May 6, 2021 • 57 mins
Fundraising doesn’t have to be a chore! Why should it be? We get to invite people into a greater story. David Oaks and I had a fun conversation about the simple things you can put into practice today to build better relationships and raise more money for your mission.
Connect with David:
Website: www.wsdevelop.com
Instagram: @davidLoaks12
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DavidLOaks
Twitter: @davidoaks
If you struggle to tell stories, you’ll struggle to raise funds.
In the Mission Writers course:
- Learn the exact stories that every ministry, missionary, and nonprofit needs to tell.
- Master the fundraising story calendar.
- Develop and practice essential storytelling skills to increase funding for your mission.
- Build your story library and your confidence.
Details at MissionWriters.org
Mission Writers is an online course and group coaching experience where you’ll develop and practice essential storytelling skills to help increase funding for your mission. Get started now, for a year of coaching at over 60% off the regular price.
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit lifeandmission.substack.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Kay (00:01):
Welcome to Episode 63 of the Life and Mission Podcast.
I'm Kay Helm, and Today my guestis fundraiser, David Oaks. Now,
don't run because you don't likefundraising because I'm telling
you, if you listen to thisinterview, you are going to be
sold on fundraising as like themost fun thing you can do. It is
(00:22):
this, this interview was ablast. Before starting his own
business. David was a successfulChristian pastor who maximized
relationship and organizationalgrowth strategies to build
larger organizations. Andnowadays, you'll find him
coaching nonprofit leaders,leading capital campaigns and
making new friends on theinternational stage. All while
(00:42):
mentoring young men and women athome and abroad through his own
nonprofit, BethlehemInternational School Foundation,
David talks about minor touchesthat result in major gifts.
And I really want you to hearthis, there are a couple of
things that you can do that arereally simple. And if you'll do
it, it will make the world ofdifference in your fundraising.
(01:07):
So let's jump right into theinterview with David Oaks. Hi,
David, welcome to the life andMission Podcast.
David (01:17):
Kay, it is my privilege and honor to be here with you.
I've already told you you knowthis, but I'll tell all of the
people who follow you found youand I stalked you. And the
reason that we're here friendsand the reason we're going to be
great friends, even in thefuture, because I've already
decided. I stalked you andlistened to your podcast, I've
(01:38):
overdosed on - I say overdose,od. I find people and then od on
them. And the more I hear andknow and learn about you, the
more I think David, that was agreat decision to pull Kay Helm
into your life. So it's my honorto be here, there are about five
people that I've picked, I cantell you who they are, you know,
(02:00):
I'm all their big shots, big andamazing people. And I'll start
them all and I'm almost at theend of pulling them into my
life. God has been so good tome. So thank you for letting me
be here today. You're one of myheroes, I follow you and I'm
learning from you. I'm learningfrom you. And I love it.
Kay (02:20):
I've actually done the same thing with you. I've been
through your podcast episode.
You know, I
David (02:27):
get a lot of emails and I don't open them all. But I open
all of yours. And and becauseit's just it's good stuff. It's
good stuff and aligned to whatwe're doing here. So
I need people like you aspartners in my life to help me
because I just write whatevercomes to my gut, whatever I
face. And I don't know if it'sworth anything. I'm really, as
(02:50):
they say, throwing a lot ofstuff against the wall, trying
to find out what what sticks andwhat actually helps people
everything that goes through mymind and all my musings are not
helpful. Okay, trust me when Itell you that.
Kay (03:06):
I don't think I don't think you're alone in that I sometimes
it's funny, isn't it? How thatsometimes the things that you
think are the best, at leastwith me, sometimes the things
I've worked the hardest on thathome, shaped and spent the time
on. And I'm really proud of it.
Those things like they're just,like duds. And then the things
that you just kind of did offthe cuff or got surprised by, or
(03:30):
you just kind of threw somethingout there and it sticks.
David (03:36):
There was a few months ago that I was getting
contribution statements in themail. And I got one and I ripped
it open. And it was thestatement and it showed my
monthly giving, because I hadgiven not largely- I don't have
a lot of money to give. But Igave consistently. And there was
(03:57):
just that statement. And it juststruck me as wrong. It looked
like somebody would have just,at least wrote on the sheet, put
a sticky note or printed a formletter and said, Hey, thank you
for all you did this year, anoff the cuff just off the cuff.
I just sat down and wrote justout of the top of my head. Don't
(04:21):
like never I don't remember thetitle but it was 'never send out
a naked contribution statement'.
And remember, that's been one ofmy most the people speak back to
me about that. And I think gosh,I've sat down and honed and
written and I've got I've hireda coach to help me to write
great post. Nobody's muchresponded and this little thing
that was 10 minutes off the cuffand before I knew better, I'll
(04:45):
press in and send it out toeverybody. That's been something
that more people have respondedto. Hey, I heard that I heard
that you know, so we don't know.
We don't know is what
Kay (05:00):
I you know, and and, and and I want to say this early
because I don't want people tobail out on this episode because
we're going to talk aboutfundraising, that fundraising is
not a bad word.
You know, because I know I knowa lot of folks that go Okay,
it's like a necessary evil likewe say that about fundraising
(05:21):
and marketing. And and actually,I have to tell you, I've enjoyed
both. And I know you, I know youenjoy fundraising, and raising
David (05:30):
is fun. I say that fundraising is fun. And if
people just look back at me, andthere it's
Kay (05:37):
It's right - is right in the word.
David (05:42):
I gotta use that. Thank you. It's got a little one liner
there. Thank you. Okay. But yes,I say it's fun. We both are
great friends with Mary Vallone.
And I can never forget, forgetthe landing pain of her website.
I don't know if it's still thesame, because she just changed
it. But it was fundraising justgot easy. And I just think I'm
gonna love you, Mary. But I'mstealing that I'm gonna change
(06:05):
it a little. I want my pictureto be on my website. And I
wanted to say, fundraising justgot fun. It's the most fun thing
in the world. I don't know whyeverybody is not standing in
line going. Would you please letme would you teach me it's it's
one of the most fun things inthe world. It is. It's not hard.
It's not. It's not hard. It'sjust fun. I don't know what else
(06:30):
to say. That's probably why Ihave a job. Right.
Kay (06:34):
There you go. Yeah. And I mean, we all have, right, our
strengths and our weaknesses, Ithink but I think a lot of times
we avoid the fundraising part.
And a lot of us, you know, we'vegot I had I was sharing my
story. And one day I'll, I'llshare it on the whole podcast,
but just kind of the short storyof getting thrown into this
ministry. And I had to learnfundraising, because it was
necessary for us to see thevision fulfilled. And in our
(06:58):
case, we had kids that we neededto provide food for. And so
there was just such a factor ofthis absolutely has to be done,
that it drove me to learn asmuch as I could about this kind
of fundraising and nonprofit,
David (07:18):
You know, the good thing like she said, Don't tune out.
The wonderful, amazing thingabout fundraising is the same as
marketing. You and our closefriends, again with Mike Kim.
And I know you're helping himwith his book. But Mike is
famous to me what I always I canhear Mike's in my head, lots of
times I hear, you know, when Imake doesn't try to do my
(07:39):
marketing, but he says,"Marketing is not about making a
sale. Marketing is about openingand nurturing a relationship."
And so fundraising, all that youlearned about fundraising that
works really was not aboutgetting dollars. It taught you
how to have betterrelationships. And so what I
(08:01):
learned from Mike about openingrelationships, it I just think,
Oh my gosh, this is fun.
Raising, it is not about gettingdollars. It's not about getting
money. It's about nurturingrelationships. And that makes it
easier. It also makes it fun,because I love people most of us
do. And when you have greatrelationships, it makes every
(08:22):
day just a joy to live. If itweren't for great relationships,
why would we get up every dayand keep going? this world
hurts, it will hurt you. Life istough life will hurt you. The
one thing that makes it allworthwhile, and they're eternal.
I'm a man of faith, and you getto take my relationships with me
(08:46):
to the next life. Oh my God. Sowe're not just friends for now,
girl, you'll have your ownplanet one day, and I'll have my
own planet one day and thekingdom that never quits
expanding. And I'll be poppingover to Kay's planet today, you
know, and I get to keep youforever. That's what fundraising
(09:09):
is. It's not about making $1from you. It's about the
relationship that we're going tocelebrate eternally. And when I
look at it that way, and nothard is not tough. It's fun
because it's about how I get toenjoy you and you get to enjoy
me. Okay, that's it. Oh, my God,I don't know what's good. I
(09:34):
don't know what else in life isworth that much. It's It's
wonderful.
Kay (09:40):
You know, we were talking about marketing a little bit
before we hit record too. Andand for me, that's the whole
marketing and like, like Mikesays, he has built a
relationship, but it's for me,it's sharing the stories. You
know, I'm kind of stories. Andit's, it's I love to let me tell
you what happened. Easy actuallyfun? Yeah, hold on. Yeah. Yeah.
(10:05):
Yeah, so job, we're doing stuffover in, you know, with our
ministry, we're doing stuff andyou know, West Africa and Asia
and different places where a lotof the folks that are giving
have never been or will nver go themselves. And and somet
mes we forget that. And and wthink it, we make it only abo
(10:27):
t just the the things we're doig, and not about the peopl
we're working with and abut the stories that come out of
t. And it's time to broaden tat out and say, How can I bri
g? How can I bring my friendsho are giving and help them
eet my friends? Who are on thother end of this training?
(10:50):
nd who are a part of us? Becauswe're all part of this thing to
ether. And how can I kind of bing us all together? A
David (10:58):
make a part? Yes. And that's the power of stories. I
teach and say that stories arethe currency that nonprofit
leaders collect in order to paytheir donors. And if you see
yourself as a collector ofstories, and you've got donors
that are waiting for to be paid,then you work hard to get the
(11:23):
stories and then not justgetting the stories, but there
is an art and there's a skill tostorytelling. And that's why I'm
pulling you into my life becauseI again, I teach it and I
believe it, I know it, the morethe better you get at being a
storyteller, the more moneyyou're going to raise the
(11:46):
greatest fundraisers arewonderful storytellers. And Kay,
we're not telling stories aboutthe carpet we laid in the back
of our mission house, or the newvan that we bought. I know that
matters. I know it matters.
