Ep. 91: The 2 Tried and True Things to Help Your Organization Grow: Prospecting & Outreach
EPISODE 91
The 2 Tried and True Things to Help Your Organization Grow: Prospecting & Outreach
About the Episode:
Today we're talking about two things that are required to grow your mission, to grow your impact, to grow your funding, AND to grow your visibility. You have to do these two things repeatedly in order for your organization to grow—prospecting and outreach. I know, I know, these are not the most exciting things to do, but I'm going to walk you through how I handle prospecting and outreach, and how I've literally built three different businesses using a method that works for me. Prospecting and outreach does not have to feel like it's tight and cold calling or the most stressful thing ever. This method works, it is how I started my first business back in 2007, and again, started another business in 2011 solely using prospecting and outreach. Many times entrepreneurs get stuck because they've got a great business idea and they build a website for it, they get some business cards for it, and then it's like just waiting, just waiting for the people to come buy the thing, right? That is not how you build a profitable business. The same is true for nonprofits. They apply for their 501c3 status, they get their website, they get maybe a board of directors, and then they're waiting. What you need is a model for prospecting and outreach that is doable, that is rinse and repeat and part of your annual, monthly, and weekly plan. Tune in to find out how to create yours to increase your donorship today.
Topics:
Taking stock of how many people you know that are within and outside of your network to capitalize on organic marketing
Why Christina teaches both marketing and fundraising along with the innerwork in her coaching program
How to authentically create big donor moments with prospecting and just talking about what you do
Creating a yearly and monthly outreach plan to meet each of your short and long term goals
Loving on yourself through the anxiety and fear of pitching and believing there’s a win on the other side
Think you’ve reached out to “everyone” in your network? Out of ideas to get noticed and get funded? Generate leads for your nonprofit or social impact business: https://www.splendidcourses.com/prospect
Christina’s Favorite Takeaways:
“Prospecting and outreach are required to grow your mission, to grow your impact, to grow your funding, and to grow your visibility.”
“Pitching and upgrading may always make you feel nervous, but that’s okay.”
“This feels kind of hard, but regardless of how this conversation goes, there's going to be a lesson here, and I'm glad I did it.”
“See the hard thing for what it is – it isn’t going to kill me, it’s a part of the deal and I’m going to be okay.”
“You can’t lose more than zero… the thing I’m so scared of, I can handle.”
Episode Resources:
FREE Resources from Splendid Consulting:
How to Work with Christina and Splendid Consulting:
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Christina Edwards 00:24
Today we're talking about two things that are required, required required to grow your mission to grow your impact to grow your funding to grow your visibility, you have to do these two things on repeat again and again, tried and true. In order for your organization to grow those two things, prospecting and outreach, I know, I know, it's not the most exciting things to do. But I'm going to walk you through how I think of how I handle prospecting and outreach, and how I've literally built three different businesses. Using a method that works for me where I don't feel like it's tight and cold calling, I don't feel like it's the most stressful thing ever. And it's worked. This is how I started my first business back in 2007. This is how I again, started another business in 2011. Ish, using prospecting and outreach, okay? Many, many times entrepreneurs get stuck, because they've got a great business idea. And they build a website for it, they get some business cards for it. And then it's like just waiting, just waiting for the people to come by the thing, right? That is not how you build a profitable business. The same is true for nonprofits. They apply for their 501 C three status, they get their website, they get maybe a board of directors, and then they're waiting, right because I thought I just needed that status. And then the the donations would come know, what you need is you need a model for prospecting and outreach, that is doable. That is like rinse and repeat and part of your annual monthly and weekly plan. And let's take a step back. And let's define prospecting. Let's define outreach. And I want to talk a little bit further about where we do that. So let's define prospecting and outreach and how you can begin to incorporate it into your weekly or daily habits and what it looks like to actively prospecting outreach in a way that really, really can like hit the gas on your organizational growth, okay? Prospecting very, very simply, is just reaching and connecting with people outside, inside and outside of your network. You may have heard the term sphere of influence, I just like to think about I was like, Who are the people that I know, you think about the people you know, you know, your friends, you know, your family, you know, your neighbors. But you actually know a lot more people than that, you know, the people that you went to school with maybe high school, maybe college, maybe preschool, you still know some of those people, community groups, clubs, memberships, the people at your gym, the people that are in a run club, I mean, the people that you go to your ceramics class with, there are a lot of the people that you see