Make sure to get your free copy of ‘The 10 Commandments of Catholic Fundraising’. It’s a book that highlights the ten tasks you should do to keep you focused on your mission and hit your fundraising target, every time.

Transcript

Greetings my fellow Catholic! Today, we are going to be talking about “futuristic fundraising tactics” that work. 

What can you do that’s revolutionary? That’s going to catapult your fundraising to a new level? That’s our key topic today. I’m going to give you three pieces of advice. You’ll see how one is going to build on the other so, by the end, you’re going to be fully equipped. Stick with me until the end. I think you’re going to get a lot out of the next few minutes. 

But before we dive in, a quick introduction. My name is Brice Sokolowski and I run CatholicFundraiser.net,  dedicated to helping Catholics like you with their fundraising. So, whether you’re just starting out in development, or you’re well on your annual campaign’s way and just looking for new ideas, you are in the right spot. Especially today, when we’re talking about new fundraising tactics. 

Now, before we dive in, make sure that you download my free guide, The 10 Commandments to Catholic Fundraising. These are 10 steps to success that I have learned professionally over the course of almost a decade now. This guide puts together the best of the best and it has been downloaded thousands of times (with a consensus from readers of two thumbs up). It’s everything that I’ve learned, everything that other people have told me really works. So if you’re looking for a very focused list of fundraising steps that you should be doing, my guide, The 10 Commandments of Fundraising, is the place to go. The link will be right below, as well as this show’s notes (so everything I’m going to be saying will be archived at the link below). If you’re on, or go to, my website, it’s going to be right there. 

Okay, let’s look at new fundraising tactics that work. I am going to do a little twist here that you might not like, but I think it’s worthwhile saying. Here are my three pieces of advice. 

First, the old is new. Old is new. Have you abandoned those old fundraising strategies? And the reason I say that is, too many Catholic apostolates have forgotten about the old ways of fundraising. They’ve drifted into what they think works… You know, a little bit of grant writing, a little bit of appeal letter writing, a little falling back on some “targeted list” or another, all sprinkled on top of their fundraising strategy. But what I’ve found is that the old, true fundraising tactics still really work.  Specifically, there are two new fundraising tactics to old fundraising tactics that I think have been extremely overlooked over the past few years and have been a tremendous asset in my own fundraising. So “old” is new. 

Point Number Two identifies two “old” strategies that I think you should take a second look at and reconsider. For me,  I have found that nothing beats these. strategies. 

There is the direct ask. The direct ask means asking people face to face. I know, most people’s reaction is,  I want to do something else. Well then, go off and do other things! But I promise you, you are going to spend 100 times more time and effort doing something ‘different,’ just to avoid doing an old-school, direct ask of sitting down with somebody, speaking to them, and engaging with them, one on one. That is still a number one, timeless strategy to better fundraising. You just have to review your process. Like, how well are you really speaking to people? What are you saying to them? How well are you listening?  The words that you choose to present your ask are very, very important. I will get into all these pieces to futuristic fundraising on my website (with just a  few minutes here it would be way too long of a discussion). If you’re looking for details, go to CatholicFundraiser.net and follow me and everything that’s going on because I have a few programs that can assist in creating a confident, direct ask or appeal. So that’s my second point: Old school is the new school of fundraising. 

And then, my third point is: Use the phone. The phone is unbelievable. Sure, we have the internet, we have social media,  we can email people. All of these are excellent tools. However, again, old trumps new.  My question to you is, how much and how well are you using the phone? Is it part of your normal routine, to call people up and speak with them? Or are you just cold calling? Now, cold calling is a completely different topic (which I pretty much throw out as a fundraising strategy). I do not cold-call people. Using the phone is about building relationships and your direct asks are also a part of building relationships. That’s how the “old” is new. By reaching out to people. By being direct but also by being sincere, honest, and authentic. 

I think that’s what Catholics are looking for. And, that’s pretty much it. I could keep pounding away at these old school steps but that’s really the bread and butter of fundraising.  If you need any help with these points just jump over to CatholicFundraiser.net. I have some great resources for you. I’ve got books, I’ve got programs, I’ve got a lot of different ideas and tools that are going to help you with these “new” strategies, (which is just blowing the dust off the tried-and-true direct ask and the personal phone call ask).

So that’s all. Please,  send me an email if you have any questions. Or leave a comment, or share this with Catholics and apostolates that you know and think could benefit from the information. Thank you for your attention and may God bless you, I will speak to you again soon!