But honestly, a story about aconstituent that gets to ride in
(12:07):
that van. And the joy on theirface or the pain that we take
away from them having to ride inan old jalopy. That story is
much more powerful than mystory. Hey. We got a new van. So
I've made I've been on themission field. I go, I'm on the
(12:27):
mission field. And I flew in, Iflown for 18 hours. And I've got
in an old jalopy of a van thatbeat me half to death for
another four or five hours. I'mtelling you, there are great
stories there. If they can bemined. So anyway, how in the
(12:51):
world did I go there? I don'tOkay, I'm full of hot air. And
you just get me excited aboutfundraising. But storytelling
and stories that his stories arefun, stories are easy. Once we
started sort of go into it andlearn the craft, and you are an
(13:12):
expert.
That's why we all need you, Kay,because you are an expert in the
craft of storytelling. And if webecome better storytellers, and
I think I think that's whyfundraising feels so dirty
because we think fundraising isabout me asking you for dollars.
Fundraising is about me tellingbetter stories. What are you
(13:36):
kidding me? That's easy as pie!if you didn't explained it to me
that way. I hadn't been doingthat lots earlier. Fun, right?
The better you betterstoryteller you become, the more
money you raise. It's thatsimple. That easy. Now, you have
a craft Kay, and people pay youand pay you well to help them
(13:57):
with that. So as nonprofitleaders as fun writer raisers,
we Raiders, fun writers onfunding your bank account from
my mission, as fund raisers.
When we understand the strategy,and the power of great stories,
and not just stories, we've gotto understand the technique and
(14:21):
the craft of storytelling.
Once we understand that we cangive our heart and loves to it
as I have begun to I'm not anexpert storyteller, but I'm
making friends who can teach meand you and Mike Kim and your
expert, you've learned thatcraft of storytelling so of
(14:44):
course I pulled you ma I'm justa stock storyteller than doing
my best to get them in my life.
Your one. I want and I need you.
Fun-raising the fun infundraising comes when we
understand that it's a biggushing river to cross, we look
(15:04):
at the river and think, Oh, dearGod, how can I cross that river?
Well, when a guide shows up andsays, Look, do you see that
rock? Yes. You see the secondrock about halfway through? Yes.
Do you see that next rock? Yes,jump on the first one, you get
on that one, hop to the secondhop to the third, hop over,
you're done, then suddenly, witha Oh my God. Now, instead of
(15:27):
looking at this horrible ragingriver, you know what I'm looking
at? I'm just looking at thisthree easy rocks that I'm about
to jump off, jump on. You knowwhy? Because now I have a guide
who's shown me that. So anyway,I think fundraising once
somebody shows up, and gods arefocused to those three rocks
(15:50):
that we can, maybe with just alittle effort, maybe they're not
so easy, but with a littleeffort, I can jump to that first
rock. And with some effort, andwith some guidance, I can an
anger that other than thatbecomes my focus. There's a
raging river there, but I'm notlooking at that. That raging
river is scary. Yeah, know what,those three rocks, somewhat
(16:13):
scary, I could miss somewhat.
But with help, I'm going tofocus on those and I'm going to
do it. And then it becomes fun.
And somebody says, what wouldyou hate fundraising? What are
you talking about? Fundraisingis jumping on that rock jumping
on that rock, jumping on thatrock hitting the shore on the
other side, which is, you know,I'm focused on those rocks. And
(16:37):
the the other side we're beingfully funded is and when you get
fully funded, oh, my goodness,you.
Those are, that's a set ofglasses, that you begin to look
at the whole world, you startlooking at the kingdom in a
whole different way. And whenyou live with a poverty mindset,
(16:59):
I don't know it just sort of wewe see poverty, we see lack. And
we see that there's not enoughand then we begin to act that
way. And we just attract peoplewho are struggling also. And it
becomes hard. So I don't know,focusing, having a strategy, and
then focus on abundance. There'senough money in this world to
(17:21):
fund all of our missions dozensof times over Yes, I can double
what I'm doing. There's enoughmoney in the world, trust me,
there's more money than we need.
But there's few of us whounderstand how to get to where
it's at. And I think that's whythere are so like, they say it's
not crowded at the top that 1%there are a few people who have
(17:45):
way more money than they'll everneed to eat tomorrow on or to
pay the rent. I think if we canunderstand how to get to that,
then we move on up the hierarchywhere there is no lack. We don't
see it, and we don't have it. Sofundraising is about
(18:07):
relationships, seeing a path,and then just enjoying it along
the way. enjoying it along theway. I'm a person of faith, the
God I serve. He's not sitting upin heaven fretting over how I'm
going to meet my budget. Nope,nope. And if I can see the world
of the kingdom like he does, Iwill be going, no problem.
(18:29):
They're not a problem there.
Kay (18:33):
That's right. That's right.
I you know, before we started, Iwas gonna say I was gonna ask
you if if what is one other wordthat you could use instead of
fundraising? And my guess is you
David (18:45):
you know, it can be friend raising and raising a
would say,relationship maximizing, you
know, aka just how to have morefriends in this world. How to
give people is this afundraising, aka this, these are
some good blog posts, Kay,you're helping me aka, I'm
(19:05):
giving people amazingopportunities to go places all
over the world. And to kickhistory in its side. And never
leave your easy chair. You cando it by just interacting with
(19:25):
our mission. And that's awesome.
I have my own nonprofit andwe're starting a school with
Palestinians who don't speak ourlanguage, don't know our faith
and don't hold our faith in theMiddle East. And I just think oh
(19:46):
my gosh. How often do people inmy part of the world in South
Georgia, how often to people inSouth Georgia. Get to Kick
history in its sides, how oftendo we get to impact history in
(20:07):
the Middle East? That's prettyrare. That's the opportunity I'm
bringing into my donors. It'shistoric. You want to make
history. Come go with me andbring your checkbook and bring
your checkbook. This is You andI are going to impact history
together. This thing's historic.
If it was a historic, I wouldn'tbe doing it. If it wasn't
changing the world as we foundit. You and I are about to
(20:30):
correct some injustice. Howoften do we get to do that? I
didn't get to march with MartinLuther King, I want to hope that
I would have if I had theopportunity, I want to believe I
would have I don't know. But I'mtelling you, I'm not going to
miss my chance today, to marchwith history. I'm marching with
(20:51):
history. I'm kickin history andat sides. I'm making history.
fundraising is me bringing youthe opportunity to make history.
You and I are going to take thisworld. And together, we're going
to leave it a better place thanwe found it. Oh my God, okay.
(21:15):
I'm telling you, it makes mewant to get my checkbook out
right now. That's all I canthink of is I bring these
opportunities to donors, youknow, they say after they write
their check, thank you. And ifyou need more, they'll always
wink wink and go, here's whatI'm doing. But if you don't meet
(21:37):
your goal, when you startgetting to the deadline, come
back and talk to me calls. Thisis got to be done. This is
important is it, isn't it? AndI'll just say absolutely
important. And I'm yeah, rarely,rarely have to go back to them.
I never do. Because other peoplejumped in line and took that
(21:58):
chance for Oh,
Kay (22:02):
I love it. Yeah, it's it's, you know, because it's that's
the difference between comingand kind of feeling because I've
heard people equate fundraisingto begging feeling like they
were begging and things likethat. And I've felt that way.
And but but if it's if if weonly come to people, when we're
kind of at the end of our rope,and
David (22:24):
poverty mindset, yeah, you're just at the end. I'm not
bleeding. I'm not begging. I ambringing you an opportunity to
partner with Providence. If youdon't, if you're not a person of
faith, I'll still take yourmoney. I'm giving you an
opportunity to partner with theuniverse. I don't care how you
see it. This is important. Thisis massive. It's awesome. And
(22:48):
you know what, I think weprobably got a hold of the
smallest end of the biggestthing go and come on, join us. I
love to Oh, my God, I'd love tohave you a part of our team.
fundraising,
Kay (23:01):
see a lot of people I mean, we all want to be part of a
winning team. Yes, we do. Sookay, I'm a hockey fan. So the
trade deadline went went pastand everybody's you know, and,
and one of the big things is,superstar player over here is
looking for a team that has achance to win the Stanley Cup,
(23:23):
because they've been over herefor six or seven years. And it
ain't happening. Because thisteam is just not at that point.
But they're seeing their own arcwhere they're in maybe the end
of their career. Maybe I got oneor two seasons left, I need to
get over here to this team. Andpeople do that with their money.
They go okay, I don't know. I'mkind of getting in a sinking
ship feeling all the time overhere. So we don't want to be I
(23:47):
don't wanna
David (23:49):
I don't want to be on that ship. I don't want to be on
that ship. Give me a ship thatpops out on top of the water and
skips across the top. Invite meonto that ship. I want one
that's just popping over the topof the water. Yeah, give me that
ship. Everybody loves a winner.
Yeah, everybody wants to be on awinning team. And so we when
(24:11):
when we offer donors thatopportunity, I got a team and we
are kicking history in it side.
And I have a few opportunitieshere that you could take
advantage of. It's not hard, andpeople were dying for
significance yet we are we're,it's part of, I don't know, we
(24:33):
were put here to make adifference. I do believe that.
And when someone offers us thatopportunity, I don't turn it
down. I don't turn it down.
might not be able to be as largea part as I want to be. But I'm
going to be apart. I'm going tobe apart. I promise you. I'm
going to be on a winning team.
(24:54):
We're going to pretend in frontof me. I'm jumping on that
thing.
Unknown (24:59):
So we We've sat, we've we've told the story to the
donor, we, they are like, get meon that boat that's skipping
across the water because I wantto be on the winning team. And
they've written the check, theyhanded it to you. You know,
wink, wink, and then you getthat back. And then you say
their two words that can makesure that you're never run out
(25:21):
of money with your mission.
David (25:23):
Or those two words.
You'll, if you will live it,maximize it, learn the power of
it, there are two words thatwill change your life, there are
two words that you cannot havegreat relationships without. And
those two words are Thank you,Kay. You cannot remain married
(25:45):
successfully. without learningthe power of Thank you. You
cannot raise children that don'thate your guts. Unless you learn
how to maximize the power ofThank you. Thank you is the
magic word, thank you. letspeople know they're significant.
