Keynote and Speaking Topics

Fire-Up Your Board For Fundraising: Turn Their Passion into Action

Transform your board members’ PASSION into ACTION and COMMITMENT. Yes, it’s possible! You can create an opening for change, for renewing vision, for understanding fundraising from a deeper, friendlier approach, and for creating motivation, energy and enthusiasm. Gail will share with you her 7-Step Process for creating a fired-up board excited about possibilities and eager to create the resources to make it happen.

Discover how to change your board members’ perception of fundraising from “asking for money” to “changing the world.” Introduce nervous board members to “friendraising.” Help each person on your board can find the right role in fundraising where they feel most comfortable.

Learn how to

Re-awaken your board members’ passion
Deal with their fears directly
Show board members how they can support fundraising without having to directly solicit.
Teach them the “power of the volunteer”
Change your board member’s mindset about fundraising – it’s not Asking for Money -it’s Making Friends for the Cause.
Secrets to a painless elevator speech for board members.
Five easy roles for all board members to support fundraising.
What every board member should commit to do.

“I learned more in the hour listening to you than I have in a lifetime. I can’t imagine a more knowledgeable person about fundraising. ” Sarah Young, Development Specialist, AMIkids

Asking for Gifts – How to Never Ever Get Turned Down (2 hours)

In-person “asks” are the highest and most productive use of any fundraiser’s time. They are the most effective type of fundraising in terms of results per hour of effort. However, asking can be scary, or awkward – or it can be an incredible rush. Gail helps you discover what you always wanted to know about asking for a gift – successfully - the first time and every time!

How to make the ask and organic, seamless and natural occurrence
How you prepare a donor for the ask
The seven questions to answer before you walk in the door to make the ask
What is reconnaissance and how do you do it in fundraising?
Who should go on the ask visit?
A technique to immediately put you and your prospect at ease
How do you pop the question and what exactly should you say?
The one moment when you need to shut up
How to coach board members and volunteers to ask
What to do when board members and volunteers just can’t bring themselves to ask – and still get them to come on the visit with you.

Thank you for the “boost.” I returned from the conference with a great deal of energy and put into practice many of the techniques you encouraged. You have helped me lay a foundation for starting a focused and donor-friendly development plan. - Marie Shook, Executive Director, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Council on Aging

Create a Year End Fundraising Plan to Take You Over Goal in 2010

Discover the nine steps to create a dynamite year-end fundraising plan that will bring you in OVER GOAL. Gail will give you the latest direct mail, phone and internet strategies that are bringing in great returns. Learn how to spread your story through different communications channels that all reinforce each other. Find out the secret to bringing in lots of gifts the very last two days of the year.

Learn:

What’s the right schedule of appeals, and in what order?
What does a dynamite marketing concept for your appeal look like?
Who signs, who writes, who approves?
How to appeal to lapsed donors so they will renew.
Key roles for your board members and volunteers to play.
What email systems you need to support your campaign.
How your web site can make or break your campaign.
How to create a compelling, irresistible call to action.
Thank you strategies that will keep your donors giving next year and the year after.

I was bowled over by Gail Perry’s enthusiasm, endless anecdotes and effortless capacity to make fundraising concepts both accessible and exciting. I couldn’t wait to get back to the office to tweak my own fundraising program. ~Joe Daly, Senior PharmAssist, Durham, NC

How Your Board Members Can Help Your Organization Survive the Recession

We need our board members now more than ever. Tight times are requiring us to continually reinvent our messages and our fundraising approaches – and the roles of our board members. Gail Perry will share specific practical steps that board members can to work where they will do the most good. Find how what can board members do to help their favorite causes, now more than ever!

The four golden words for board members that can open people’s hearts and minds to your cause.
Five things board members should NOT do.
How to turn the recession into a fundraising asset.
What will keep your board members from panicking.
Friendraising jobs that only board members can do for your organization.
Gail’s Top Five Strategies for board members to help you survive the recession.
Show board members how to change the world with their energy.
Why donors want to hear from leadership volunteers now more than ever.
Why persistence is key especially when budgets are tight.

Take Your Board from Bored to Blazing: Ignite Your Board’s Passion for the Cause.

If your board is passive and bored, then here’s how to wake them up, involve and motivate them, and create new energy and excitement. Gail takes traditional board development to a whole new level of fun, focus and action. If your board is spending too much time discussing details while ignoring vital issues, you need Gail’s system for changing your board’s culture and putting them to work where you need them.

Six simple steps to create a board that is fired up.
What your board members really want – new data that will amaze you.
How to overcome the “All Talk and No Action” syndrome.
How your board members can help your organization survive the recession.
Evoking your board members’ hidden passion.
Why having fun just might be the secret key to energy and excitement.
How to bring your mission alive in your board members’ hearts.
Mission Possible: 12 Ways to Liven up A Board Meeting.
Why social time matters.
How to use field trips to awaken energy and passion.
Strategies to create trust and collegiality on the board.
How to give your board members a great experience.