at the grocery store again, and again, your barista. You think about your network of people that you know, it's actually much bigger than you think. So prospecting starts there, the other side of prospecting is more cold. So the people that are outside of your current network, outside of your current sphere of influence, knowing those two things is how I built my first business. Okay, that is literally how I did it. As I started working, my network that I knew working that list, talking, communicating regularly with them. And before I knew it, the leads and referrals started to come in, and I had a profitable six figure plus business using that that was it. It's just organic marketing. And I want to take a step back here and say, this is just marketing. And many consultants and coaches in our sector either teach marketing, or they teach fundraising. And I want to tell you why I do both inside the purpose and profit club, my group coaching program, we do both. We do marketing, we do fundraising, and we do the inner work to get you comfortable doing the outer work, right, taking the outer action, it is actually all three. Because if you've ever said, we need more donors, we need more donor acquisition, we need to attract new donors. We need more visibility. We need more monthly donors. We've got to sell event tickets, event sponsorships, anything like that. We'd love to have some media placement. We just really need more influencers and ambassadors and social street teamers to advocate for us online. Any of those are familiar, those are all marketing. That's marketing. Right? And why do you need all of those things right? Why do you need to have more line conversations with potential funders? Why do you sell tickets to your event? Why do you want a social street team right? So that you can increase your revenue and your impact fundraising The to go hand in hand, I think to parse them out is really, really hard. Because many times, I see fundraisers who are doing normal fundraising practices of like 20 plus 30 years ago, it doesn't work for the time we are in now we're in a time that is very fast paced. People are on their phones more than ever, we've got to use the latest marketing to like, get in front and cut through the noise of that audience of attracting new donors, and also the audience of your current donors getting through the noise of just busy inboxes and busy social profiles to get in front of them and tell them what you're up to. When Laura Bell, Ray Bell Gray was on the podcast a few episodes ago, she said, I loved bringing on just outside people outside our sector, right outside of social impacts. So they could talk about like their perspective of what they see marketing content, storytelling content look like. She said, I just want to be entertained, which may sound like how in the world can my nonprofit entertain anyone? Right? I just want to be entertained. And what she's really saying is like y'all shake things up, say it in a way like you and I are having coffee, we're going for a walk, you're Voxer bring me a funny message, like be real. I just want to be entertained. Where's the fun in this? Where's the through line? Where's the commonality? How are we all the same? Like where's the humanity in this? So marketing can just be all of those pieces, right? And in a marketing conversation, that's where we have those amazing donor moments. mazing donor moments, I'm thinking about one of our purpose and profit clubbers who just shared that he was speaking to a friend he hadn't spoken to in a while he saw him at church. And before you knew it, he was like, What are you? What have you been up to tell me about your organization? And the guy was like, I would like to give you $1,000 gift. Why? Connection? prospecting, right? That's my favorite kind of prospecting is totally organic, just putting yourself out into the world and talking about what you do talking about the people you serve. Talking about your mission, right? And you'll watch, that's not the first $1,000 story that I have like that. There's another $1,000 story on the beach, right from just talking another organization founder talking about her mission. $1,000 donation, boom, like that. Okay? So prospecting, that's prospecting outreach is is the active outreach process, booking a meeting, booking a conversation, making the ask not burying it into the last 30 seconds of the meeting. So the prospecting is sort of the act of identifying people in and outside of your sphere. And then the outreach is, I like to put outreach as part of your year round plan to me that the way that you might think of some other strategy outreach should be a part of it. Okay, so what is my outreach plan? Now, outreach can be fun, because you can do social stream Street Team outreach, where you're saying, you know, this month I'm really focusing on getting 10 new influencers so as 10 new social street teamers, this is what I teach at the club, how to work with social street teamers in a way that they become your advocates, right? Your wild raving fans, and they're talking about your mission in front of their engaged audiences. It's the best, it's the best. Okay, so that's prospecting and outreach. This past week, I was giving a presentation to a group of nonprofit nonprofit and social impact founders. And the conversation was about engagement. And they were asking me questions. And really, we were digging into this. So marketing, fundraising, prospecting outreach, and one of them kind of stumped me towards the end of the conversation, and she raised her hand and she said, Okay, so what you're saying is just like, it's gonna feel hard and terrible, just like do it anyway. And like, just just go ask for the funding. Now, there's