(26:07):
And they matter and theircontributions matter. Saying
thank you excellently, will getyou all the money that you need.
Now, people hear me say that andthey're like, Oh, my God, if I
just go around, I'll do okay. SoI'll write my donors a thank you
(26:27):
every day. Thank you. Thank you.
You've got to hear what I'msaying. Yeah. saying thank you.
Excellently, and saying thankyou excellently. Kay, there are
so many masterful ways to saythank you. And that's what we
want to become. Just overdose onthat. We want to become experts.
(26:48):
And that's what it must oftenstart out to be the thank you
guy, but somehow that is nowbecoming our Thank you. Nobody
knows David Oaks. But they'relike that's thank you guy. Oh,
yeah, yeah. But I didn't startout with that. But it seems to
be that's just, it must be apart of my DNA.
But, you know, I was having aconversation with I was on
(27:12):
somebody else's show. And he wasanalyzing my superpower.
Apparently, there's a book Ihaven't read yet, because it's
called a Big Leap. I haven'tread it yet. But I don't know if
that's what he was coming from.
But he said, uh, David, I wastelling him first of all, that
when I go to eat in arestaurant, it's important to
(27:33):
make, I don't know where I gotthis from, but it matters and it
gets me great service, largely,largely. But when I go in, if I
always look for the server'sname, if they don't have it
identified, I ask them theirname. And I do I know I repeat
(27:54):
their name 10 times before Ileave. Um, my name is Kay, and
I'm your server today. Hi, Kay.
Thank you for serving us today.
kay, kay, what would yourecommend? Okay, what do most
people who come in here bragabout? Okay, thanks for service,
(28:15):
do what would you like to do?
Here's what I want. Okay, whatdo they, I'm going to call your
your name as many times as Ican. Now, listen, this is how I
view it. And this is the firsttime I've really and I haven't
written or this is brand new,putting it on your show. So now
(28:37):
the world's gonna know. But whenI call your name, it's one of
the ways of me acknowledging youand saying, Thank you for being
alive. And thank you foroccupying my space right now.
Just by me calling your name.
Now for me, Kay. For me, that'sa way that I can say thank you
(29:02):
for being you. Thank you forbeing Kay now. Where people of
faith, study the Scriptures andsee how important names are.
Everybody. Not everybody, but itwas a common thing. When Jesus
met people, he just gave him anew name. I do that a lot too.
(29:22):
He gave him his little petnames. You know, my name is
Peter. No, you're the rock Hey,rock, come over here. You know.
So calling people by their nameis and it's a high, high, high
form of saying thank you, notfor what you've done for me. But
(29:42):
for you being you.
Okay, I'm getting intoxicated onthat thought. Few people
understand the power of that. Gostudy how to make friends and
when you know, they are We knowthis, but we don't work on it to
(30:03):
maximize it. But saying thankyou excellent play. And I
remember sharing this on a onone of our you and I work
together with Mary Valloni on ona team meeting that we were in,
I remember her saying, I got acard today and yesterday and
then I got another card today,it almost feels like, you know,
as Lego too. Can you go too far?
You can't go too far in sayingthank you excellently. Can I
(30:28):
stalk you? Well, goodnessgracious, yes. I don't call that
saying thank you. But there aresystems and strategies that we
can learn that maximize thepower of thank you and I often
talk about, and it's one of themain things that I teach is,
what do you do when someonegives to your organization for
(30:52):
the first time, and I just had amissionary because I was I was
on a show with Mary Valloni. Youand I both were just the other
day. So I'm getting responsesfrom missionaries all over the
world. And they're saying, howoften should I write my
daughter's and say, Thank you,should I write a personal note
every month? And I just said,You know, I don't think they're
expecting that. But choosespecial moments, when someone
(31:16):
does gives a gift to you for thefirst time. Are you kidding me?
Again, go study first things inthe scripture where people have
faith, every time something wasdone for the first time. Go
study that thing. There's someprinciples there that you can
(31:37):
learn. It's called theprinciples of first things and
scriptures. So anyway, you don'twant to write them every day.
And I'm sure that if that wouldwork, missionaries that just do
that. And they'd be fullyfunded, but fun, strategic
opportunity to say thank youexcellently. My kids had, Joe
operates children, when they didtheir chores, I didn't every
(32:00):
single day, say thank you andwrite them a thank you note,
thank you for doing your chores.
I did find some strategic timesto pull them aside for things
that they had to do. They weretheir responsibility and their
chore. And I said, Here, youclean your room, you do this,
you do that you take out thegarbage you here's what you do
(32:21):
in the yard and pine cones is abig deal down here in the south.
You gave in mo hit wall for pinecones everywhere, here to do and
I just want to say, you do itwithout me asking you. You also
do a good job. You make me feelgreat. I'm proud. I just want to
say I notice it. Thank you. AndI think a lot of pastors think
(32:45):
pastors are the worst K, I cantalk about them because I've
been one all my life. pastorsare the worst people at
recognizing financialcontributions because, well, you
know, money, God, I let thedeacons do that. You're hurting
yourself. You're passing up anawesome opportunity to
(33:06):
strengthen some relationshipswith people who have spiritual
gifts giving to spiritual gifts,according to Scripture says
that, yeah, you're you'repassing up a wonderful
opportunity to interact peoplewith spirits, right to get your
passing up an opportunity tomaximize a relationship that
could prove to be strategic, ifI can tell you the truth. You're
(33:29):
passing up these opportunities.
And also years ago, JohnMaxwell, I remember, this is one
of my first eye openingexperiences. I used to go
wherever John Maxwell was he wasa pastor in San Diego. And he
just said, If you don't, if youare not a key player and funding
the vision pastor, you don'thave the right to direct and to
(33:55):
write that vision. Pastors allday long, go to churches and
say, here's what we're gonna do.
And the deacon boards are like,No, we're not. No, we're not. I
want to tell you who gets to setthe vision, whoever funds it.
And John Maxwell said, I go outand I'll meet with 10 donors and
finance what I want to do, thenI go to the deacon boards, tell
(34:17):
him what I don't want to do. Andthey'll say, that's gonna cost
too much money. And he said,then I say, I've already got the
money for it. Then what do theysay? They shut their mouth.
So pastors are that worst atfundraising pastors? Don't say
(34:37):
thank you. Excellently. Does itmean stalking people? No. It
just means finding ways,instituting systems, just
learning to say thank you and itgoes all the way back to I
consider calling person a personby their name. Consider that one
(35:00):
of the single highest forms ofsaying thank you on this earth.
I do believe that and I try topractice it. That was a lot of
hot air a soul popped and Ican't hide. You need to close
out the podcast is okay, I'mjust full on. Did you start
(35:20):
talking about fundraising? Thankyou and it being fun and
relationships. I can't stop. Ican't. I can't hush Forgive me,
please.
Unknown (35:29):
That's That's why I wanted to have you on. This will
be the easiest interview I'veever done. I'll just throw one
question out there.
David (35:35):
I'll talk for 20 minutes, and you'll say will he ever
hush?
Unknown (35:42):
This is awesome. And it's good stuff. I you know,
when you talk about sayingpeople's names, and I think
about the number of letters andthank yous even that I've gotten
addressed to dear donor,
David (35:57):
oh, my God,
Kay (35:58):
or dear friend,
David (35:59):
I got a form letter that was all written out and copied,
one spot was left blank, and itwas dear. And there was a spot
there. And the preciousnonprofit person wrote in with
an ink pen, David, so I get weused to call it mimeograph. Copy
(36:20):
the letter that was just madefor everybody. I don't know
whether he did it. I don't knowwhether he just got a teenager
to say, I'll give you $5 ifyou'll take all of these
letters, here's a list of names.
Right, David? Sam, Mark. I don'tknow, just chumped it in the
(36:41):
garbage. And did not give,because it didn't call me by
name.
Kay (36:48):
Yeah, and there are systems that will do that for us. And,
and you know, we get we getbusy. We get or we're not maybe
tech savvy. But that's a greatopportunity to pull somebody
into your ministry for 10minutes to set that up for you.
You know,
David (37:08):
the money yeah, in the budget and pay someone to set
up. If you don't know how to doit. It's worth paying someone.
And it used to be Worddocuments, it was a mail merge.
I don't know that the new thingsdo add on No, today, but you can
do a mail merge, you can, Idon't know what it's called, and
(37:30):
all of the and MailChimp and allof this CRM, but it's too easy
for it to be done for you not touse, it's kind of a low bar now.
So
Unknown (37:41):
if you're not personalizing
David (37:44):
either you do or salon, you can do no one a greater
honor than to call them by name.
And when you don't, you've hurtyourself, yeah, you've hurt
yourself and you are hurtingyourself. And then the work that
you were put here on this earthto do, it doesn't get done. And
you know, I've worked in churchall my life. And the old timers
(38:06):
used to say, you know, if youdon't get if you don't do what
God's called you to do, he'lljust raise up somebody else to
do it. I found that not to betrue. If you don't do what you
were put here ordained by God todo if you don't do what you're
put here to do, here's what Ifound. It doesn't get done. It
(38:27):
doesn't get done. Becausethere's only one of you. And
only you can do what you're puthere and so gifted to do
everything you've been put hereto do. You got the gifts.
They're in there. Yes, they are.
Yeah, they're there. Yeah. Yeah.
So
Kay (38:47):
we're developing, you know, one of those things is, is doing
those little things that we knowto do. And like I said, we were
talking before we hit recordthat, you know, there are those
things, we all have things thatwe know we're supposed to do,
and then we do them. But whatwhat is one small thing somebody
can put into practice today, toget those thank yous out it just
(39:14):
if they could just change onething, and that one thing was
going to be to make sure I'mthinking people excellently,
what's that first step theycould take now.
David (39:22):
you know, I make a big deal out of that first gift. So
just make it a law. for you as amissionary for you in an
organization. This can even bepractice in business. You're not
going to write a thank you noteto every customer you have, but
I can tell you that likely 80%of your income is coming from
(39:45):
20% of your customers. You oughtto know those people by name. So
anyway, number one, make it arule. We call this a system
right when someone gives for thefirst time It's always
acknowledged in special ways.
