Your Donors Don’t Always Know Your Nonprofit Needs Money

Nonprofit GrowthDevelopment
Written By Sherry Quam Taylor
Image of a nonprofit leader having an investment-level conversation with a potential donor and showing them their organization's need for money.

There’s a comment I make multiple times a day. It often gets an odd side-eye back at me. And it's true for all sized organizations - my $2M annual budget orgs and my $100M annual budget orgs…

What is it?

👉 Your donors don’t always know you need more money.

I know, you’re a nonprofit. Nonprofits need money.

But, donors think you’re funded by the government, a wealthy board, a generous ex-wife of an Amazon executive, or through that day you got good press on Good Morning America. 

Typically, not true.

There’s only one person who can clarify YOUR NEED for them.

And that’s you and your fundraising team sitting down and having an investment-level conversation with them.

But, what do I hear all the time?

😬 Donors don’t ask those types of financial questions.

😬 I hope the donor doesn’t ask a bunch of numbers questions.

😬 Donors only want to hear stories - don’t bore them with the numbers.

I couldn’t disagree more. How do I know? I see it all the time.

My clients double and triple mid- and major-level donor gift sizes after they learn how to show donors they need money in a clear, confident, and non-pushy way.

If your entire team isn’t confidently leading donors through investment-level conversations to secure a donor’s best gift every year, you’re leaving money on the table.

Last thing I'll say about this…For your team to share your org's true financial need, you're budget must reflect that too. No donor wants to be presented a scarcity budget full of hopes and wishes. They want and need to see a budget that tells them where you're headed. That's a fundable budget.

Full. Stop.

How about you? Where is the next place you’re investing in leveling up your skills?

Whenever you’re ready, here are THREE things you can do next:

👣 Follow me on LinkedIn where I share insider info daily — the same lessons I teach my clients about attracting larger gen-ops dollars and diversifying revenue.

🍎 Grab FREE Guides + White Papers — download robust resources you can use to push against the sector’s misconceptions, equip your board, and shift your team into High-ROI fundraising.

📈 Work with me to diversify revenue & secure the gen-ops gifts you need to grow. If you’re a business-minded nonprofit CEO with big growth plans but need to make charitable revenue from investment-level donors a bigger part of your budget, you can apply to work with me here.

Sherry Quam Taylor

Sherry Quam Taylor works with business-minded Nonprofit CEOs whose Strategic Plans require expansive budgets and larger amounts of general-operating revenue for growth. To become investment-level ready, Sherry helps leaders see their revenue potential and helps them see what may be blocking donors from giving in this way. Sherry’s clients know how to attract larger donors by solving the funding challenges at the root of the issue.

As a result of learning her methodology, Sherry’s clients become sustainable, diversify revenue, and know how to add significant amounts gen-ops revenue to their budgets. But mostly, their development departments and board have transformed into high-ROI revenue generators – aligning their hours with relational dollars and set free from the limitations of transactional fundraising.

Sherry attributes the success of her business to her passion for modeling radical confidence to the future CEOs in her house - her two college-aged daughters.

https://www.QuamTaylor.com
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