The single best way to achieve the greatest gift possible–and deepen a donor’s relationship with your organization–is through a face-to-face solicitation. This webinar will provide you with the background, skills and techniques to help you prepare for the encounter and conduct the conversation that will move a giver to the next stage in becoming a life-long donor.

Takeaways:

• Overcoming the Anxiety of Asking
• Sure Signs of Donor Readiness
• 15 Steps to Take to Prepare for the Solicitation
• Making a Face-to-Face Appointment
• The Drama of Solicitation
• Managing Objections

Presenter:

David A. Mersky is the Founder and Managing Director of Mersky, Jaffe & Associates, a firm specializing in financial and human resource development solutions for nonprofits worldwide. Founded in 1991, Mersky, Jaffe & Associates has served cultural organizations, educational institutions, medical and health related enterprises, advocacy and social service organizations, and Jewish communal enterprises on a local, regional, national and international basis.

Dr. Mersky was the chief development officer for the Combined Jewish Philanthropies of Greater Boston—Boston’s Jewish Federation where he was responsible for planning and implementing all the fundraising and marketing of the nation’s sixth largest Jewish community. Prior to serving in Boston, he was the President of Ampal Securities Corporation, an investment-banking firm that raised capital in Europe as well as North and South America for private enterprise in Israel.

Mersky, who is a Reform rabbi, served on the national staff of the then Union of American Hebrew Congregations as the Reform movement’s chief development officer. He was responsible for all resource development and created the Conference of Presidents of Major Congregations.

Now a successful consultant to nonprofits and family-controlled enterprises, David is also a faculty member in the Graduate School at Brandeis University and is director of fundraising management at The Hornstein Program in Jewish Professional Leadership as well as Director of Education and Professional Development of the Fisher-Bernstein Institute for Jewish Philanthropy and Leadership at Brandeis. Formerly an adjunct professor in the Simmons College Graduate Program in Communications Management, where he taught strategic marketing planning, Mersky has been a member of the faculty of the Institute for Charitable Giving and a contributing writer to a number of publications, notably the New England Nonprofit Quarterly where he wrote a regular column on major gifts as “The Artful Solicitor.”

During his forty year career, he has trained thousands of professionals and volunteers who have raised hundreds of millions of dollars. In private business, he has counseled management on issues ranging from strategic marketing planning to sales force training and development. He advises families on the creative use of philanthropy for business and estate planning as well as transmitting enduring values from one generation to the next.