And that can be with you, givena phone call you sending a text,
(40:08):
you having an interaction withthat donor, it can be with you
involving your board. Your youhave a fundraising team, get a
couple or three people who, whowill help you. And then teach
them how to write that note, thenote artist say I serve on the
(40:30):
boat board, I serve on a teamwith Kay Helm, and she was
bragging on you today. Welcometo the Welcome to the giving
community, we're a close familyand having you here makes it
special, I can't wait to get toknow you more.
So celebrate a first gift.
That's a, celebrate it nowwhatever that means to you do
(40:55):
it, just do it. And then I don'tknow, mark it on your calendar
one year out, put a task on yourCRM, put it on your Google
Calendar, put it on somehow inone year. But a task that pops
(41:15):
up and tell you one year ago,David oaks gave his first gift
and then spend the time to workon that letter, send me a letter
and say David Harvey hard tobelieve it was one year ago, you
gave your first gift, happybirthday dude. And then maybe
(41:37):
give me a story since the timeyou gave your first gift. And
the last year, here's how manypeople you touched. Here's what
you accomplished. Here's whyyou're giving matters my crazy.
And having you come on boardmeant the world to us. And
(42:00):
that's why you know, we wentnuts. But that's two things that
you could do as a first timedonor and then mark it one year
out. Those are two dates thatyou can make special. I don't
know, those are two easy thingsto do. Maybe they gave that
first time and they didn't giveagain.
(42:25):
Only 19 out of 100 donors tononprofits here in this country
ever give a second gift. Oneyear is not too late for me to
get that letter from you totreat me like I was amazing. And
for you to brag on mygenerosity. You know what I
might do in a year? If I haven'tdone it, you might get my second
(42:49):
gift in one year, after you gotmy first one. And you know what
if someone else is studies tellus this is science K, studies
tell us that if you can get meto give that second gift, the
chances are through the roof,that I'll give a third or fourth
and that I will even include youin must state plan for the big
(43:13):
dollars are if you can get thatsecond gift. So there's two
practical things to practicalways that you can do
immediately. If I have adownload that you can give to
the people who listen to yourshow from me, and it's my most
(43:33):
downloaded asset. And all it isI don't say all it is I've put
some some hot air in there forme. But it's just copies of some
notes that I've written. Yeah.
So it's good
Unknown (43:47):
because I've been to your website and I've downloaded
David (43:51):
your people that are listening. I'm gonna tell you,
Marissa Nelson had NielsonNelson had me on her show. And
she's like, you know, thefinancial guru. She hasn't.
She's not a nonprofit. Sheactually does have a nonprofit,
but that's not what she's that'snot that's how she hung out. But
Maria says, like, David, I tookyour stuff. And I went right to
(44:17):
my team. And I said, she said Doyou know that my people have to
sign up and study your stuffnow? It's part of working for
her so I'm like, Oh my goodness.
So this is helpful. Just knowingI don't know I I've collected
again, I don't know why itmattered to me, but it did. But
(44:40):
I have a file over there in mycabinet. Where I keep thank yous
that mean something to me. Idon't know. You send me a thank
you and it moved my heart. Youknow, tell me the hardest thing
for me to do is to throw thatthing away. I save them. Now you
send me Thank you The didn'ttouch my heart. Okay, thank you.
(45:01):
And it's right in the garbage.
But I've collected great thankyou notes. And I've sort of
studied, why does one impact meand the other one does not. So
that download, I do give somestrategic corners and how to
make your thank you moreeffective. And you want to give
(45:25):
the kind of note that yourdonor, make it hard for people
to throw your notes away, I'mtelling you make them feel
guilty like crazy for throwingyour cards away, give them
something that moves them. SoI'll give you that link, and you
can offer it to the listeners ofyour show. I love for them to
(45:46):
have it and I get peopleresponded to me because of that
one free thing that I give away,I get more response from that,
than any other thing that I'veput out there is just writing a
great thank you note. And it'snot just nonprofits. As I said,
business people have grabbed it.
And for that, you know, your8020 rule for those that top
(46:09):
20%. If there's any customers,you don't want to lose, it's the
20% of people that bring in 80%of your revenue. And for
missionaries. And fornonprofits. Usually the Pareto
principle that 8020 rule is, isusually it's still true. There,
(46:31):
you got your top 20%, you wantto make sure you write great
notes you want to notice youwant to catch them doing good.
And make sure you notice themand call them by name. Yeah,
gift,
Kay (46:48):
you know, in that one year letter that one year, thank you
that you just talked about oneof the things that you did when
because you you just spoke outkind of a text that you might
use in that letter. And and thisis another reason you need to
grab this download from Davidis,
is he does this, you do this,you kind of naturally do it. And
(47:11):
I teach it to people all thetime, is now what you've done,
instead of sending them a letterand saying, dear donor, thank
you for your gift of blah, blah,blah, blah, yeah, here's what we
did. You've your instead, you'reincluding them, you're you're
(47:32):
saying your gift, and I don'tcare if it was $5 or $5
Unknown (47:38):
I can
Kay (47:39):
accomplish this thing.
You're $5 fed children. I mean,I used to do this $5 can go a
long way. And and it's it'simportant, and you are a part of
it. And it's including thepeople in the story. And so
always tell us get that get thewe're doing this, I'm doing
this, kind of get that languageout of the letter and make it
(48:01):
all about that donor. And one ofthe
David (48:05):
things that yes, I've taught was taught to me and it
just revolutionized my, my, myletters, after you write your
letter printed out, and then setit on the table in front of you
and take a red little redmarker. And everywhere you've
got I circle it. Everywhere youhave, we circle it there where
(48:29):
you have us circle, everywhereyou have the name of your
organization, circle it, thenjust on your word processor, it
won't make sense. But everywhereyou've got I put you print it
out and then make it rearrangethat sentence and make it fit
(48:51):
instead of because of you knowthank you for your money with
your money. We preached weministered we fed we housed we
educated take we out with thisgift. You fed homeless people.
(49:12):
Thank you for your gift. Youeducated you brought girls out
of the six, six trade my god andif you can give them some
another thing a teaches to givepeople a problem, they can solve
it if you can give them somepiece of the puzzle that they
(49:35):
actually did with that amount ofmoney. It helps them to see a
clearer picture of what theydid. Let's just say with my
organization, I can feed thehomeless and it cost me 99 cents
per meal. Then, if I can helpyou to see that every 99 sense
(50:00):
that a male What do I feel likewhen I give $5 per day? Good?
Yeah, that is made of motivatesme to want to give 100 how many
people in feeding this isawesome. So if you help them to
see this calculate some senseof, you know, we help 1000 kids
(50:27):
come out of the industry and ayear's time and we estimate the
cost to be, give them somethingthat is small enough that they
can say, ah, did that, if yousay there's a million homeless
on the streets of our city? Andcould you just give some small
(50:50):
thing to help us? That's aproblem I cannot solve. It's
overwhelming fix that. Let mebuy a meal. Let me pay for a
class. Let me if you're buying,I don't know.
Give me some piece of the puzzlethat I can personally
(51:11):
accomplish. And give me the goodfeelings that come with
accomplishing that, I'm morelikely to give even larger, and
sometimes organizations, theydon't want to do that. Because
they're like, I don't, if I tellthem, it only cost us $99.99. To
feed someone a male, they'reliable to give less. Actually,
(51:35):
it has the opposite effect. Itmakes them want to do more. So
somehow find a way to calculatea part of the problem that you
solve, and allow the donor theopportunity to totally fix it.
Give me a 99 cent meal. I'mleveled, feed your people for a
month. I mean, I might have thecapacity to do that. And if I
(52:00):
do, I'll be motivated to do it.
That's a big deal. So that's abig deal.
Unknown (52:06):
Yeah, that's good.
That's huge.
David (52:09):
Wow, let's just get out of here and go raise some money
for some amazing.
Unknown (52:14):
Yeah. Yeah,
David (52:16):
I'm like, what are we doing sit here we can be out.
Changing the world right now.
Kay (52:23):
Exactly. Well, we'll have to have you back and talk some
more. We'll go into more detailson things but really do that.
Check the show notes. I'll havethe download there. We'll we'll
get you connected with David.
David real quick, though. Howwhat's the best way that people
can connect with you?
David (52:39):
You know what the easiest way right now is becoming
Instagram. I never did socialmedia before, but I kinda, I
mean, I'm doing Instagram. I'mtrying to document what I do
just because it's like, how doyou how do you create stuff to
put on social media? Oh, my God,I'm tired even thinking about
(53:01):
that. I'm just every day I'mjust gonna give you a snippet of
something I'm doing in my day.
I'm on Instagram. Now. You canalso find me on Facebook. And if
you connect with me there, I docheck Facebook. And you can even
connect with me there onmessenger. You can find me on
LinkedIn To be honest, I forgetto even go there and check it
for weeks at a time butInstagram and Facebook are
(53:24):
probably the easiest way toconnect with me. You want to get
some downloads then you can goto my website, it's w s
develop.com that's short for aworld stage. I just what I
called my company when Istarted, you can go there. But
anyway, you can start onInstagram, you can find out what
I'm doing I'm always putting iton there and I think that's the
(53:47):
that's what I'm telling peoplewho just go to find me on
Instagram
Unknown (53:53):
We'll have the links i the show notes so people can c
n pick that up really easily ad connect.
Well there you have it aspromised, all of the show notes
will be at life and mission.comforward slash six three because
this is Episode 63 so life andmission comm forward slash six,
three. do connect with David gethis download his thank you note
(54:17):
swipe file to get you started onhow to write really nice,
effective and just beautiful.
thank you notes. I mean, theydon't have to be really
extravagant, but they do have tobe excellent. We will be back
next two weeks from now with anew episode where every two
weeks we have a new episode outand follow on life and mission
(54:37):
on Instagram On Facebook. Andwe're doing things during the
week there with community onFacebook and love to have you
join the conversation. What haveyou found that that really helps
to build relationships withdonors. What do you, as a donor
like, when nonprofits andministries are talking to you
(54:58):
about the missions? What are wemissing? What are we not telling
you in our stories? We want tohear that, too. So So jump into
that conversation over the lifeand mission community. And one
other thing I will ask you todo, somebody you know, needs to
hear this. Somebody you know,needs to hear what David has to
(55:20):
say in this episode, would youshare it with them? Most of your
podcast apps have a little Sharebutton. You just push that and
it'll send that link right onover to text message to your
buddies. I would reallyappreciate it. David would
really appreciate it and most ofall, your friend is gonna really
(55:41):
thank you. This has been theLife and Mission Podcast. I'm
Kay Helm, Find your voice. Tellyour story. Change the world.
