Practice as a Pillar of Fundraising Success
In athletics, music, and countless high‑performance fields, the word practice evokes repetition, refinement, and resilience. For fundraising teams at colleges and independent schools, adopting a “practice mindset” can shift fundraising efforts from reactive conversations to strategic routines. Ultimately, those practiced routines lead to more consistent and deeper donor engagement.
As part of a recent video series, our founder Chris Dudley spoke about the importance of practice in your fundraising efforts. “Fundraising is a skill just like anything else, and the more you practice, the more comfortable and confident you’ll become. Practice listening, practice asking great questions, practice sharing your school’s vision, practice overcoming objections, and practice actually making the request for someone to become an investor in your school.”
Practice doesn’t mean doing the same thing over and over without reflection. Rather, practice includes regular rehearsal of every aspect of an investor meeting. Use your colleagues to rehearse real-life donor meetings and conversations that you’re likely to have.
Consider using video to capture your practice session. Following the session, review what worked well, didn’t work well, and areas to improve. Review whether you covered key elements of the conversation like why now matters, what impact their investment will create, what the donor’s role is, and more.
Finally, embrace a growth mindset. Trust that “next time”’ will be better because you learned from the previous time. Be open to feedback and constructive criticism. Make those things be important parts of your office culture.
If your team can adopt the notions of practice, rehearsing, and role playing, you’ll be better equipped to not only your immediate goals, but to build a culture of continuous improvement that pays dividends year after year.
At AdvancementEDU, we’re committed to helping schools and colleges embed those practices so that when the big meeting arrives, you’re ready.