAKER_02On Amazon?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it's on Amazon. Go get it today. So it's on Audible. Um, and it's people on the Yeah, I'll tell you.
SPEAKER_02It is not easy. Like people have you just sitting there reading. It's like recording an album, man.
SPEAKER_00Oh man, it I'm a little dyslexic or pretty dyslexic. So reading, I read it, and I think we had 12 hours of content to down to the three and a half hour book that it is. Yep. Uh so it's good to have that done, but it was painful to do. But uh, they can go ahead and get that book. Um, I think it's$14 on Amazon, but we walk through our whole fundraising system. Like, what do you do if you're uncomfortable asking for money? Like, how do you reset your mindset? How do you build a fundraising pitch? Um, how do you think about treating your donors throughout the year?
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00One of our principles is only ask for money once a year for major donors. Not for smaller dressers, yeah. Only ask once a year. Like, why is that? Why do you think about why do you do that? So that's in there.
SPEAKER_02Is that more centered around like if they have a big gay law event that year, it's like, hey, this is the one time we're gonna ask them?
SPEAKER_00No, it's actually because high net worth individuals tend to plan their giving well in advance. So they tend to have like a philanthropic strategy. Yeah. Because if you're giving away a couple million dollars in a year, you're gonna be thoughtful about it, just like you are like with your business development or your business growth. And so you want to figure out when they make their philanthropic decisions, and then you want to set up a meeting to make your ask for that year before they're making their philanthropic decisions. Yeah. So you can kind of reverse engineer that. So if like they send to send you a check in June, that probably means they make their philanthropic decisions in late May.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00So the ideal time to meet is to meet with them in early May. So you're talking with them, you're presenting your case, you're asking them, like asking for a specific amount of money.
SPEAKER_01Yep.
SPEAKER_00Um, and sometimes like get on the calendar for early May. These people are busy, they have structured, you know, a lot of things going on. You might want to reach out like two months in advance to book that and be on their calendar. So that's like what the most professional nonprofits do is they book their ask meetings well in advance and time it with what the donors like to give.
SPEAKER_02See, I didn't I never realize the nonprofit and for-profit world are so closely intertwined because like some of our major clients, like we're always trying to scale them up with the programs that we have for them. Um, and they're our major ones. I know when they have those financial discussions and they're setting the budgets for next year. So it's like, all right, let me get in front of y'all the month before you have this conversation, get all this out the way. So when you guys are meeting at the table, like, oh well, Enzo presented us with this. I think we should increase our spending on the marketing side.
SPEAKER_00Right. And so what's interesting, Sam, is the reason it's so similar is because the people are the same. Yeah. So most of the donors came from the business world because they built something. Like most of the money given away is first generation wealth in America. It's like different in other countries, but in America, it's like I think 70 something percent of all the money given away is first generation.
SPEAKER_01Wow.
Building A Pitch Donors Respect
SPEAKER_00And so it's created by that person or you know, their company. Um, and they've run it this way, and so then they kind of do it the same way when they think about it from a philanthrop philanthropy perspective. Yeah. Um that's also why like it's important to have a great pitch. So like if you could do one thing as a nonprofit besides thinking about what's your big vision and make it compelling, like what do you want to be in the next three years, and make it so compelling that a donor would double, or you think they would double, yeah, is figuring out what is like a six to eight minute pitch for asking for your donors to renew and increase. And so that's where we don't think like you and I, we don't get pitched that often. Like you kind of get pitched, you get like the dollar at the roundup, or you might have a sales pitch, you know, maybe five, maybe ten times max in a year. But if you're running a big business, you know, you have a hundred million dollar company, you get pitched all the time. Your suppliers pitch you, your executives pitch you, other nonprofits pitch you, especially once you become known as uh very philanthropic. You might give to 30 different nonprofits, they all ask you for money a year, that's 30 pitches you hear.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00So donors like that become actually like connoisseurs of pitches. They like hearing them, they like seeing uh, you know, one-on-ones or you know, one on two, meeting the person, kind of judging them in person, and they kind of get a good feel for that. Yeah, and so they love doing business that way. And for us, it feels uncomfortable because we don't typically do business that way.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Um, but if you think about it, if you can pitch at a level the same as you know the executives and the other the suppliers that they see, then they start thinking of you in this bigger category.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00So you could ask for five figures or six figures because you're more in that range.
