Stop Dreading the Ask. Start Closing.
One afternoon will change your entire fundraising career.
A 4-hour live working session to take you from "I freeze every time I have to ask" to "I know exactly what to say."
You've cultivated this donor for a year. Maybe two. They love your mission. They've toured the program, opened your emails, sat at your gala table. Everyone agrees they're ready.
And next Tuesday, you're supposed to look them in the eye and ask them for a six-figure gift. If your stomach just dropped reading that, you're in the right place.
Choose Your Date
Here's what most fundraisers don't say out loud.
The ask is the moment that changes everything. It's also the moment that makes your hands sweat, your face flush, and your mouth go dry. So you avoid it. You hide in serial cultivation. You schedule one more coffee, one more tour, one more "let me bring you an update" meeting.
You tell yourself you're building the relationship. You're really stalling.
I know because I did the same thing for the first decade of my career. Stomach pain. Flop sweats. The shakes. I would walk into solicitation meetings hoping the donor would just offer something so I wouldn't have to ask. (Spoiler: they almost never did.)
What changed wasn't a mindset shift or a pep talk. It was learning the actual words. The 12 different ways to ask, depending on the donor sitting across from me. The 5 elements every strong ask needs. The exact phrases that turn a "let me think about it" into a "yes, we'd be honored."
The Ask Workshop is where I teach you those words, and then we practice them out loud until the script feels like yours.
The 4-Hour Breakdown
Who this is for
The Ask Workshop is for you if:
- You've read What to Say and you want to put the scripts into your body, not just your bookshelf
- You have a real ask coming up (this quarter, this year) and you need to be ready for it
- You've been 'cultivating' a donor for too long and you know the next move is to ask
- You freeze, ramble, or talk yourself out of the gift mid-sentence
- You've been winging the ask for years and you're done winging it
It's not for you if:
- You're not actively in a major gift role and don't expect to be soon
- You're looking for grant-writing or annual fund coaching (different skill, different workshop)
- You want passive learning. This is hands-on practice, not a binge-watch.
The investment
$997
A single five-figure gift pays for this workshop a hundred times over. A single six-figure gift you would have under-asked or talked yourself out of pays for it a thousand times over. The math here isn't subtle.
If your nonprofit covers professional development, this is exactly what that budget is for. If it doesn't, this is exactly the kind of ask you should be making of your CEO. (And if you can't make either of those work, email us. Let's talk.)
What You'll Leave With
Know all 12 ask styles from What to Say, and exactly which one to use for which donor
Have practiced your real ask out loud, in real time, with real coaching
Stop apologizing, hedging, and asking too low (the three most common ways fundraisers blow the moment)
Master the 5 elements of a strong ask: the set-up, the ask, the silence, the donor's response, and your response
Handle the objections that have stopped you cold in past meetings
Walk into your next solicitation with the words already in your mouth
The Implementation Promise
Four hours is not always enough, and I would rather you finished than felt polite about it.
Come to the whole session, camera on, and do the work in it. If you leave without your ask written down in words you would actually say out loud, email me. We will get on a call and finish it.
No extra fee, and no need to explain yourself.
About Mary
I have been a major gift fundraiser for over 25 years. I've closed gifts in the millions, and I've heard "no" more times than I care to remember. Every single one of those moments taught me something I now teach you.
The Ask Workshop is the closest thing to sitting next to me in a solicitation meeting. You leave knowing exactly what to say, and (this is the part most workshops miss) you leave having actually said it out loud, more than once, with someone helping you sharpen it.
The next major gift you close will pay for this workshop several times over. The dozens you close after that will change your career trajectory.
Frequently Asked Questions
Ready to stop guessing and start closing?
Reserve your seat before these dates sell out.