David’s Nonprofit Tips: Practice Your Pitching

It’s summertime and baseball is in full swing – pun intended. But this tip isn’t about throwing a ball – it’s about how to get better at the “pitch” – or presentation – nonprofits make to funders for grant dollars.

Thanks to my extensive career as a corporate funder, I’ve heard thousands of pitches from all types of nonprofits. Most of them were pretty similar and not that many really blew me away. Some were chaotic, poorly organized, missing key data points, etc. But the presentations were almost always delivered by passionate people who really cared about their organization.

Unfortunately, just being a nice person who wants to do good things isn’t enough to persuade most companies to approve a grant. While you may have a great program, you’ve got to be able to “sell” it to potential funders. This means you’ve got to develop your message with the funder in mind, customize it as much as possible, and practice delivering that message. Like in baseball, practice makes perfect – or at least it makes you a lot better. Especially if you practice it in front of colleagues, or better yet an experienced funder like myself who knows what your pitch needs to include.

Guess who provides the best feedback in baseball about pitchers? You might think it’s other pitchers – perhaps. But when a coach wants to know how a pitcher’s doing – he asks the catcher. That’s the guy who’s catching everything the pitcher is throwing. So he’s in the best position to know if the pitcher is losing his control, showing fatigue, etc. That’s why the best person to hear a nonprofit’s pitch is someone like me.

While hiring me to help you is probably the best option – other possibilities include people on your board of directors. Are any of them funders? They may not be professional funders like I was for a major corporation, but you should have good business people who care about your organization. They would be a good place to start. Schedule a meeting with them to pitch them just like you normally would and ask them to critique you as a way to help you get better. Try to pick people who you think are especially good at communicating or making presentations themselves. They will probably be more skilled and better able to help you.

This will take some time and may be a little uncomfortable, but it will pay off when you get into the meeting with a potential funder and you’re able to dazzle them with your presentation. But if you need my help, please contact me. I’m at www.russellgiving.com

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