Make sure to get your free copy of ‘The 10 Commandment 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

Today, my fellow Catholics, we are going to answer the important question: Why is it so hard to ask for donations? I’m going to explain exactly why it is so hard; I’m going to explain how it could be less difficult and… I’m going to give you a few tips along the way on how you can ask for donations for your next campaign for your apostolate. This is our objective for the next few minutes. 

Hi, I’m Brice Sokolowski. Before we start, I just want to introduce myself. You might know who I am (you might not!). I run CatholicFundraiser.net, a website that is completely dedicated to helping Catholics with their fundraising. I help people find donors; I help people ask for donations. I help build campaigns as well, predominantly using the tools of the Internet because, with the Internet, you can find thousands of donors very quickly, and raise donations quickly as well. So that’s my focus. At the same time, I can also help you with writing appeals letters, developing one-on-one events, etc. So that is what I do here at CatholicFundraiser.net, but before we dive in about why it’s so hard to get donations, make sure you’ve downloaded, absolutely for free, my Ten Commandments of Catholic Fundraising.. 

These are 10 lessons that I think will really help you with fundraising, that has been downloaded by tens of thousands of people, whose overall consensus is a thumbs up. These are 10 lessons that I have learned,  that have really, really helped me with my fundraising. It’s a consolidation of what really works in the Catholic context. So make sure that you download it, absolutely for free, my Ten Commandments to Catholic Fundraising.

Okay, let’s dive into why it’s so hard to get donations. As I mentioned, we’re going to dig into the direct reasons, and we’re going to take a kind of journey. It’s going to be straight talk and answer a lot of questions. 

First, ask the question: Where do you find donors? Where can you find them? My response to you is, God is always putting people directly into your life. So that means, look to the people around you for (more than likely) the best people to ask. So where do you find them? In the people around you. 

Second, you’re likely uncomfortable with asking the people around you. So when you ask me, what do I say to these people? I simply say, ask them if they clearly understand what it is that you do and why you do it. Simply ask if they understand why you do what you do and why and how you do it. You can — more than likely — simply ask them a question as simple as for a donation. 

However, the third point in this journey is, you’re probably getting more uncomfortable thinking, well I asked the people around me. I made sure that they know what I do. So when do I ask? When’s the right time? My response is always now, the sooner the better. Just ask if they know what you do, and how you do it, and if they know that then why not go and ask them for a donation as quickly as possible? 

Finally, you’re probably going to ask me, how do I ask? Once you know the Who and When then HOW do you ask? Okay, I say simply call them up,  or meet just to say, hey, forget about writing a letter. Forget about complicating things. Just call or meet with them and just ask. 

Why is it so hard to ask for donations? The inevitable happens (after I tell people this is the number one way to ask). They want to find people that don’t know them or never heard of them, or they go after a grant and submit an application. 

That’s what people usually do. So you can either put your fundraising on pause again because it is hard to ask, um, or you can take my advice and actually dive in because the reality, my friends and fellow Catholics, is this: Fundraising is not easy. If it were easy, everybody would have all the donations and donors they want, all the time. Unfortunately, asking is hard. It is difficult. But I have given you a direct path to follow for figuring it out. Just do it. Just tell yourself okay, just get underway. Let’s ask for donations and make it happen. 

It’s difficult for everybody. It’s difficult for me, even though I’ve been doing this for years. So hopefully this has helped answer the question, why is it so hard to get donations? Go out there, start raising funds and if you need any help, let me know. Please share this with a friend or apostolate that you think might benefit from it. God bless!