Asking for Money: Types of Asks
From the forthcoming book, The Accidental Fundraiser: A Step-by-Step Guide to Raising Money for Your Cause, 2nd Edition, by Haley Bash & Stephanie Roth
While fundraising is made up of a wide range of activities, from writing compelling messages to organizing an event to getting the word out about our cause, the one consistent activity for any successful fundraising campaign or project is asking. An ask might be for a donation, for someone’s time, to spread the word to their friends, and/or to attend a fundraising event. In general, there are two types of asks we can make: indirect asks and direct asks. Direct asks can also be divided into two types: personal one-on-one or to a few or many people at an event.
An indirect ask is a mass communication ask. Indirect asks are usually made via email or print newsletters, social media, or even traditional media such as a PSA (Public Service Announcement) on a local radio station. This type of ask is a good way to get the word out about your group and why you’re raising money, but it doesn’t get the same response as a more direct (and personalized) one. Keep in mind that the most common response in fundraising is “no” and that you have to ask many more people to donate than the number of gifts you need to reach your goal. For indirect strategies, you might solicit 2,000 people on your email list and receive just one contribution in return.
By contrast, a direct ask solicits someone directly - and often one-on-one. A direct personal ask (meaning you know the person) increases the chance that the prospective donor will make a gift (of any amount) and increases the chance of a larger gift than they might have made after seeing a video on social media, for example. A personalized email that contains content that is written specifically to the prospective donor (e.g., “loved seeing your daughter perform in her school play last week”) is a direct ask. If you are seeking a large gift, we recommend meeting with a prospect in person, on the phone, or virtually. At an event, a fundraising pitch that makes a compelling case for supporting a cause, and asks people to take immediate action through making a donation, is a form of a direct ask, although not as personal as a one-on-one appeal. A direct ask could also be a call, text, or voice memo, although the chances of a gift resulting from such an ask will greatly increase if the prospect personally knows the solicitor.
In your fundraising efforts, it can be tempting to stick to less personal, mass appeals when soliciting donations or recruiting volunteers. It’s normal to feel nervous about making the people you’re asking feel uncomfortable, and indirect, mass solicitations allow the recipient to ignore or reject the request by just not responding to the message.
However, using both direct and indirect asks, you can expect around 80% of your yeses to come from direct asks. You will reach more people with mass solicitation, but you will get more, and often larger, gifts and time commitments from direct solicitation. Here are our recommendations regarding whether and when to make direct vs. indirect appeals:
If you want to be as successful as possible in building a team and raising the funds needed for your cause, we encourage you to make personal one-on-one asks. If you have an existing list of supporters, prioritize and assign outreach based on who your team members already have relationships with.
If you want as many people as possible to learn about your cause, then use mass, indirect, and inherently less personal, strategies. As people become more familiar with a cause, they are more likely to donate (assuming they agree with you). Marketing research has shown that people need to hear about a new product as many as seven times before they’re willing to purchase it, and we can apply that to fundraising for an organization that a prospective donor may not have heard of before.
If you’ve been making indirect, and less personal, asks of people in your community and haven’t gotten much response, try asking them again–directly this time!
Finally, we’re not saying to never make asks in email newsletters or social media. In fact, we recommend including an ask in most of your newsletters as a way to reinforce the point that your cause needs money to carry out your work, although these kinds of asks do not tend to bring in gifts on their own. Some people will give or take action after seeing what you’ve shared through mass communication because they aren’t on your list to contact directly, they’re passionate about the cause, or they’ve been looking for more ways to donate or volunteer. We encourage you to incorporate mass appeals after you’ve tapped your networks with personal asks, or when possible, do both at the same time.