Welcome to Episode 63 of the Life and Mission Podcast.
I'm Kay Helm, and Today my guestis fundraiser, David Oaks. Now,
don't run because you don't likefundraising because I'm telling
you, if you listen to thisinterview, you are going to be
sold on fundraising as like themost fun thing you can do. It is
(00:22):
this, this interview was ablast. Before starting his own
business. David was a successfulChristian pastor who maximized
relationship and organizationalgrowth strategies to build
larger organizations. Andnowadays, you'll find him
coaching nonprofit leaders,leading capital campaigns and
making new friends on theinternational stage. All while
(00:42):
mentoring young men and women athome and abroad through his own
nonprofit, BethlehemInternational School Foundation,
David talks about minor touchesthat result in major gifts.
And I really want you to hearthis, there are a couple of
things that you can do that arereally simple. And if you'll do
it, it will make the world ofdifference in your fundraising.
(01:07):
So let's jump right into theinterview with David Oaks. Hi,
David, welcome to the life andMission Podcast.
David (01:17):
Kay, it is my privilege and honor to be here with you.
I've already told you you knowthis, but I'll tell all of the
people who follow you found youand I stalked you. And the
reason that we're here friendsand the reason we're going to be
great friends, even in thefuture, because I've already
decided. I stalked you andlistened to your podcast, I've
(01:38):
overdosed on - I say overdose,od. I find people and then od on
them. And the more I hear andknow and learn about you, the
more I think David, that was agreat decision to pull Kay Helm
into your life. So it's my honorto be here, there are about five
people that I've picked, I cantell you who they are, you know,
(02:00):
I'm all their big shots, big andamazing people. And I'll start
them all and I'm almost at theend of pulling them into my
life. God has been so good tome. So thank you for letting me
be here today. You're one of myheroes, I follow you and I'm
learning from you. I'm learningfrom you. And I love it.
Kay (02:20):
I've actually done the same thing with you. I've been
through your podcast episode.
You know, I
David (02:27):
get a lot of emails and I don't open them all. But I open
all of yours. And and becauseit's just it's good stuff. It's
good stuff and aligned to whatwe're doing here. So
I need people like you aspartners in my life to help me
because I just write whatevercomes to my gut, whatever I
face. And I don't know if it'sworth anything. I'm really, as
(02:50):
they say, throwing a lot ofstuff against the wall, trying
to find out what what sticks andwhat actually helps people
everything that goes through mymind and all my musings are not
helpful. Okay, trust me when Itell you that.
Kay (03:06):
I don't think I don't think you're alone in that I sometimes
it's funny, isn't it? How thatsometimes the things that you
think are the best, at leastwith me, sometimes the things
I've worked the hardest on thathome, shaped and spent the time
on. And I'm really proud of it.
Those things like they're just,like duds. And then the things
that you just kind of did offthe cuff or got surprised by, or
(03:30):
you just kind of threw somethingout there and it sticks.
David (03:36):
There was a few months ago that I was getting
contribution statements in themail. And I got one and I ripped
it open. And it was thestatement and it showed my
monthly giving, because I hadgiven not largely- I don't have
a lot of money to give. But Igave consistently. And there was
(03:57):
just that statement. And it juststruck me as wrong. It looked
like somebody would have just,at least wrote on the sheet, put
a sticky note or printed a formletter and said, Hey, thank you
for all you did this year, anoff the cuff just off the cuff.
I just sat down and wrote justout of the top of my head. Don't
(04:21):
like never I don't remember thetitle but it was 'never send out
a naked contribution statement'.
And remember, that's been one ofmy most the people speak back to
me about that. And I think gosh,I've sat down and honed and
written and I've got I've hireda coach to help me to write
great post. Nobody's muchresponded and this little thing
that was 10 minutes off the cuffand before I knew better, I'll
(04:45):
press in and send it out toeverybody. That's been something
that more people have respondedto. Hey, I heard that I heard
that you know, so we don't know.
We don't know is what
Kay (05:00):
I you know, and and, and and I want to say this early
because I don't want people tobail out on this episode because
we're going to talk aboutfundraising, that fundraising is
not a bad word.
You know, because I know I knowa lot of folks that go Okay,
it's like a necessary evil likewe say that about fundraising
(05:21):
and marketing. And and actually,I have to tell you, I've enjoyed
both. And I know you, I know youenjoy fundraising, and raising
David (05:30):
is fun. I say that fundraising is fun. And if
people just look back at me, andthere it's
Kay (05:37):
It's right - is right in the word.
David (05:42):
I gotta use that. Thank you. It's got a little one liner
there. Thank you. Okay. But yes,I say it's fun. We both are
great friends with Mary Vallone.
And I can never forget, forgetthe landing pain of her website.
I don't know if it's still thesame, because she just changed
it. But it was fundraising justgot easy. And I just think I'm
gonna love you, Mary. But I'mstealing that I'm gonna change
(06:05):
it a little. I want my pictureto be on my website. And I
wanted to say, fundraising justgot fun. It's the most fun thing
in the world. I don't know whyeverybody is not standing in
line going. Would you please letme would you teach me it's it's
one of the most fun things inthe world. It is. It's not hard.
It's not. It's not hard. It'sjust fun. I don't know what else
(06:30):
to say. That's probably why Ihave a job. Right.
Kay (06:34):
There you go. Yeah. And I mean, we all have, right, our
strengths and our weaknesses, Ithink but I think a lot of times
we avoid the fundraising part.
And a lot of us, you know, we'vegot I had I was sharing my
story. And one day I'll, I'llshare it on the whole podcast,
but just kind of the short storyof getting thrown into this
ministry. And I had to learnfundraising, because it was
necessary for us to see thevision fulfilled. And in our
(06:58):
case, we had kids that we neededto provide food for. And so
there was just such a factor ofthis absolutely has to be done,
that it drove me to learn asmuch as I could about this kind
of fundraising and nonprofit,
David (07:18):
You know, the good thing like she said, Don't tune out.
The wonderful, amazing thingabout fundraising is the same as
marketing. You and our closefriends, again with Mike Kim.
And I know you're helping himwith his book. But Mike is
famous to me what I always I canhear Mike's in my head, lots of
times I hear, you know, when Imake doesn't try to do my
(07:39):
marketing, but he says,"Marketing is not about making a
sale. Marketing is about openingand nurturing a relationship."
And so fundraising, all that youlearned about fundraising that
works really was not aboutgetting dollars. It taught you
how to have betterrelationships. And so what I
(08:01):
learned from Mike about openingrelationships, it I just think,
Oh my gosh, this is fun.
Raising, it is not about gettingdollars. It's not about getting
money. It's about nurturingrelationships. And that makes it
easier. It also makes it fun,because I love people most of us
do. And when you have greatrelationships, it makes every
(08:22):
day just a joy to live. If itweren't for great relationships,
why would we get up every dayand keep going? this world
hurts, it will hurt you. Life istough life will hurt you. The
one thing that makes it allworthwhile, and they're eternal.
I'm a man of faith, and you getto take my relationships with me
(08:46):
to the next life. Oh my God. Sowe're not just friends for now,
girl, you'll have your ownplanet one day, and I'll have my
own planet one day and thekingdom that never quits
expanding. And I'll be poppingover to Kay's planet today, you
know, and I get to keep youforever. That's what fundraising
(09:09):
is. It's not about making $1from you. It's about the
relationship that we're going tocelebrate eternally. And when I
look at it that way, and nothard is not tough. It's fun
because it's about how I get toenjoy you and you get to enjoy
me. Okay, that's it. Oh, my God,I don't know what's good. I
(09:34):
don't know what else in life isworth that much. It's It's
wonderful.
Kay (09:40):
You know, we were talking about marketing a little bit
before we hit record too. Andand for me, that's the whole
marketing and like, like Mikesays, he has built a
relationship, but it's for me,it's sharing the stories. You
know, I'm kind of stories. Andit's, it's I love to let me tell
you what happened. Easy actuallyfun? Yeah, hold on. Yeah. Yeah.
(10:05):
Yeah, so job, we're doing stuffover in, you know, with our
ministry, we're doing stuff andyou know, West Africa and Asia
and different places where a lotof the folks that are giving
have never been or will nver go themselves. And and somet
mes we forget that. And and wthink it, we make it only abo
(10:27):
t just the the things we're doig, and not about the peopl
we're working with and abut the stories that come out of
t. And it's time to broaden tat out and say, How can I bri
g? How can I bring my friendsho are giving and help them
eet my friends? Who are on thother end of this training?
(10:50):
nd who are a part of us? Becauswe're all part of this thing to
ether. And how can I kind of bing us all together? A
David (10:58):
make a part? Yes. And that's the power of stories. I
teach and say that stories arethe currency that nonprofit
leaders collect in order to paytheir donors. And if you see
yourself as a collector ofstories, and you've got donors
that are waiting for to be paid,then you work hard to get the
(11:23):
stories and then not justgetting the stories, but there
is an art and there's a skill tostorytelling. And that's why I'm
pulling you into my life becauseI again, I teach it and I
believe it, I know it, the morethe better you get at being a
storyteller, the more moneyyou're going to raise the
(11:46):
greatest fundraisers arewonderful storytellers. And Kay,
we're not telling stories aboutthe carpet we laid in the back
of our mission house, or the newvan that we bought. I know that
matters. I know it matters.
But honestly, a story about aconstituent that gets to ride in
(12:07):
that van. And the joy on theirface or the pain that we take
away from them having to ride inan old jalopy. That story is
much more powerful than mystory. Hey. We got a new van. So
I've made I've been on themission field. I go, I'm on the
(12:27):
mission field. And I flew in, Iflown for 18 hours. And I've got
in an old jalopy of a van thatbeat me half to death for
another four or five hours. I'mtelling you, there are great
stories there. If they can bemined. So anyway, how in the
(12:51):
world did I go there? I don'tOkay, I'm full of hot air. And
you just get me excited aboutfundraising. But storytelling
and stories that his stories arefun, stories are easy. Once we
started sort of go into it andlearn the craft, and you are an
(13:12):
expert.
