Ever wonder if you’re a good fundraiser or a GREAT fundraiser?
TrueSense Marketing’s team of Salvation Army Account Directors works closely each day with development professionals around the country. We asked them, “What makes a someone a great fundraiser?” Here are the results:
17 Qualities of Great Fundraisers
Great fundraisers ...
- Converse with a wide audience of people (donors, board members, community leaders, colleagues, etc.) to build rapport and inspire trust.
- Know about their organization’s programs and services, as well as their needs and importance.
- Balance various fundraising channels and understand each channel’s strength and purpose.
- Stay current on new technology and ideas in the fundraising world, like text-to-give or peer-to-peer.
- Build a strong team and delegate tasks to team members.
- Trust and acknowledge the strengths of their vendor partners.
- Stay open to new ideas and testing, and challenge the status quo in order to discover growth opportunities.
- Have high emotional intelligence and knowledge of human psychology and behavior.
- Do their best and accept the things they cannot change.
- Have a genuine interest in others. Being personable and liked provides a better chance of getting requested funds.
- Have the patience to allow new strategies sufficient time to succeed.
- Listen well.
- Are assertive. After all — if they don’t ask, they won’t receive.
- Are creative. People are drawn to new, fun ideas that are appealing. Great fundraisers know that if they keep doing the same fundraising events, people may become bored or lose interest.
- Are not too serious. They know how to go with the flow and to move on if they get turned down for a gift.
- Understand the importance of data. How to read it, how to analyze it, and how to measure it!
- Place the donors’ behavior and perspective before their own.