CEOs have a deep knowledge of their organisation. They are often confident and charismatic too. Yet asking for major gifts can be confronting. Faced with the recent cost of living crisis, Sydney’s Wayside Chapel experienced huge increases in the number of people needing support in 2023.

Jon Owen, CEO & Pastor, has strong connections with supporters and knew that major donors and family foundations could help. He needed to build confidence and dispel his misbeliefs around ‘the dark art of philanthropy’ to enable him to ask for large gifts.

The Philanthropy team focused on three areas. First, they worked to distil a simple and strong explanation of the funding need. They created a persuasive four-slide presentation to use with donors. Secondly, they moved to asking for multi-year pledges.

Thirdly, they worked with the CEO across all stages of the asking: assessing readiness and capacity, gathering advice, examining donor motivations, meeting requests and planning, and dealing with donors’ responses to “the ask”.

The results from ‘Jon’s $1Mil Ask’ were incredible! This session will show the tools used, samples of real meeting plans, rehearsal scripts and how to help a CEO or senior manager to ask with confidence, sensitivity and success.