Face To Face Fundraising Training
Face to face fundraising includes going door-to-door, fundraising on the street, or by targeting donors at high-footfall venues such as a mall or corporate tech park. Each of these venues presents their own unique set of challenges and opportunities in acquiring donors for your NGO’s cause. At DDII, we provide end to end services for your non-profit to help you secure and retain donors, while deeply engaging them in your respective causes. Much of this is achieved by implementing effective face to face fundraising training methods to new and experienced fundraising professionals both.
Face to face fundraising training firstly involves understanding your NGO’s cause and helping build efficient communication strategies that will convince your target donor audience. After deciding on an appropriate campaign structure, professionals undergo an intensive face to face fundraising training sessions that cover the following aspects:
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Communication Skills
The importance of building effective communication skills among fundraising professionals cannot be stressed enough. As this job relies heavily on personal interaction, DDII trains new recruits on methods to grab attention and pitch your NGO’s cause in a most convincing manner. Mock fundraising sessions are also conducted so that team members can learn from each other on how to handle possible situations in the real world. Asking open-ended questions that emphasize a prospective donor’s agreement with your non-profit’s cause is also stressed upon.
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Body Language
Another vital part of face to face fundraising training, professionals chosen to raise funds for your NGO are closely guided to monitor and rectify their body language to inspire confidence in a potential donor. Simple exercises such as correct posture, friendly eye contact and having an open body language help new professionals nail the interpersonal skills required to raise funds for your NGO.
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Objection Handling
Given the nature of the job, face to face fundraising comes with own share of objections from potential donors. Firstly, we are intruding on someone’s personal time, space and money. Secondly, many prospects may not agree with your organization’s way of working or thinking. Fundraising professionals are trained to not feel defeated at losing a prospect and equipped with skills to close an unsuccessful pitch in a friendly (and correct) manner.
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Legal Compliance
Perhaps the most important aspect of our face to face fundraising training programme, fundraising professionals are given clear guidelines to comply with the law while signing up donors to make a financial contribution to your charity.
Sessions that educate recruits on soliciting donations from only those above 18 years of age, keeping donor financial data (bank account details/credit card numbers) secure, and maintaining a Daily Calling Report (DCR) where prospect details are noted down for reference and the organization’s future use are held.
A crucial aspect of signing up donors is to capture their bank and personal details correctly. These days, banks process recurring payments through NACH – a system that stringently verifies customer data. Forms can get rejected if donor details do not match, so it’s important for the street fundraiser to get a donor’s account number, name, address and signature perfectly, without any errors, while signing up people on the street.
DDII also runs a thorough background check and screens all new fundraisers to ensure that they uphold high levels of ethics and integrity to manage such sensitive donor data.