That's why we all need you, Kay,because you are an expert in the
craft of storytelling. And if webecome better storytellers, and
I think I think that's whyfundraising feels so dirty
because we think fundraising isabout me asking you for dollars.
Fundraising is about me tellingbetter stories. What are you
(13:36):
kidding me? That's easy as pie!if you didn't explained it to me
that way. I hadn't been doingthat lots earlier. Fun, right?
The better you betterstoryteller you become, the more
money you raise. It's thatsimple. That easy. Now, you have
a craft Kay, and people pay youand pay you well to help them
(13:57):
with that. So as nonprofitleaders as fun writer raisers,
we Raiders, fun writers onfunding your bank account from
my mission, as fund raisers.
When we understand the strategy,and the power of great stories,
and not just stories, we've gotto understand the technique and
(14:21):
the craft of storytelling.
Once we understand that we cangive our heart and loves to it
as I have begun to I'm not anexpert storyteller, but I'm
making friends who can teach meand you and Mike Kim and your
expert, you've learned thatcraft of storytelling so of
(14:44):
course I pulled you ma I'm justa stock storyteller than doing
my best to get them in my life.
Your one. I want and I need you.
Fun-raising the fun infundraising comes when we
understand that it's a biggushing river to cross, we look
(15:04):
at the river and think, Oh, dearGod, how can I cross that river?
Well, when a guide shows up andsays, Look, do you see that
rock? Yes. You see the secondrock about halfway through? Yes.
Do you see that next rock? Yes,jump on the first one, you get
on that one, hop to the secondhop to the third, hop over,
you're done, then suddenly, witha Oh my God. Now, instead of
(15:27):
looking at this horrible ragingriver, you know what I'm looking
at? I'm just looking at thisthree easy rocks that I'm about
to jump off, jump on. You knowwhy? Because now I have a guide
who's shown me that. So anyway,I think fundraising once
somebody shows up, and gods arefocused to those three rocks
(15:50):
that we can, maybe with just alittle effort, maybe they're not
so easy, but with a littleeffort, I can jump to that first
rock. And with some effort, andwith some guidance, I can an
anger that other than thatbecomes my focus. There's a
raging river there, but I'm notlooking at that. That raging
river is scary. Yeah, know what,those three rocks, somewhat
(16:13):
scary, I could miss somewhat.
But with help, I'm going tofocus on those and I'm going to
do it. And then it becomes fun.
And somebody says, what wouldyou hate fundraising? What are
you talking about? Fundraisingis jumping on that rock jumping
on that rock, jumping on thatrock hitting the shore on the
other side, which is, you know,I'm focused on those rocks. And
(16:37):
the the other side we're beingfully funded is and when you get
fully funded, oh, my goodness,you.
Those are, that's a set ofglasses, that you begin to look
at the whole world, you startlooking at the kingdom in a
whole different way. And whenyou live with a poverty mindset,
(16:59):
I don't know it just sort of wewe see poverty, we see lack. And
we see that there's not enoughand then we begin to act that
way. And we just attract peoplewho are struggling also. And it
becomes hard. So I don't know,focusing, having a strategy, and
then focus on abundance. There'senough money in this world to
(17:21):
fund all of our missions dozensof times over Yes, I can double
what I'm doing. There's enoughmoney in the world, trust me,
there's more money than we need.
But there's few of us whounderstand how to get to where
it's at. And I think that's whythere are so like, they say it's
not crowded at the top that 1%there are a few people who have
(17:45):
way more money than they'll everneed to eat tomorrow on or to
pay the rent. I think if we canunderstand how to get to that,
then we move on up the hierarchywhere there is no lack. We don't
see it, and we don't have it. Sofundraising is about
(18:07):
relationships, seeing a path,and then just enjoying it along
the way. enjoying it along theway. I'm a person of faith, the
God I serve. He's not sitting upin heaven fretting over how I'm
going to meet my budget. Nope,nope. And if I can see the world
of the kingdom like he does, Iwill be going, no problem.
(18:29):
They're not a problem there.
Kay (18:33):
That's right. That's right.
I you know, before we started, Iwas gonna say I was gonna ask
you if if what is one other wordthat you could use instead of
fundraising? And my guess is you
David (18:45):
you know, it can be friend raising and raising a
would say,relationship maximizing, you
know, aka just how to have morefriends in this world. How to
give people is this afundraising, aka this, these are
some good blog posts, Kay,you're helping me aka, I'm
(19:05):
giving people amazingopportunities to go places all
over the world. And to kickhistory in its side. And never
leave your easy chair. You cando it by just interacting with
(19:25):
our mission. And that's awesome.
I have my own nonprofit andwe're starting a school with
Palestinians who don't speak ourlanguage, don't know our faith
and don't hold our faith in theMiddle East. And I just think oh
(19:46):
my gosh. How often do people inmy part of the world in South
Georgia, how often to people inSouth Georgia. Get to Kick
history in its sides, how oftendo we get to impact history in
(20:07):
the Middle East? That's prettyrare. That's the opportunity I'm
bringing into my donors. It'shistoric. You want to make
history. Come go with me andbring your checkbook and bring
your checkbook. This is You andI are going to impact history
together. This thing's historic.
If it was a historic, I wouldn'tbe doing it. If it wasn't
changing the world as we foundit. You and I are about to
(20:30):
correct some injustice. Howoften do we get to do that? I
didn't get to march with MartinLuther King, I want to hope that
I would have if I had theopportunity, I want to believe I
would have I don't know. But I'mtelling you, I'm not going to
miss my chance today, to marchwith history. I'm marching with
(20:51):
history. I'm kickin history andat sides. I'm making history.
fundraising is me bringing youthe opportunity to make history.
You and I are going to take thisworld. And together, we're going
to leave it a better place thanwe found it. Oh my God, okay.
(21:15):
I'm telling you, it makes mewant to get my checkbook out
right now. That's all I canthink of is I bring these
opportunities to donors, youknow, they say after they write
their check, thank you. And ifyou need more, they'll always
wink wink and go, here's whatI'm doing. But if you don't meet
(21:37):
your goal, when you startgetting to the deadline, come
back and talk to me calls. Thisis got to be done. This is
important is it, isn't it? AndI'll just say absolutely
important. And I'm yeah, rarely,rarely have to go back to them.
I never do. Because other peoplejumped in line and took that
(21:58):
chance for Oh,
Kay (22:02):
I love it. Yeah, it's it's, you know, because it's that's
the difference between comingand kind of feeling because I've
heard people equate fundraisingto begging feeling like they
were begging and things likethat. And I've felt that way.
And but but if it's if if weonly come to people, when we're
kind of at the end of our rope,and
David (22:24):
poverty mindset, yeah, you're just at the end. I'm not
bleeding. I'm not begging. I ambringing you an opportunity to
partner with Providence. If youdon't, if you're not a person of
faith, I'll still take yourmoney. I'm giving you an
opportunity to partner with theuniverse. I don't care how you
see it. This is important. Thisis massive. It's awesome. And
(22:48):
you know what, I think weprobably got a hold of the
smallest end of the biggestthing go and come on, join us. I
love to Oh, my God, I'd love tohave you a part of our team.
fundraising,
Kay (23:01):
see a lot of people I mean, we all want to be part of a
winning team. Yes, we do. Sookay, I'm a hockey fan. So the
trade deadline went went pastand everybody's you know, and,
and one of the big things is,superstar player over here is
looking for a team that has achance to win the Stanley Cup,
(23:23):
because they've been over herefor six or seven years. And it
ain't happening. Because thisteam is just not at that point.
But they're seeing their own arcwhere they're in maybe the end
of their career. Maybe I got oneor two seasons left, I need to
get over here to this team. Andpeople do that with their money.
They go okay, I don't know. I'mkind of getting in a sinking
ship feeling all the time overhere. So we don't want to be I
(23:47):
don't wanna
David (23:49):
I don't want to be on that ship. I don't want to be on
that ship. Give me a ship thatpops out on top of the water and
skips across the top. Invite meonto that ship. I want one
that's just popping over the topof the water. Yeah, give me that
ship. Everybody loves a winner.
Yeah, everybody wants to be on awinning team. And so we when
(24:11):
when we offer donors thatopportunity, I got a team and we
are kicking history in it side.
And I have a few opportunitieshere that you could take
advantage of. It's not hard, andpeople were dying for
significance yet we are we're,it's part of, I don't know, we
(24:33):
were put here to make adifference. I do believe that.
And when someone offers us thatopportunity, I don't turn it
down. I don't turn it down.
might not be able to be as largea part as I want to be. But I'm
going to be apart. I'm going tobe apart. I promise you. I'm
going to be on a winning team.
(24:54):
We're going to pretend in frontof me. I'm jumping on that
thing.
Unknown (24:59):
So we We've sat, we've we've told the story to the
donor, we, they are like, get meon that boat that's skipping
across the water because I wantto be on the winning team. And
they've written the check, theyhanded it to you. You know,
wink, wink, and then you getthat back. And then you say
their two words that can makesure that you're never run out
(25:21):
of money with your mission.
David (25:23):
Or those two words.
You'll, if you will live it,maximize it, learn the power of
it, there are two words thatwill change your life, there are
two words that you cannot havegreat relationships without. And
those two words are Thank you,Kay. You cannot remain married
(25:45):
successfully. without learningthe power of Thank you. You
cannot raise children that don'thate your guts. Unless you learn
how to maximize the power ofThank you. Thank you is the
magic word, thank you. letspeople know they're significant.
(26:07):
And they matter and theircontributions matter. Saying
thank you excellently, will getyou all the money that you need.
Now, people hear me say that andthey're like, Oh, my God, if I
just go around, I'll do okay. SoI'll write my donors a thank you
(26:27):
every day. Thank you. Thank you.
You've got to hear what I'msaying. Yeah. saying thank you.
