The Influential Nonprofit Episode 102: Kel Haney: Humanity Comes First
Kel Haney has over 17 years of experience as a fundraiser, coach, and consultant.
She began her journey as a theater director, taking on fundraising calls as a means of supplementary income.
Over time, she transitioned into becoming a full-time Outbound Fundraising Expert.
Her expertise lies in assisting artists, creatives, administrators, and board members in discovering and harnessing their inherent talents. Her goal is to help individuals unlock their existing gifts, enabling them to become authentic and accomplished fundraisers.
Nobody wants to be seen as a “transaction”. Prioritize building meaningful relationships with people by identifying the person, having them feel valued for who they are and what they bring, and then from there see if there is an alignment.
Don’t decide for a person whether they could support you or not or how much they could support you. When asked, no matter what the other person looks like or seems like, give them the full amount. You will never know what their relationship is with money. Always be ready to shoot for the moon.
Set aside some time for calling people, block it out in your schedule. Then, go to a slightly different place and give yourself extra kindness. Third, pull-out scripts are not recommended, but it would be a good idea to have an outline of things you’ve got to say in order to prevent yourself from rambling.
The first 10 seconds of the call are crucial. Initiate the call with telling them who you are, your connection to the org, why you’re calling them and why now. Second, share updates that might be interesting to them, and third, talk about the fundraising campaign you have right now. Finally, close the conversation and figure out what’s the next point of contact with the person.
Whenever I and the fundraisers that I coach and I train, approach it from that place of ‘let's connect as humans’, the money always follows. I don’t even have to worry about it.
Don't get me wrong, I love numbers, I love goals, but never at the expense of putting humanity second.
Instead of ‘always be closing’, always be curious. If we're always curious, anything that we get back from that potential donor is a gift.
Reach out to Kel Haney at:
Website: https://www.kelhaney.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kel-haney-15a24a10
Twitter: https://twitter.com/kelhaney
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kelhaney/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kel.haney
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