The Ask: How to Ask for Support for Your Nonprofit Cause, Creative Project, or Business Venture

The Ask will give anyone the confidence to ask anyone for any size gift for any purpose. With winning language, sample dialogues, and a wealth of tips and tools, this book addresses common mistakes made when asking and shows how to correct each mistake, providing guidance and direction on how to make a great ask. Most nonprofit professionals are not born fundraisers. There are many fears that those raising support must overcome, such as fear of rejection.  Fredricks argues that personal solicitation is a skill that can be learned, and offers definite tools and techniques that will help fundraisers everywhere feel comfortable asking for money and more importantly, succeed in their development efforts. The Ask addresses the clearly identified need for all fundraisers from any size organization--local, national or international--to know how to ask for any type of gifts. Readers are walked through views about money and the steps in the process of asking, including: Hesitating to Ask for Money, Judging the Prospects Readiness for the Ask Selecting the Right Person or Team to Do the Ask Preparing for the Ask, Addressing the Prospects Response to the Ask Following Through on the Ask Fredricks then applies these steps to specific types of asksincluding major gifts, planned gifts, capital campaign gifts, special events, community project gifts, and more. Premium online materials include samples winning dialogues and additional tips and tools for successful asks, as well as information on how to apply asking skills to a fundraisers personal/professional pursuits, including asking for funding for a CD, asking for a raise, and asking for money from family/friends. This newly expanded edition is reorganized around the core principles of asking for support/funding, drilling down deeper into each principle (as opposed to types of asks based on the size of the gift in question) with examples and sample dialogues throughout. It draws more parallels between the nonprofit ask and business sales pitch, showing how nonprofits and business 'asks' are similar and different. In addition to explaining the ins and outs of ask for small, large and capital campaign gifts, the new Ask also offers a more holistic view of asking, focused on the applying professional fundraising skills in a broader context to ask for support for a creative project, venture, or career advancement.