Using Emotion Without Manipulation
SPEAKER_02Um so does it make sense during those pitches? This is my marketing brain working. Um having that two-minute brand information video where I always tell people when we're making content for nonprofits, my goal at the end of that video is whoever's watching it that a tear fell down their face. Yeah. Because if people get emotional, then they're cutting checks. Are those appropriate times for them to be having that incorporated into their pitch?
SPEAKER_00So I think you want to separate two things. The strong emotion is great for getting new donors because you're getting people from zero to giving. Yeah. And so your prospect pitch has to be more emotional. And like those videos are great because then they're interested, you've made them curious, which is like the biggest thing. There's so many people grabbing trying to grab their attention. You can have an emotional pull in that, like you tell a great story of someone there have helped, which I'm sure you guys do, and then they're like, Oh, I should set up a meeting with this executive director, or I should reach out, or maybe they'll give$500, like a smaller first gift and see how they're treated, which is sometimes what happens. For existing donors where they know about the organization already, yeah, you want to present it more like here's an update of what's happened. So you talk about like, here's the problem we solve, here's our solution, then you dive into here's how it works. Like, and you talk about, you know, there's three big things we do as an organization. You tell some details about the work, yeah, and then you tell a success story. So this is where you want the emotion, or if you have a great video in a pitch, you don't have to just be you talking. Yeah. Pull out your iPad, show the video and the pitch, which videos are great in pitches because it also the energy level goes back up because they're focused on that, and then you come back, and then you want to talk about the big vision, like here's what we're planning to do over the next three years, yeah, and then close by asking for a specific amount of money. And so you'd say something like, you know, but we can only do this with our donor partners. You know, I was looking at the research, Sam, and you've been a supporter for the last five years, and you know, you've given us over eighty thousand dollars. So I want to say thank you, and I'm gonna ask that you renew your support with a gift of twenty-five thousand dollars. Nice, and then you pause, stop talking. Power in the pause. Yes, and like just wait it out, like count off seconds in your head, like whatever your strategy, but you don't talk and just give them time to decide. Yeah, because if you think about it, like 25,000 is a lot of money. Yeah, it probably took them a long time to earn that money, uh or it took them a long time to earn it early in their career, maybe it's faster now. Yeah, but give them time to think about it and then let them respond. And usually they'll say something like some undecided, like, well, let me think about it, let me talk to my spouse, something like that. And in that kit situation, you say, Well, that's great, Sam. No problem. Like, absolutely take your time. When would it be a good time to follow up?
SPEAKER_02Yep.
SPEAKER_00How would you like me to follow up? Email, text, phone call. So you're kind of pinning them in on a time window, and then how to do it.
SPEAKER_02Always book a meeting from a meeting.
The Range Ask And Smart Follow Up
SPEAKER_00Right, exactly. Like, don't say, Oh, let's follow up by email. Just do it right there, 30 seconds versus 14 emails. Um, the other difference for major donors when you're closing for a prospect though, is if you don't know how much to ask for. Yeah. You know, like maybe I think you, you know, you told me not to ask for money, but you know, but like say you were, you know, I thought you were probably would give like a$5,000 first gift. You know, maybe we're fast-forwarding 20 years, right? Kids are out of school finally, and you're like in the philanthropic stage. So I think you're gonna give a$5,000 gift, but if I say ask for$5,000, you say yes immediately, I'm like, oh shoot, I should have asked for more.
SPEAKER_01Yep.
SPEAKER_00But I'm gonna have to wait a year before I ask because I'm only asking once a year. So one of the things you can do is give a range. And we call this the elevator close, yeah, because essentially you're walking on an elevator showing them all the buttons that they can press.
SPEAKER_02You decide what floor you get out of.
SPEAKER_00Right. So how you would close it like with this um sort of elevator close, I'd be like, you know, Sam, none of this is possible without our partner donors. And we have 40 partner donors who give anywhere between$5,000 to over$250,000. But to do this work and to expand and do this work, you know, whatever you just said, we need to add 12 new partners this year. Will you be one of the 12?
SPEAKER_01Love that.
SPEAKER_00And then you're letting them select in however they want.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Love it.
SPEAKER_00So it gives them you're not pinning yourself in, but you're also telling it's also telling them a little bit about how you're funded because it makes it safe. Like if you know someone's giving you a quarter of a million dollars, you're gonna think that donor probably do due diligence. You also know that there's 40 different people giving in that range. So a lot of people did due diligence. So it's like a trusting, it's like showing that you're trustworthy, but then you're also showing them a little bit like a peek at your books. Like this is how we run. Uh, and we have a bunch of wealthy people investing in a big way in us and to have the impact of our organization.
