60. 4 Fundraising Tips to Transform Your Fundraising this Year - Mallory Erickson

Mallory Erickson, 4 Tips to Transform Fundraising this Year

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Overview

Meet Mallory. This former nonprofit executive director hit rock bottom seven years ago as she burned out on the nonprofit grind. Her saving grace: discovering an uncanny connection between coaching and fundraising. Since then, her unique programs combine her technical fundraising expertise with rockstar coaching skills to address the fears and discomforts around asking for money. And she's got the secret sauce to transform your 2021 fundraising plan. Tune in!

Today’s Guest

Mallory Erickson, Nonprofit Executive Coach

“We’ve been trapped in this old school way of thinking about fundraising and philanthropy that is not serving us as fundraisers, that is not serving our donors, and there is a totally different way to do this.”

— Mallory Erickson, Nonprofit Executive Coach

4 fundraising tips to transform your fundraising in 2021: awareness, goal setting, power partner focus, and shifting the culture of your organization
How to shift your mindset as a fundraiser: it starts with awareness
The true superpowers of fundraising: vulnerability and authenticity
You can’t be authentic and perfect. You can choose to be an authentic fundraiser, or a perfectionist
Set a conservative budget goal, and an audacious fundraising goal
Mallory’s Power Partner Focus, and how to implement it to transform your fundraising and donor cultivation
How to better engage your board members and volunteers
Mallory’s One Good Thing: Pull the data. It is easy to attach to something and believe it is true. We believe this because of a belief about ourselves, not because of data.

Powerful Quotes:

“If you had asked me when I was an Executive Director what my least favorite part of my job was, I would have said fundraising.” -Mallory

“I was sent to all of the traditional fundraising trainings, but nobody really talked to me about the underlying discomfort that came with asking for money and building relationships around money.” -Mallory

“We’ve been trapped in this old school way of thinking about fundraising and philanthropy that is not serving us as fundraisers, that is not serving our donors, and there is a totally different way to do this.” -Mallory

“When things aren’t feeling good, there is a reason why things aren’t feeling good.” -Mallory

“The fundraising superpower is vulnerability and authenticity.” -Mallory

“Perfectionism leaves us paralyzed and in a state of inaction and hyper-analysis. The reason it is so dangerous in fundraising is because it is in direct conflict with authenticity. You can’t be authentic and perfect.” -Mallory

“I’m all about smart goals when it comes to weekly and monthly deliverables, but I believe in an audacious north star. The creativity and guts you muster are always better.” -Mallory

“Fundraising inherently involves rejection.” -Mallory

“We have built an entire fundraising culture around this “wait to satisfy” our fear of a donor saying no.” -Mallory

“I keep thinking about harmony. The donor feels good, the gift officer feels good, the board member and Executive Director feels good. What is the end result? Everyone wants to pour into the mission even more.” -Becky

“The theme of this conversation is that it is ok to sit in discomfort. This is where we learn and get stronger. We are going to begin seeing a new narrative play out in philanthropy.”

— Becky Endicott CFRE, Co-Founder and Chief Storyteller, We are for Good

Mallory’s 4 Tips to transform your fundraising in 2021:

1. Awareness

How are you? How are you showing up? Everyone is walking around with different color glasses and seeing the world through perceptions and beliefs. These are creating our entire experience as fundraisers, but until we know what color glasses we are wearing, we can’t do any of the other work. We must start here, because everything builds from there.

2. Goal Setting

Set a conservative budget goal, and an audacious fundraising goal. Your audacious goal is your north star. No matter where we land, we max out our fundraising capacity by setting that audacious goal.

3. Power Partner Focus

There is a difference between fundraising meetings that feel life changing, and ones that feel sticky. This all comes down to alignment. Mallory has developed a “Power Partner Focus” to help people move through identifying power partners, and how to reach out to them recognizing that partnership. Identify your partner, their underlying inspiration, and learn how to connect and partner with them based on their inspiration.

4. Shift the Culture of Your Organization

Don’t fear the inevitable no’s. Fundraising inherently involves rejection. There is a level of fear that people hold walking into donor meetings because they don’t know what the person is going to say. It is not the “no” people are afraid of, it is the fear that it was something they did that caused the no. Leaders must create a safe culture, including expectations that no’s will be received. Track and celebrate them, because that means your fundraisers are pushing their limits. It is extremely important to talk about things that don’t feel good. Don’t suppress these feelings, and know that it is really normal to have these feelings.