Hangin’ with Henry and talking about your first visit with a donor prospect

As most of you know, DonorDreams blog has dedicated the first Thursday of every month for almost the last year to featuring a short video from Henry Freeman, who is an accomplished non-profit and fundraising professional. We affectionately call this monthly series “Hangin’ With Henry”  because of the conversational format around which he has framed his online videos. This month we’re talking about Making People Comfortable During a First Visit. I thought this video would be a night follow-up for my blog post published two weeks ago titled “Can we all please agree that ambushing donors needs to stop?” where I shared tips on how to set-up a meeting with a prospect/donor without ambushing them.

For those of you who subscribe to DonorDreams blog and get notices by email, you will want to click this link to view this month’s featured YouTube video. If you got here via your web browser, then you can click on the video graphic below.

OK, I understand that Henry is talking about “the first visit” within a major gifts initiative context. However, doesn’t everything he said still apply to other resource development work, especially when sitting down with a new prospect during a cultivation visit?

I think one of the things that I loved the most from Henry’s video is how he talks about leaving your fundraising agenda at the door during your first visit.

So, let’s stop here and focus on leaving your agenda at the door. How have you successfully done this? What have you focused on instead? What clues in the conversation where you able to pick-up on that gave you permission to go back and open the door on your fundraising agenda?

We can all learn from each other. Please use the comment box below to share your thoughts and experiences.

Here’s to your health!

Erik Anderson
Founder & President, The Healthy Non-Profit LLC
www.thehealthynonprofit.com 
erik@thehealthynonprofit.com
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