that energy, right? And I was like, not quite. So I think a lot of people teach it that way. I see a lot of other coaches and programs teach it that way. Sort of like this, like, push energy, almost like not even push through. But just like push, avoid, put your feelings on a shelf and go ahead and make that part, ask to the funder. Go ahead and ask that funder for work. Go ahead and ask for that meeting. Be bold, get in there, get it. And that is a way to do it. I think it can be done that way. I know I have done it that way in my own business. And on the other side of that is complete depletion. When you go into any sort of discovery meeting, pitch meeting, any kind of meeting, any kind of prospecting and outreach, and you're thinking I just have to push through this. It's got to be hard. On the other side of it, no matter how good it goes. Energetically, you feel very depleted like it makes me just want to like lay down to the couch afterwards because I'm like, God that took so much. I'm sure there was like, all the different. There was probably cortisol dump after that. It's just so many like of the hormones just dealing with the nervous system of that you're not allowing those emotions. So when she said that if like, just just push through it and do it anyway, I said, No, what I'm saying is, some of these things will always feel like anxious, some of these meetings will always have a flavor of discomfort to them. Like some people will always feel a little nervous, pitching a new funder, some people may always feel a little nervous, upgrading a donor, pitching an ambassador, right? Asking for a sponsorship. That's okay, I would say it does get easier with practice, but also don't expect it to totally go away. So that's like, the first layer is just acknowledging like, there is a part of you that like rejection is hard. And being face to face with somebody who has the ability to be like now not into it, right? Can feel hard, and that's okay. So instead of pushing through it instead of rather against it, instead of putting your emotions on a shelf and doing it anyway, I actually want you to just like, love on that part of you. That's like, yeah, this feels kind of hard. And I've got me either way, this feels kind of hard. And regardless of how this conversation goes, there's gonna be a lesson here. And I'm glad I did it. That's through, do you see that as through with me. So there's a scene My kids love home alone. And I think it's the first home alone. And it's like, we're still watching home alone, it is not the holidays. There's this scene where Kevin is home alone, in this big house. No one's there. And the laundry room is in the basement of that house. And it's one of those like, perfect, unfinished basements, that feels kind of creepy. And in the basement is like, it's almost like the the heating, like the boiler for the house. And in his nine or 10 year old imagination, he sees it like come to life. And it's like this fiery furnace. So it's like, there's a scene where it's like, almost like chomping at him, right. And he always goes running up the stairs hides under the covers. And he has that moment, right? When you treat prospecting and outreach like that, that's what it feels like, you're like, I don't ever want to do that again, until I have no clean clothes. And then I have to run down there and do it really quickly, and then run back up. Right, that is a cycle that some people can build a business can build an organization with. And it feels terrible to that is like a distinction don't do that. Then towards the end of the movie, Kevin's like kind of rockin and rollin, he's been to the store, he's bought some milk and some bread, he's kind of gotten the hang of things. And he's like, I'm gonna go do some laundry. He goes down there. And he has that moment where he sees the fiery furnace that's like, or, and it looks like chomping at him or you know, as imaginations kind of showing that. And he goes, Ah, stop it, or something like that. Like, he literally talks to it. And the whole thing just quiets. And the furnace just becomes what it is, which is just a furnace, right? It's just a piece of steel. And on it goes and company loads the dishwasher. And it's kind of like that with anything and building and growing your organization. It's like, seeing the hard thing for what it is like, Oh, this isn't going to kill me. This is part of the deal. It's not my favorite to do laundry down here. I feel like every child has had like a grandparent or somebody with like a creepy basement, right? Like, yeah, it's not my favorite to go down here. But like, I'll be okay, I'm going to be okay. And talking yourself through that is really, really key. That's what we're doing this month in the club. So this coming month in the club, our theme is a program called outreach genius. I only run it inside the club. And in it, we're doing this, we're identifying your cold and warm prospects, we're getting you into courageous action mode, because there's no point in doing any of this. If you're going to burn out if it's going to feel so, so depleting on the other side, if it's going to feel like something you want to run up the stairs from, right. Like the point of this is to grow your organization to raise and impact millions. How do we do that? How do you raise an impact millions, like let's just zoom out for a second. You've got to add more people in your pipeline period. I was on a call just recently with a like a tool that is a wealth screening tool. So these wealth screening tools are very, very popular, especially for more established organizations. And they'll tell you a bit about your constituents and your people in your world. And you know, if they're higher