Fundraising: Part 5 - Giving a Fundraising Speech

Know your audience. It's important to cater to the group you are speaking to. You need to tailor your speech based on your audience. Are they students, church members, business people? Also, keep in mind what you have in common with your audience. If people feel like they can relate to you, they are more likely to listen to you and keep their attention on you. Even if you think that you have nothing in common, dig deep and find something. It'll pay off (both literally and figuratively).

Tell stories. Pick a story from your experience. Make it heartfelt. Relate it to yourself and your audience. Make them feel compassionate toward your cause, because then they'll be more likely to help you out when you start asking for money.

Don't just talk in statistical terms. No one remembers the exact percentages and numbers. People remember stories. They remember compelling, heartwarming, and sometimes even bittersweet experiences that someone tells them about. Statistics don't put things into perspective for most people. It's better to talk about one person that you met and do know versus the million people you don't know talked about in a statistic.

If you can, use props to tell your story or relay your message. It could be a can of coins, an ice cube in a glass of orange juice, or a ruler. Tell them how every penny counts, how this is just the tip of the ice burg, or how every donation helps inch by inch. No matter how you use your prop, it not only helps your audience remember your story better, but helps you remember how to tell your story, as well.

Be careful with PowerPoints. If you do use a PowerPoint, don't read word for word from it. In fact, don't make your PowerPoint wordy at all. Instead, have photos, because these are more effective than words. As the saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words. However, avoid the PowerPoint unless it's completely necessary.

Practice makes perfect. Seriously. Prepare, prepare, prepare! Practice helps everyone, even the most talented of speakers. We all know that public speaking can be scary, so start practicing in advance and get comfortable speaking in front of friends and family if you need to. If you need to, write an outline to keep yourself on track. Speak slowly and deliberately so that people can hear and understand you.

Make it CLEAR how people can help. If you get up and give your speech, but never mention HOW they can help your cause, you're cause is hopeless. Give at least two or three concrete ways people can help, either by donating on the spot, signing up for emails, coming out for a walk, or some other event.

MEMORIZE your conclusion! This is important! You really want to drive home your last point, and you want it to be big, inspiring, and exciting. You want people to walk away WANTING to help you and donate to your cause, so having a killer ending, memorizing it and delivering it like a pro will work to your advantage.

Speak from your heart. Show your audience that you care about your cause. If they can tell you're not "in it" then they won't feel compassion for your cause, because you don't show compassion for your cause. Be honest, be sincere, be passionate. People connect to these traits.

Don't worry about the things you forget once you're done and you're walking away. What's said is said, and that's they best you can do, so don't beat yourself up over it. Instead, write the things you forgot down so that you can include them in your next speech. However, move on. No matter how many speeches you give, there will ALWAYS be something you feel like you left out, so get over it and be happy with how well you did instead.




Additionally, here are some books to read if you're really interested in public speaking:

Say It Like Obama: The Power of Speaking With Purpose and Vision by Shel Leanne
Quick and Easy Way to Public Speaking by Dale Carnegie
Presentation Zen by Garr Reynolds


Do you have any home run tips for public speaking? Share your thoughts and ideas in a comment!

Fundraising: Part 2 - How To Retain Membership In Your Organization

The first presentation that I attended for the SHH Fundraising Summit yesterday was called: "How to Retain Membership At Your School's SHH Chapter."

This can apply for any organization or association, however, and not just a chapter of SHH at a university.

Hold interest meetings year round. These don't have to be weekly, but perhaps once every other month in order to allow people to come out and learn around your organization. It's important that new members feel welcome, and interest meetings are a great way to obtain this goal. Create conditions that make it easy for people who come to interest meetings to attend your regular meetings. Send out reminder emails three days before a meeting, and also the night before or the day of so that people won't forget. It's easy to forget meeting times, locations and details, especially if you're as busy as I am, so being the head of your group means that it's your responsibility to make sure new members have reminders. You can also distribute flyers, post signs, market your events, and use social networking sites like Facebook.

Once you get some new members, make them feel welcome. Don't scare them away. Involve them in meetings through icebreakers, where both new and old members can introduce themselves and have fun getting to know each other. Also give newcomers simple tasks that make them feel needed, but be sure not to give them too large of a task, or else they will feel overwhelmed and not come back.

Make sure you have an agenda for your meetings. Have an activity planned. Make the meetings fun and enjoyable, so that people desire to return to upcoming meetings. Plan events for fundraising, socials, or whatever it may be. Get people involved & feeling needed.

Make sure you distribute evaluation or suggestion sheets on a fairly regular basis. Allow members to input their own thoughts about what they life or do not like. Members are full of good ideas for how to make your organization stronger and better, so give them the opportunity to voice those opinions in a constructive way.

Make phone calls instead of emailing every once in a while. This gives your organization a more personal tone, and shows your members that you're interested enough in keeping them involved that you go out of your way to individually talk to them. Have socials, as well, because bonding is important for groups. This gives your members the opportunity to form lasting friendships with you and with each other.

Don't let your members get:

1) Burnt-Out - don't give them too much responsibility, because this can overwhelm them and deter them from coming back.

2) Cooled-Out - don't give them too little responsibility either, because this will make them feel unneeded and again, deter them from coming back.

3) Kept-out - make sure new members don't feel alienated from the group. Involve them through icebreakers, activities, and socials. Avoid inside jokes amongst veteran members, as this makes newcomers feel unwelcomed and "outside" of the circle.

