What is the sign of a Failed Fundraiser?

Again I am having interesting conversations with people looking for fundraisers; and again the requirement is that you will need to do 'the ask'.  It seems that we fundraisers are being backed into a corner of our own making by some consultants who simply seem to want to run sessions on 'How to do the Ask'.  Where in actual fact I would propose that if you have to ask for the gift then you have failed in your role as a fundraiser.

Yes I would agree that we are there to raise funds but how we do that has a whole lot of different methods and modalities about it.  Doing the ask in a mail appeal requires a totally different set  of skills to that required for a major gift appeal. and yet is that we are looking for.

If, as a fundraiser I believe, and I do, that fundraising is more about people than it is about money then I will be committed to informing prospects about the role and urgent need of my organisation for funds.  I will need to do it in such a way that they are in no doubt that they have a significant role to play in the future funding of my organisation.  They will know how much we need and by when and what will be the result of their gift even before they make it and they will be so empowered and supported that they will want to give it.

If I have to ask then I have failed in my role.

So what is my role?  It is to place before appropriate prospects the aims and needs of my organisation so that people will want to support it before they have to be asked.