SPEAKER_02Man, you are a salesman. I gotta I gotta wrap this up before you get some of my money, man.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, I'm not gonna ask for the money though.
Coaching Pricing And The Guarantee
SPEAKER_02Don't worry. What uh are there any direct services that you guys provide one-on-one? Like if someone's like, I want you coaching me through this on a monthly basis, how does that work?
SPEAKER_00So we do one-on-one coaching, uh, executive level coaching. Uh, usually that's CEO or development director, uh, executive director. And then we also have a fundraising class that we do twice a year. It's live online, um, two hours every two weeks, where you can go. We kind of walk through similar to the book, but we go more in depth, sort of make people do the exercises because we all read books and like, oh, we'll get to the exercises later, but we help you build a pitch. I'll give you get one-on-one coaching on your pitch, um, and that can be really valuable. Like you have a big meeting coming up, you figure out your pitch, and you can turn a five thousand dollar ask into a twenty-five thousand by the words you're saying. And a lot of times what's cool is you're not doing any different work. Yeah, you've just figured out like how to tell your story in a way that gets the donors excited. Especially if they're existing donor, they already like your work. Yeah, you're just getting them to be like, oh wow, like we should give more.
SPEAKER_02Yep. No, I love that. Everything you just said there in that segment, that's not just for nonprofits, that's for people in sales in general.
SPEAKER_00Like exactly, like go solve, like in business, it's how can I help you solve a problem where you can make more money?
SPEAKER_02Yeah. No, that's that's an awesome option. I love that. I'm taking mental notes. I'm like, all right, I think I'm gonna change. I got a consult later today. I was like, I think I might change something up in my pitch now based off what you just said. Um give us a range, because I just want people to walk away from this episode getting an idea of like um what price points you guys are starting at. So obviously you start at a free level with the podcast and different things like that.
SPEAKER_00Then again, the books$15 or an audible credit, whatever that is. Yeah. Um, and then our classes are about$2,700. Um, one of the things we've always done though. How long are the classes? They're it's over four weeks, two hours a week. Um, but one thing we've always had is a 100%, one hundred day money back guarantee. Oh wow. You don't like it at the starts at the end of the class. Yeah. So you try it, you test it out, it doesn't work, just ask for your money back and we give it to you. We even have that for our book. We sold a ton of the books, but no one's ever asked for their money back so far, knock on wood. There you go. Um and we've only ever had one fundraiser ask for their money back um and they got laid off, they paid for it during COVID, yeah out of their own pocket and got laid off. So of course, yeah. But that's really important to us that if we're taking money that's ultimately donor money from the nonprofit, we want to make sure you get the results. Yeah. And so it's those are kind of the big price points, and then consulting, you know, is kind of a case-by-case basis that you need and how many hours and what it looks like.
SPEAKER_02But I want people to understand from the right perspective, like with an organization like you for a nonprofit, they're not spending money, they're investing money. 100%. Like you're looking at, let's just take the$2,700 class. You're looking at that class and thinking, okay, I can 10x this investment that I'm making and go out and get those donations, developing that skill set.
SPEAKER_00Well, particularly like if you're an established nonprofit, you have an existing base of donors, this is where you can really take off. If you have people who have been giving for a long time or even a few years, you have a good base of donors, they're already buying into what you're doing. Yeah, then it's just it's more of a positioning and getting them excited to give in a bigger way.
Where To Find Trevor And Closing
SPEAKER_02Love it, love it. Man, this has been awesome. In my head, the whole time we've been talking, I'm like, I gotta send this to this nonprofit leader, I gotta send this to this. They're gonna get a lot of value out of this episode. Um, if people want to learn more about you guys, get more information, hire you guys, where they go to get that information.
SPEAKER_00Uh sevenfigure fundraising.com. It's the number seven, sevenfigure fundraising.com, where you can just Google it, and it'll be one of the first hits. Um, or on Amazon, you can go to seven uh look up seven figure fundraising, and the book will come up. It's a big uh bright seven on the cover. So we try to just only name it one thing and uh get one good name and use it. It's good branding. Yeah. Um, but those are the easiest ways. And you can join our email list. We we don't bombard you, we send about one a month, and it's usually try to make it very useful tips that you can use for fundraising.
SPEAKER_02Love it, love it. Well, man, appreciate you being here today.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, thanks for having me, Sam.
SPEAKER_02This has been great. Absolutely. We'll see you guys on the next episode.