You’re Not Asking for Money
You’re Doing Research
I’ve been coaching an executive director who’s two years into the job.
She came up through programs, not development. Her nonprofit is small, and its whole purpose is helping people get out of homelessness or keeping them from becoming homeless in the first place. She can talk for an hour about the families she’s helped. Ask her to call a donor, and she freezes with fear and uncertainty.
She kept getting stuck on the same question before every call: should I even be calling this person? I reframed it for her. You’re not making a fundraising call.
You’re doing research.
Research made sense to her right away. She already knew how to do it: ask a question, listen, take notes. Fundraising felt like someone else’s job. Research felt like hers.
Stop The Thinking. Do the Dialing.
If you are a program-minded leader new to fundraising, try this exercise to build your confidence:
Block two hours and call forty donors, in order, no sorting.
Don’t decide who you should call.
Don’t worry about who might be annoyed, or who gave five years ago versus five months ago.
Don’t listen to fear. Spend every minute calling donors instead of finding reasons not to dial.
Most of those forty calls will go to voicemail. That’s normal, not a sign you’re doing it wrong. Out of forty dials, you might get five or six real conversations. The other thirty-some are still worth making, because a good voicemail does real work on its own.
When we talked about her schedule, her work week and commitments seemed out of control. To start somewhere, she chose to call ten people in the next two days.
The Script
Every call opens the same way, with a hook so short it barely counts as a pitch:
“Hi, I’m [your name], and I work for [your organization]. I appreciate your generosity. You’re helping men and women escape the cycle of homelessness.”
Three seconds. Then silence.
You’ll hear it almost every time: a pause where the donor is bracing for the ask. They’ve had this call before, from someone else, and they know what usually comes next. Don’t fill that silence with an ask. Fill it with a question instead.
“Would you be willing to answer one question for me? It’s for a survey we’re doing.”
If they say yes, ask: “How did you get started giving to help people escape homelessness?” Then stop talking. Let them answer.
This is the point of the whole call. You finally get to hear from them instead of talking at them.
If they say no, that’s fine too. Say, “No problem at all, thank you again for everything you do,” and get off the phone. Don’t argue and don’t ask twice. A no here usually means they don’t have two minutes today, not that they’re rejecting you.
If they’re warm and clearly enjoying the conversation, ask if it would be okay to grab coffee sometime. Tell them you’d love to learn more.
If they sound busy or distracted, don’t push. Tell them you’ll call back in a few weeks.
Some people will offer to call you back themselves. If you let that stand, you lose your permission to call again, and you’ve handed the donor a task to do. This is supposed to be burden-free. Say, “You don’t need to call me back. I’ll reach out again in a few weeks.”
Other Ways to Open the Question
The one-question survey works because it’s easy to say yes to and genuinely interesting to answer. A few variations, depending on who’s on the other end of the line:
A long-time donor: “What’s the one thing you’d never want us to stop doing?”
A donor you haven’t heard from in a while: “What first got you connected to this work?”
A recent first-time donor: “What made you decide to give that first gift?”
A volunteer who hasn’t given yet: “What’s the moment from volunteering that’s stuck with you most?”
Pick one question and stay with it. Consistency will build your confidence and let you relax as you focus on hearing from the person on the other side of the phone. It will be exhilarating as you talk with long-term and new donors.
When You Get Voicemail
Since most of your forty calls will land in voicemail, this is where the exercise actually lives. Leave a message every time. Don’t hang up.
For someone you’ve never spoken with before:
“Hi, this is [your name] with [your organization]. I just wanted to call and say thank you. When you give, we want you to know you’re the reason we’re able to help people get out of homelessness and keep families from losing their homes in the first place. No need to call back; we just wanted to say, ‘Thank you.’”
For a donor you haven’t talked to in a while:
“Hi [donor name], this is [your name] from [your organization]. Thank you for changing the lives of people in our community. Nothing you need to do with this; I just wanted you to know we’re grateful. Take care.”
When in doubt, share this:
“Hi, this is [your name] with [your organization], just calling to say thank you for your generosity. We can’t do all we do without donors like you. Have a great day.”
Keep it short. A voicemail that runs forty seconds sounds like a pitch. Ten seconds sounds like what it is: gratitude.
The Money Shows Up Anyway
None of these calls are designed to raise money. That’s what makes the reframe work for someone who’s spent her career in programs, worried that fundraising means asking people for things. You’re saying thank you and asking a question you’re actually curious about. That’s it.
I have made thousands of calls over the past decades. I am never surprised, and I am always grateful, when people decide to give. Sometimes they call back. Often they don’t. But many send money.
Calling is always a good step to connection. You might text, email, or have coffee next. There is something about calling a person that opens all those avenues for communication.
Don’t be surprised. People will give.
Not because you asked.
Because you called, you listened, and you made them feel like more than a line on a report.
I gave this ED ten names and two days. I don’t know yet how it went.
But I know what happens when program-minded leaders stop reasoning about who to call and start dialing: the fear doesn’t go away; it just stops being the thing that decides whether the call gets made.
If this is hitting something real for you — subscribe.
Dave Sena is the founder of Bold Leading and a nonprofit veteran with nearly thirty years of experience leading, coaching, and consulting faith-based organizations. If you’re stuck, burned out, or just need a clearer path forward — reach out. He’d love to offer prayer, honest feedback, and a roadmap through.