Excellently, and saying thankyou excellently. Kay, there are
so many masterful ways to saythank you. And that's what we
want to become. Just overdose onthat. We want to become experts.
(26:48):
And that's what it must oftenstart out to be the thank you
guy, but somehow that is nowbecoming our Thank you. Nobody
knows David Oaks. But they'relike that's thank you guy. Oh,
yeah, yeah. But I didn't startout with that. But it seems to
be that's just, it must be apart of my DNA.
But, you know, I was having aconversation with I was on
(27:12):
somebody else's show. And he wasanalyzing my superpower.
Apparently, there's a book Ihaven't read yet, because it's
called a Big Leap. I haven'tread it yet. But I don't know if
that's what he was coming from.
But he said, uh, David, I wastelling him first of all, that
when I go to eat in arestaurant, it's important to
(27:33):
make, I don't know where I gotthis from, but it matters and it
gets me great service, largely,largely. But when I go in, if I
always look for the server'sname, if they don't have it
identified, I ask them theirname. And I do I know I repeat
(27:54):
their name 10 times before Ileave. Um, my name is Kay, and
I'm your server today. Hi, Kay.
Thank you for serving us today.
kay, kay, what would yourecommend? Okay, what do most
people who come in here bragabout? Okay, thanks for service,
(28:15):
do what would you like to do?
Here's what I want. Okay, whatdo they, I'm going to call your
your name as many times as Ican. Now, listen, this is how I
view it. And this is the firsttime I've really and I haven't
written or this is brand new,putting it on your show. So now
(28:37):
the world's gonna know. But whenI call your name, it's one of
the ways of me acknowledging youand saying, Thank you for being
alive. And thank you foroccupying my space right now.
Just by me calling your name.
Now for me, Kay. For me, that'sa way that I can say thank you
(29:02):
for being you. Thank you forbeing Kay now. Where people of
faith, study the Scriptures andsee how important names are.
Everybody. Not everybody, but itwas a common thing. When Jesus
met people, he just gave him anew name. I do that a lot too.
(29:22):
He gave him his little petnames. You know, my name is
Peter. No, you're the rock Hey,rock, come over here. You know.
So calling people by their nameis and it's a high, high, high
form of saying thank you, notfor what you've done for me. But
(29:42):
for you being you.
Okay, I'm getting intoxicated onthat thought. Few people
understand the power of that. Gostudy how to make friends and
when you know, they are We knowthis, but we don't work on it to
(30:03):
maximize it. But saying thankyou excellent play. And I
remember sharing this on a onone of our you and I work
together with Mary Valloni on ona team meeting that we were in,
I remember her saying, I got acard today and yesterday and
then I got another card today,it almost feels like, you know,
as Lego too. Can you go too far?
You can't go too far in sayingthank you excellently. Can I
(30:28):
stalk you? Well, goodnessgracious, yes. I don't call that
saying thank you. But there aresystems and strategies that we
can learn that maximize thepower of thank you and I often
talk about, and it's one of themain things that I teach is,
what do you do when someonegives to your organization for
(30:52):
the first time, and I just had amissionary because I was I was
on a show with Mary Valloni. Youand I both were just the other
day. So I'm getting responsesfrom missionaries all over the
world. And they're saying, howoften should I write my
daughter's and say, Thank you,should I write a personal note
every month? And I just said,You know, I don't think they're
expecting that. But choosespecial moments, when someone
(31:16):
does gives a gift to you for thefirst time. Are you kidding me?
Again, go study first things inthe scripture where people have
faith, every time something wasdone for the first time. Go
study that thing. There's someprinciples there that you can
(31:37):
learn. It's called theprinciples of first things and
scriptures. So anyway, you don'twant to write them every day.
And I'm sure that if that wouldwork, missionaries that just do
that. And they'd be fullyfunded, but fun, strategic
opportunity to say thank youexcellently. My kids had, Joe
operates children, when they didtheir chores, I didn't every
(32:00):
single day, say thank you andwrite them a thank you note,
thank you for doing your chores.
I did find some strategic timesto pull them aside for things
that they had to do. They weretheir responsibility and their
chore. And I said, Here, youclean your room, you do this,
you do that you take out thegarbage you here's what you do
(32:21):
in the yard and pine cones is abig deal down here in the south.
You gave in mo hit wall for pinecones everywhere, here to do and
I just want to say, you do itwithout me asking you. You also
do a good job. You make me feelgreat. I'm proud. I just want to
say I notice it. Thank you. AndI think a lot of pastors think
(32:45):
pastors are the worst K, I cantalk about them because I've
been one all my life. pastorsare the worst people at
recognizing financialcontributions because, well, you
know, money, God, I let thedeacons do that. You're hurting
yourself. You're passing up anawesome opportunity to
(33:06):
strengthen some relationshipswith people who have spiritual
gifts giving to spiritual gifts,according to Scripture says
that, yeah, you're you'repassing up a wonderful
opportunity to interact peoplewith spirits, right to get your
passing up an opportunity tomaximize a relationship that
could prove to be strategic, ifI can tell you the truth. You're
(33:29):
passing up these opportunities.
And also years ago, JohnMaxwell, I remember, this is one
of my first eye openingexperiences. I used to go
wherever John Maxwell was he wasa pastor in San Diego. And he
just said, If you don't, if youare not a key player and funding
the vision pastor, you don'thave the right to direct and to
(33:55):
write that vision. Pastors allday long, go to churches and
say, here's what we're gonna do.
And the deacon boards are like,No, we're not. No, we're not. I
want to tell you who gets to setthe vision, whoever funds it.
And John Maxwell said, I go outand I'll meet with 10 donors and
finance what I want to do, thenI go to the deacon boards, tell
(34:17):
him what I don't want to do. Andthey'll say, that's gonna cost
too much money. And he said,then I say, I've already got the
money for it. Then what do theysay? They shut their mouth.
So pastors are that worst atfundraising pastors? Don't say
(34:37):
thank you. Excellently. Does itmean stalking people? No. It
just means finding ways,instituting systems, just
learning to say thank you and itgoes all the way back to I
consider calling person a personby their name. Consider that one
(35:00):
of the single highest forms ofsaying thank you on this earth.
I do believe that and I try topractice it. That was a lot of
hot air a soul popped and Ican't hide. You need to close
out the podcast is okay, I'mjust full on. Did you start
(35:20):
talking about fundraising? Thankyou and it being fun and
relationships. I can't stop. Ican't. I can't hush Forgive me,
please.
Unknown (35:29):
That's That's why I wanted to have you on. This will
be the easiest interview I'veever done. I'll just throw one
question out there.
David (35:35):
I'll talk for 20 minutes, and you'll say will he ever
hush?
Unknown (35:42):
This is awesome. And it's good stuff. I you know,
when you talk about sayingpeople's names, and I think
about the number of letters andthank yous even that I've gotten
addressed to dear donor,
David (35:57):
oh, my God,
Kay (35:58):
or dear friend,
David (35:59):
I got a form letter that was all written out and copied,
one spot was left blank, and itwas dear. And there was a spot
there. And the preciousnonprofit person wrote in with
an ink pen, David, so I get weused to call it mimeograph. Copy
(36:20):
the letter that was just madefor everybody. I don't know
whether he did it. I don't knowwhether he just got a teenager
to say, I'll give you $5 ifyou'll take all of these
letters, here's a list of names.
Right, David? Sam, Mark. I don'tknow, just chumped it in the
(36:41):
garbage. And did not give,because it didn't call me by
name.
Kay (36:48):
Yeah, and there are systems that will do that for us. And,
and you know, we get we getbusy. We get or we're not maybe
tech savvy. But that's a greatopportunity to pull somebody
into your ministry for 10minutes to set that up for you.
You know,
David (37:08):
the money yeah, in the budget and pay someone to set
up. If you don't know how to doit. It's worth paying someone.
And it used to be Worddocuments, it was a mail merge.
I don't know that the new thingsdo add on No, today, but you can
do a mail merge, you can, Idon't know what it's called, and
(37:30):
all of the and MailChimp and allof this CRM, but it's too easy
for it to be done for you not touse, it's kind of a low bar now.
So
Unknown (37:41):
if you're not personalizing
David (37:44):
either you do or salon, you can do no one a greater
honor than to call them by name.
And when you don't, you've hurtyourself, yeah, you've hurt
yourself and you are hurtingyourself. And then the work that
you were put here on this earthto do, it doesn't get done. And
you know, I've worked in churchall my life. And the old timers
(38:06):
used to say, you know, if youdon't get if you don't do what
God's called you to do, he'lljust raise up somebody else to
do it. I found that not to betrue. If you don't do what you
were put here ordained by God todo if you don't do what you're
put here to do, here's what Ifound. It doesn't get done. It
(38:27):
doesn't get done. Becausethere's only one of you. And
only you can do what you're puthere and so gifted to do
everything you've been put hereto do. You got the gifts.
They're in there. Yes, they are.
Yeah, they're there. Yeah. Yeah.
So
Kay (38:47):
we're developing, you know, one of those things is, is doing
those little things that we knowto do. And like I said, we were
talking before we hit recordthat, you know, there are those
things, we all have things thatwe know we're supposed to do,
and then we do them. But whatwhat is one small thing somebody
can put into practice today, toget those thank yous out it just
(39:14):
if they could just change onething, and that one thing was
going to be to make sure I'mthinking people excellently,
what's that first step theycould take now.
David (39:22):
you know, I make a big deal out of that first gift. So
just make it a law. for you as amissionary for you in an
organization. This can even bepractice in business. You're not
going to write a thank you noteto every customer you have, but
I can tell you that likely 80%of your income is coming from
(39:45):
20% of your customers. You oughtto know those people by name. So
anyway, number one, make it arule. We call this a system
right when someone gives for thefirst time It's always
acknowledged in special ways.
And that can be with you, givena phone call you sending a text,
(40:08):
you having an interaction withthat donor, it can be with you
involving your board. Your youhave a fundraising team, get a
couple or three people who, whowill help you. And then teach
them how to write that note, thenote artist say I serve on the
(40:30):
boat board, I serve on a teamwith Kay Helm, and she was
bragging on you today. Welcometo the Welcome to the giving
community, we're a close familyand having you here makes it
special, I can't wait to get toknow you more.