Friendmaking: Teach your Board Members a Kinder, Gentler, and Ultimately Much More Successful Way to Raise Money.

Board members are scared of fundraising because they fear rejection and don’t want to solicit. Here’s how to take soliciting off the plate, start them raising friends for the cause. Gail will show you how to create a total mindset change in your board members’ attitudes about fundraising. It’s NEVER about money – it’s about changing the world. She will show you simple, proven exercises for your board that can change them from fear of fundraising to enthusiasm.

How fundraising is changing in these times – facts that will intrigue board members.
How to overcome board members’ “Tin Cup” syndrome.
Fear of fundraising – how to confront their anxiety and fear of rejection.
Painless door opening techniques for board members.
Painless ways to start conversations with prospects.
The number one rule in fundraising.
Why board members and volunteers can accomplish what fundraisers can’t.
Get Gail’s recipe for “No Ask Fundraising.”
Learn Gail’s special “Friendraiser Formula.”
Relax! Learn “high intention but low pressure” techniques. Finding your board members’ “comfort zone.”
Pain-free ways to impact the bottom line without soliciting.

Create a Fundraising Action Plan for Your Board Members: Easy Jobs for Every Single Board Member

Gail gives board members a step by step approach starting with what to say and easy roles to do.

The easiest, most pain-free elevator speech ever.
Show your board members how to open the door to a donor without seeming pushy.
It all starts with attitude – how their energy can set the world on fire.
Capture the excitement of viral marketing: turn your board members into Sneezers.
Gail’s golden key: “Advice Visits” can get you in any door in down.
Twenty ways board members can cultivate donors.
Use your board members where they are most valuable.
How board members can directly impact the bottom line by just saying “thank you.”
The importance of community BUZZ.
How to making friends for your cause can be FUN.
Small Socials: How a party can catapult your organization to the most talked about in town.

Turn Your Fundraising Event into the Best Party in Town!

Find out how to make sure YOUR EVENT become the party that people will WANT to attend; where you can raise more money than ever before. A party that can take your cause to a whole new level of visibility in town, and bring in new friends and donors for your organization.

Put the fun back in fundraising and learn how it catapult your cause to the forefront in your community, ignite your volunteers, create new energy for the cause, and make your organization the most talked-about project in town. You will learn how to ensure that your months of hard party planning work will really pay off. Gail will share the Ten Steps to the Best Party in Town, including:

What’s the difference between an “event” and a “party.”
Easy-to-implement ideas guaranteed to boost your bottom line.
What is Buzz…how to get it…how to keep it…and how to let the Buzz do your work for you…
How to brand and package your party for maximum appeal.
How to get the right people on your party planning bus.
How to make sure your VIP prospects and donors show up at your party.
The all-important follow-up. The three success strategies for the DAY AFTER.
THREE things to do at your party that are the gifts that keep on giving.
Give your board members a very special role at the party.
How to structure the best program.

Get Your Share of the Government Pie: How Smart Nonprofits Work the Political Game – Safely and Profitably

No public source shall go untapped! Gail gives you the secrets to securing elusive public funding and shows you where the keys are hiding. She is a former registered lobbyist in North Carolina, and successfully secured millions of legislative support for her projects. She shares knowledge developed over 20 years of political activism.

How to treat elected officials like major donor prospects.
Gail’s techniques for approaching politicians and elected officials for funding.
How to get elected officials to your events and on your board.
Innovations in political cause fundraising that we should use for our nonprofit causes
Obama’s on-line techniques – what we can learn and how we can apply them for our own good work.
Open the door to your favorite politician.
Create a Government Relations Task Force and watch the action!
How does a PAC’s website draw you in and get you to donate? How can you copy it?
How to get retired elected officials to bless your project.
Political secrets every fundraiser should know.
Find out why it’s the party, not the party.

See why Gail consistently packs conferences to standing-room-only crowds. Contact info@gailperry.com for scheduling information.

Categories
- “I have never seen this group be more engaged and excited about fund raising- and believing we will be successful! We sure are on FIRE here!”
  Deborah M. Johnson, CFRE, Director of Development, The Pine School,Hobe Sound, FL
- “Gail, you have a presentation style that puts your audience at ease and draws them in as you make your points. The real life stories you use to illustrate your points are both entertaining and educational.”
  Jeff Weller, board chair, Ronald McDonald house of the Rio Grande Valley
- “Gail Perry is in-fact a non-profit missionary with a message that can save great organizations by helping them bring committed and passionate donors to their cause.”
  Kim Lopez, Board member Insight Meditation Center, Washington DC