4) Pulled-out - Keep your meetings fun! Crack a joke, have a reflection, learn something new, invite a speaker to your meeting. This gives diversity and variety to your meetings and keeps member from drifting away over time, or pulling out of your organization.

Establish challenging and creative goals. Don't set your sights too low, instead set them fairly high so that way you challenge your members to go above and beyond their perceived "limits." Once you achieve your goal, or even if you come up short, show your appreciate for all of the hard work by sending your thanks to your members, or by holding a social in order to celebrate. Perhaps institute a "Hustler of the Week" award so that each week you can honor a member who went above and beyond the expectations. Keep your group focused on the serious issues, but have fun, too!

Make sure you educate new members about the issues you discuss or the topics you cover. If there is any unfamiliar terminology, define it so that new members can understand what you are talking about during meetings. Discuss the mission of your organization often, so that everyone can be familiar with it.

Increase motivation of your members by allowing them to choose the jobs they want to do. Instead of assigning jobs, give them the opportunity to pick. That way you will gain the most out of the work your members do because they are doing the jobs they enjoy. During your meetings, create an enjoyable and comfortable atmosphere, perhaps by playing relevant music, having a slideshow of photos from past events, or allowing a member to talk about their ideas for fundraising or other goals.

There are so many ways to retain your membership, and these are only some.

Do you have any ways that you retain membership for an organization that you are involved in?
Have you ever started an organization?

Leave a comment with your ideas and thoughts!

Imagine Yourself... A Leader.

Leadership

"The wicked leader is he who the people despise. The good leader is he who the people revere. The great leader is he who the people say, 'We did it ourselves.'"

-Lao Tzu

"The Constitution does not just protect those whose views we share; it also protects those with whose views we disagree."

-Edward Kennedy

"You may read from time to time the voice of small radical groups. But this voice will not change the fact that mainstream Indonesia will continue to be moderate, tolerant and democratic."

- Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono

"We cannot turn the clock back nor can we undo the harm caused, but we have the power to determine the future and to ensure that what happened never happens again."

- Paul Kagame

"All of us are driven by a simple belief that the world as it is just won't do - that we have an obligation to fight for the world as it should be."

- Michelle Obama

"“Preventive vaccines have ended or helped control the most deadly infectious diseases known to man. Finding a vaccine to stop the spread of the HIV virus must be a global priority."

- Seth Berkley

All of these people are leaders. They have done incredible things for the world--things like helping to find a cure for HIV/AIDS, restoring peace to Rwanda, and being a voice for those less fortunate or able.

Great leadership takes great courage, hope, strength, responsibility, and integrity. There are hundreds and thousands of people who do great things for this world. Leaders come from all walks of life and all circumstances. They do things like run governments, lead huge movements, develop astounding technology, and own enormous businesses. But leaders also do things like tutor children who struggle in math after school hours, volunteer at local soup kitchens and nursing homes, write to their representatives about their concerns, and make thanksgiving and christmas dinners for handicapped friends.

Leaders are great and may be rich or famous or unbelievably intelligent, but they are also wealthy without money, famous without world renown, and intelligent without the best that education can offer.

Mother Teresa said, "If you can't feed a hundred people, then feed just one." Maybe individually we can't make a huge difference in the issues we are passionate about. Maybe individually we can't stop the wars that carry on throughout the world--or the wars that our own country are waging. Maybe individually we can't feed the millions of people who starve every day or quench the thirst of the millions of people who have no clean water to drink. But if, individually, we can't do this great things that seem vast and complex beyond our comparisons, then we can at least spread the word to others about the issues we are passionate about, promote peace to others about the wars of the world and of our country, and feed or quench the thirst of at least one person who is hungry and thirsty.

There are so many ways that people can become great leaders, and it always starts small.

Martin Luther King, Jr. was born in Atlanta, Georgia to a Reverend and his wife. He worked hard to educate himself and relied on his friends and family to help him achieve success. He relied on supporters during his activism. He took advantage of the opportunities that presented themselves to him instead of letting them pass by.

Dorothy Day was born in Brooklyn, NY to her mother and father, who were middle class, average Americans in the late 1890s. She strongly supported women's rights, pacifism, and equality for all. She made a difference in the lives of thousands despite the fact that she began relying completely upon herself with no monetary help from her parents and struggled to raise a child (Tamar) throughout it all.

The "Unknown Rebel" who, at Tiananmen Square in June of 1989 during Tiananmen Protests in China, stood before a line of 17 tanks to block their path is an iconic figure who represents courage and heroism to millions. Little to nothing is known about this man, or whether he is still alive, but he is surely an unknown leader who symbolizes the Everyman and gave hope to watchers.

These people could just have easily led lives where they chose not to do the courageous things that they did. They could have made decisions to lead quiet lives, hidden from the eyes of the public. But instead they stood up for what they believed in. They spoke up and found people to rely on and support them. It's certainly not easy to do the things that MLK, Jr., Dorothy Day, or the "Unknown Rebel" did. It's not easy to do things that Jesus of Nazareth, The Dalai Lama, Christine Lagarde, Nelson Mandela, or Gordon Brown did and still do.

However, taking small steps and again, as Mother Teresa said, "We cannot all do great things, but we can do small things with great love," and that is how great leaders are made. They begin by doing small things with great love.