Rule #4 – Don’t Say No For Them

Don’t say NO for your donors. I repeat, don’t say NO for your donors. What does this mean? It means you might know the potential donor very well, they might be a colleague or family member or neighbour and you might have thought about all the reasons why they might say no vs all the reasons they might say yes. They lost their job or “don’t have extra money” or recently had a life event that you feel means they should not be approached for support. 

Remember you are bringing something of value to these people and there are literally thousands of reasons that people will give to a certain cause. Whether its tax deductions for themselves or a business, the feeling they get helping others, your passion for that cause, a connection to a certain country or type of project you are working in, maybe it is their first chance to be involved with this type of work, maybe it’s a thousand other reasons why millions of Canadian donate each year. It’s your job as a fundraiser to make sure they hear about your cause.  

When you are asking for a partner there are many ways to support so even someone with zero income could still be approached confidently for support, who knows, they may host your next fundraiser event, share your story with friends as an act of support, or when their financial situation changes they will remember how positively you approached them to be a part of your project.