capacity, etc. And I was thinking about I'm like, that's just prospecting. It's just prospecting at a different level. It's just another form. What do you do with that? Then you mark it. You start to create conversations, you start the outreach. And I say that because this never goes away. Whether you're $100 million organization like Charity Water, or you're a $100,000 organization, you still have to prospect, you still have to do outreach, you still have to market, you still have to fundraise the entire time. And there's a way to do it that has you running up the stair and hiding under the covers. And then there's a way to do it that feels expansive, and like it's working. And not only that, like you're not alone in doing it, that suddenly, you're not the only one doing it. Suddenly, there are people around you people on your behalf advocating for you peer to peer, we've got fundraisers happening, like, that's how you grow. That is how you raise and reach millions. So it has to start somewhere. I think the first place that starts is just realizing the simplicity of this. Because it is simple. It is really simple. Simple. doesn't always mean easy, though, right? Simple doesn't always mean easy. Just because something simple like oh, we'll just go five, call five people you know, today and tell them about organization. Doesn't mean that feels easy ever, right? Oh, we'll just call five people today that are current donors and ask them to donate more. Ooh, right? Like, what does that bring up for you? Exactly, exactly. And that's part of the deal? And how do we do it in a way that feels like scalable, and feels doable, and help giving you the support? And like what to say how to say it, that's what we're really digging into, I'm going to be teaching a class that talks about some verbal and nonverbal cues that are really, really helpful for these conversations, as well as some of the just wider reach of like, what does it look like to have donors in my pipeline to have ambassadors in my pipeline? How do I know you know, when to reach out to them? How do I know what to say? How do I know? Is this a doe pitch email? Is this a pitch email and those types of things? So we'll be digging into that as well and our genius? One final question that I was asked last week in that kind of roundtable on engagement is one organization and they're about a five year old organization, and they had a very high profile, donor, celebrity donor, and give a gift, significant gift. And they're trying to get in touch with this donor to give another gift. And they were asking like, what if they don't? What if I've reached out? And I haven't heard back then what it really what was underneath that was like, should I is Do I have permission to call this like, you know, a one time gift. And that was it. And so we talked about what are the ways that you have been outreaching? Like what is outreach way. And so we talked about what she had been doing. And in this case, it was an email outreach, we've talked about so many other impactful ways to get in front of this donor to talk about what she's working on. And to really cultivate that relationship in a way that is long term and not a one off. But that requires courage. That wasn't an easy coaching session, because it requires that it may be a no, it requires that somebody on the the celebrity owners, or the celebrities team may be like, Wow, you're emailing water, or whatever the thing is like it requires her to be willing to hear feedback, it requires her to be willing to hear the nose. And something I was thinking about was in some ways, or in some ways, sometimes founders and leaders and fundraisers are trying to protect themselves from rejection, by not asking a third time, but not picking up the phone and only doing something passive like an email by not trying to book the meeting, so as to save themselves from rejection. But what's interesting is what is rejection rejection in this case is $0. They didn't donate. But if you think about it, they're already being rejected now, because she doesn't have the donation. She's already got the $0. So in that instance, she doesn't have anything to lose, it's a benefit to pick up the phone. It's a benefit to write a letter, it's a benefit to ask somebody for a warm intro. She doesn't have anything to lose. She's you can't lose more than zero. You know, you can't overdraft in this case. And so to just show your brain sometimes of like, the thing I'm so scared of, I can handle. It's not a big deal. I can handle this. This is I got me right Kevin in the basement. I don't need to run upstairs. This is my imagination, right? A part of me is scared and a part of me really wants to make this call because this daughter gave a significant gift one time that shows me something that tells me something thing, right? I'm not done yet. And if you have that energy of No, I'm not done yet, let's go, then what would you do versus the energy of I don't want to bother. I don't want to bother people, I don't want to, you know, bug people, right? That's a totally different. That's, those are totally different steps and actions that you take when you're thinking that. So we're gonna get you into daring action mode, we're going to do it in a way that doesn't feel terrible, I promise. And we're going to give you the strategy and the scripts inside so that you don't go into these meetings feeling like a fish out of water. Alright, so come join us in the club. enrollment is open, you can click the show notes, join us in the club, and you'll get the support of outreach genius, as well as our core programs, easy emails, amplify social impact, where I teach a lot of these street team strategies inside. Alright, I'll see you next time.