So celebrate a first gift.
That's a, celebrate it nowwhatever that means to you do
(40:55):
it, just do it. And then I don'tknow, mark it on your calendar
one year out, put a task on yourCRM, put it on your Google
Calendar, put it on somehow inone year. But a task that pops
(41:15):
up and tell you one year ago,David oaks gave his first gift
and then spend the time to workon that letter, send me a letter
and say David Harvey hard tobelieve it was one year ago, you
gave your first gift, happybirthday dude. And then maybe
(41:37):
give me a story since the timeyou gave your first gift. And
the last year, here's how manypeople you touched. Here's what
you accomplished. Here's whyyou're giving matters my crazy.
And having you come on boardmeant the world to us. And
(42:00):
that's why you know, we wentnuts. But that's two things that
you could do as a first timedonor and then mark it one year
out. Those are two dates thatyou can make special. I don't
know, those are two easy thingsto do. Maybe they gave that
first time and they didn't giveagain.
(42:25):
Only 19 out of 100 donors tononprofits here in this country
ever give a second gift. Oneyear is not too late for me to
get that letter from you totreat me like I was amazing. And
for you to brag on mygenerosity. You know what I
might do in a year? If I haven'tdone it, you might get my second
(42:49):
gift in one year, after you gotmy first one. And you know what
if someone else is studies tellus this is science K, studies
tell us that if you can get meto give that second gift, the
chances are through the roof,that I'll give a third or fourth
and that I will even include youin must state plan for the big
(43:13):
dollars are if you can get thatsecond gift. So there's two
practical things to practicalways that you can do
immediately. If I have adownload that you can give to
the people who listen to yourshow from me, and it's my most
(43:33):
downloaded asset. And all it isI don't say all it is I've put
some some hot air in there forme. But it's just copies of some
notes that I've written. Yeah.
So it's good
Unknown (43:47):
because I've been to your website and I've downloaded
David (43:51):
your people that are listening. I'm gonna tell you,
Marissa Nelson had NielsonNelson had me on her show. And
she's like, you know, thefinancial guru. She hasn't.
She's not a nonprofit. Sheactually does have a nonprofit,
but that's not what she's that'snot that's how she hung out. But
Maria says, like, David, I tookyour stuff. And I went right to
(44:17):
my team. And I said, she said Doyou know that my people have to
sign up and study your stuffnow? It's part of working for
her so I'm like, Oh my goodness.
So this is helpful. Just knowingI don't know I I've collected
again, I don't know why itmattered to me, but it did. But
(44:40):
I have a file over there in mycabinet. Where I keep thank yous
that mean something to me. Idon't know. You send me a thank
you and it moved my heart. Youknow, tell me the hardest thing
for me to do is to throw thatthing away. I save them. Now you
send me Thank you The didn'ttouch my heart. Okay, thank you.
(45:01):
And it's right in the garbage.
But I've collected great thankyou notes. And I've sort of
studied, why does one impact meand the other one does not. So
that download, I do give somestrategic corners and how to
make your thank you moreeffective. And you want to give
(45:25):
the kind of note that yourdonor, make it hard for people
to throw your notes away, I'mtelling you make them feel
guilty like crazy for throwingyour cards away, give them
something that moves them. SoI'll give you that link, and you
can offer it to the listeners ofyour show. I love for them to
(45:46):
have it and I get peopleresponded to me because of that
one free thing that I give away,I get more response from that,
than any other thing that I'veput out there is just writing a
great thank you note. And it'snot just nonprofits. As I said,
business people have grabbed it.
And for that, you know, your8020 rule for those that top
(46:09):
20%. If there's any customers,you don't want to lose, it's the
20% of people that bring in 80%of your revenue. And for
missionaries. And fornonprofits. Usually the Pareto
principle that 8020 rule is, isusually it's still true. There,
(46:31):
you got your top 20%, you wantto make sure you write great
notes you want to notice youwant to catch them doing good.
And make sure you notice themand call them by name. Yeah,
gift,
Kay (46:48):
you know, in that one year letter that one year, thank you
that you just talked about oneof the things that you did when
because you you just spoke outkind of a text that you might
use in that letter. And and thisis another reason you need to
grab this download from Davidis,
is he does this, you do this,you kind of naturally do it. And
(47:11):
I teach it to people all thetime, is now what you've done,
instead of sending them a letterand saying, dear donor, thank
you for your gift of blah, blah,blah, blah, yeah, here's what we
did. You've your instead, you'reincluding them, you're you're
(47:32):
saying your gift, and I don'tcare if it was $5 or $5
Unknown (47:38):
I can
Kay (47:39):
accomplish this thing.
You're $5 fed children. I mean,I used to do this $5 can go a
long way. And and it's it'simportant, and you are a part of
it. And it's including thepeople in the story. And so
always tell us get that get thewe're doing this, I'm doing
this, kind of get that languageout of the letter and make it
(48:01):
all about that donor. And one ofthe
David (48:05):
things that yes, I've taught was taught to me and it
just revolutionized my, my, myletters, after you write your
letter printed out, and then setit on the table in front of you
and take a red little redmarker. And everywhere you've
got I circle it. Everywhere youhave, we circle it there where
(48:29):
you have us circle, everywhereyou have the name of your
organization, circle it, thenjust on your word processor, it
won't make sense. But everywhereyou've got I put you print it
out and then make it rearrangethat sentence and make it fit
(48:51):
instead of because of you knowthank you for your money with
your money. We preached weministered we fed we housed we
educated take we out with thisgift. You fed homeless people.
(49:12):
Thank you for your gift. Youeducated you brought girls out
of the six, six trade my god andif you can give them some
another thing a teaches to givepeople a problem, they can solve
it if you can give them somepiece of the puzzle that they
(49:35):
actually did with that amount ofmoney. It helps them to see a
clearer picture of what theydid. Let's just say with my
organization, I can feed thehomeless and it cost me 99 cents
per meal. Then, if I can helpyou to see that every 99 sense
(50:00):
that a male What do I feel likewhen I give $5 per day? Good?
Yeah, that is made of motivatesme to want to give 100 how many
people in feeding this isawesome. So if you help them to
see this calculate some senseof, you know, we help 1000 kids
(50:27):
come out of the industry and ayear's time and we estimate the
cost to be, give them somethingthat is small enough that they
can say, ah, did that, if yousay there's a million homeless
on the streets of our city? Andcould you just give some small
(50:50):
thing to help us? That's aproblem I cannot solve. It's
overwhelming fix that. Let mebuy a meal. Let me pay for a
class. Let me if you're buying,I don't know.
Give me some piece of the puzzlethat I can personally
(51:11):
accomplish. And give me the goodfeelings that come with
accomplishing that, I'm morelikely to give even larger, and
sometimes organizations, theydon't want to do that. Because
they're like, I don't, if I tellthem, it only cost us $99.99. To
feed someone a male, they'reliable to give less. Actually,
(51:35):
it has the opposite effect. Itmakes them want to do more. So
somehow find a way to calculatea part of the problem that you
solve, and allow the donor theopportunity to totally fix it.
Give me a 99 cent meal. I'mleveled, feed your people for a
month. I mean, I might have thecapacity to do that. And if I
(52:00):
do, I'll be motivated to do it.
That's a big deal. So that's abig deal.
Unknown (52:06):
Yeah, that's good.
That's huge.
David (52:09):
Wow, let's just get out of here and go raise some money
for some amazing.
Unknown (52:14):
Yeah. Yeah,
David (52:16):
I'm like, what are we doing sit here we can be out.
Changing the world right now.
Kay (52:23):
Exactly. Well, we'll have to have you back and talk some
more. We'll go into more detailson things but really do that.
Check the show notes. I'll havethe download there. We'll we'll
get you connected with David.
David real quick, though. Howwhat's the best way that people
can connect with you?
David (52:39):
You know what the easiest way right now is becoming
Instagram. I never did socialmedia before, but I kinda, I
mean, I'm doing Instagram. I'mtrying to document what I do
just because it's like, how doyou how do you create stuff to
put on social media? Oh, my God,I'm tired even thinking about
(53:01):
that. I'm just every day I'mjust gonna give you a snippet of
something I'm doing in my day.
I'm on Instagram. Now. You canalso find me on Facebook. And if
you connect with me there, I docheck Facebook. And you can even
connect with me there onmessenger. You can find me on
LinkedIn To be honest, I forgetto even go there and check it
for weeks at a time butInstagram and Facebook are
(53:24):
probably the easiest way toconnect with me. You want to get
some downloads then you can goto my website, it's w s
develop.com that's short for aworld stage. I just what I
called my company when Istarted, you can go there. But
anyway, you can start onInstagram, you can find out what
I'm doing I'm always putting iton there and I think that's the
(53:47):
that's what I'm telling peoplewho just go to find me on
Unknown (53:53):
We'll have the links i the show notes so people can c
n pick that up really easily ad connect.
Well there you have it aspromised, all of the show notes
will be at life and mission.comforward slash six three because
this is Episode 63 so life andmission comm forward slash six,
three. do connect with David gethis download his thank you note
(54:17):
swipe file to get you started onhow to write really nice,
effective and just beautiful.
thank you notes. I mean, theydon't have to be really
extravagant, but they do have tobe excellent. We will be back
next two weeks from now with anew episode where every two
weeks we have a new episode outand follow on life and mission
(54:37):
on Instagram On Facebook. Andwe're doing things during the
week there with community onFacebook and love to have you
join the conversation. What haveyou found that that really helps
to build relationships withdonors. What do you, as a donor
like, when nonprofits andministries are talking to you
(54:58):
about the missions? What are wemissing? What are we not telling
you in our stories? We want tohear that, too. So So jump into
that conversation over the lifeand mission community. And one
other thing I will ask you todo, somebody you know, needs to
hear this. Somebody you know,needs to hear what David has to
(55:20):
say in this episode, would youshare it with them? Most of your
podcast apps have a little Sharebutton. You just push that and
it'll send that link right onover to text message to your
buddies. I would reallyappreciate it. David would
really appreciate it and most ofall, your friend is gonna really
(55:41):
thank you. This has been theLife and Mission Podcast. I'm
Kay Helm, Find your voice. Tellyour story. Change the world.
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