Tips for Successful Fundraising Meetings

I might get hate mail for this: Appearances and first impressions still matter—big time. Zoom calls and remote work culture erupted over the past decade, and somewhere along the way, we stopped caring about the 'little things'. Salespeople, missing the details = lighting cash on fire 🔥. 💰 Every call on your calendar costs your marketing team a few thousand dollars. Each meeting could be thousands in commission for you. That CMO you’re meeting with? Her 30 minutes is worth $500. When she brings her team, they spend $3k in salary just showing up. So, why do we show up like we don’t give a sh*t? Sweating the details can often be a waste of time, other times it's worth the effort. 💡 Here are 6 details you should never skip: 1) Do your research.  Asking where they live or what their company does—things you could Google in 5 seconds—doesn’t build rapport; it just makes you look unprepared. Instead, come in with a point of view on something you've already researched. 2) Use a good webcam & mic.  Who would you rather spend 30 minutes with in the screenshot below? You don’t need to break the bank—a solid cam/mic setup costs under $100. 3) Get your lighting right.  Clear the shadow from your face. Sit in front of good lighting. A $20 ring light can do wonders. 4) Dress like you care.  Would you rather be over-dressed or under-dressed when you're presenting to the C-suite of a $2billion dollar company? Toss the wrinkly T-shirt and baseball cap. Throw on a button-up or polo. Maybe even take a morning shower and comb your hair. 5) Send a follow-up the same day.  Buyers appreciate a quick recap they can share internally. Tools like WINN.AI, Gong, or Sybill can automate this, so you can get the email out in minutes instead of hours. 6) Send a pre-meeting brief.  An engaged audience = a better meeting. Prime their brains before the call. *Bonus tip: Send personalized messages to each stakeholder - this takes more effort, but it's worth it. A CMO has different interests/problems than a Sales Manager. Make it clear that you took the time to curate messages for each person. These details might seem trivial, but it's worth it if they make you even 1% more engaging. I get it—some of you will think I'm an old-fashioned grandpa. (Probably true.) Some will think, "it’s 2025, and this stuff doesn’t matter anymore." 🎲 But are you willing to gamble your company's hard-earned pipeline (and your own commission) on that? Deals are won or lost by tiny margins. Skimp a little here, skimp a little there, and watch your win rates suffer. (Legit, I had a rep almost lose a deal because he presented a deck using the customer's outdated logo <- the CMO was not smiling about it. We did damage control for 2 weeks.) ⚖️ My stance: obsess over the details. Alone, they might seem minor, but together, they will tip the scales and split success from failure. Would love to hear what details you swear by? 

I chatted with a talented fund mgr getting first meetings, which go great, then... crickets. Here's why. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗳𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁 𝗺𝗲𝗲𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝘀 𝘁𝗼𝗼 𝗺𝘂𝗰𝗵 𝗼𝗳 𝗮 𝗴𝗼𝗼𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴. (Yes this can happen) Here's how I work with clients to fix it (good problem to have btw): ➜ First, identify the goal of every thing we do. ↳ The goal of a first meeting is ... a second meeting. ↳ If we give all the goods away in meeting 1, what's the reason for meeting 2? ↳ Tee up topics, questions, differentiators to deep dive on next meeting. ➜ Second, identify what's breaking, why, and what to do about it. Two potentials: ➜ 1. The meeting is scheduled for an hour, but the stories and magic are flowing so it goes over and the allocator wants to let it ride ↳This is a good sign, but don't let it go too far over - leave them wanting more and tee up a second meeting. ↳ End the first meeting w/in 30 mins of overtime. Once you get back to the office you can set up the second meeting and invite other stakeholders ➜ 2. Your first meeting is focused on stories and asking questions (good job!) but your pitch deck that you sent ahead has every single amazing chart, case study, DDQ type questions/answers. ↳ It's all in there and it's awesome... but it's overload. What new smart and cool thing will you chat about in the second meeting? ↳ Also the allocator has to "process" all the info you sent which delays the second meeting. ↳ Pick 1 chart that supports your story, 1 case study, 1 XYZ and leave the others for future convos. And leave the DDQ level info for later stage deals. 𝗜𝘁'𝘀 𝗮 𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗱𝘀𝗲𝘁 𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗳𝘁: 𝗧𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗸 𝗼𝗳 𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗶𝗻𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗮𝗹 𝗺𝗲𝗲𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗮𝗹𝘀 𝗮𝘀 𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗵𝗶𝗴𝗵𝗹𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 𝗿𝗲𝗲𝗹. A little magic goes a long way. It's a chef's tasting not an all-you-can-eat buffet. Capital raising is a long game. Let's keep some aces in our hand to play later. 💡 Pro-tip: Aim to keep your pitch deck to 15 slides (max 20). -- Now, we gotta make those slides count. -- Then we can make additional presentations and docs that will be magic in later stage meetings and due diligence. PS Don't you try to reduce your font size or go 4-up charts either. I see you, I get you, and I've got you. 👀❤💐 >>How do give a first meeting just enough magic to get meeting two?<< = 📌 Schedule a call in my featured section 📌 Or visit havenercapital[dot]com

12 Keys to Conducting Effective Donor Interviews Curiosity is a fundraisers greatest asset. Yet even the most curious must learn to ask questions that yield the most insight into donor motivation and to link those propensities to institutional mission. The most important time to put structured curiosity to its best use in when meeting potential donors for the first time - including those who you are meeting for the first time even though they have given to your organization before. The rapport you do or do not establish with the donor at such meetings will be highly determinant of how the process unfolds, or not. A fundraiser can begin to establish a rapport and put the prospect at ease by saying, “May I ask a few questions to ensure that we do all we can to relate our work to causes and purposes that you care most about? Assuming the prospect agrees, the most strategic question to ask is, “To what cause or purpose do you give the most, and why?” If the prospect responds by saying “social justice,” citing a number of issues and incidents that have dominated the headlines in the last year, the fundraiser would be wise to pivot to the social justice work being done, and to be done by their organization. Attempting to compete with donors’ pet causes, or being oblivious to them, will never be as effective as aligning with them because they are rooted so deeply in the donor’s psyche. As someone who has conducted an enormous number of donor interviews and who continues to do so for various clients (in one recent week, I conducted 29), I thought it might be helpful to show how I get up for an interview and I ensure that I make the most of it. Below is the advice I give myself when preparing for each.