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Top 10 Reasons to Enroll in the Donor Story: Epic Fundraising Ecourse with Dr. Russell James
Need help convincing the ‘powers that be’ to pony up the cash for the best and most valuable online fundraising eCourse on the planet?
Even though you are convinced that this course will help you break down silos and raise hundreds of thousands (if not millions) more over your career as you implement and master the concepts, tools, and strategies it teaches, how do you get your boss to have the same confidence?
Well, here are ten things you can say to your boss that should help them feel very good about making what is really a very small investment, considering the long-term gains it will produce.
If your boss is penny-pinching about Epic Fundraising, tell them this:
1. It Pays Dividends for Years to Come
The course regularly costs just $1,997 if you seek admission anytime besides our bi-annual discounted registration periods. But, since registration just opened, you can get 50% off. The price is just $999 until June 29th at 3 pm Eastern.
So, just one fundraiser on your team has to inspire just one donor to give $1,000 more than they would have otherwise, using what they will learn in this course, and you have paid for the course.
The only way that won’t happen is if no one on your team uses anything they learn.
Once you get into the course, you will see how it reframes the entire fundraising process under the idea of advancing the donor’s personal hero story. You’ll also get hundreds of research-backed questions to use in different situations when interacting with donors.
It won’t be long before you start to see the payoff from this in your fundraising.
Tell your boss this investment will pay dividends for years to come. It will generate way more money than the course price, year after year.
2. One Price, Unlimited Team Members
This may be the most convincing reason of all.
We have set this up so that you can pay just one price but allow unlimited members of your team to join and benefit from the course.
One person pays $999 (regularly $1,997) to sign up. Then, for just $25 more, they can bring up to five additional people – and all six of those people can earn 20.5 CFRE credits.
But then, you can add anyone else beyond that who doesn’t need or want the CFREs.
You can even include board members, volunteers, C-level leaders — anyone in your direct organization. As long as you have access, they will have access, so you can work on developing your systems and methods together, all working from the same source material.
3. You’ll Have Less Turnover
Silos create turnover. Turnover at nonprofits, in major gifts especially but also in other departments, is a constant problem.
The Epic Fundraising eCourse will help your entire team deepen their understanding of how major gifts fundraising should work, and they will get excited about it – especially once they start seeing the results.
Tell your boss that your fundraisers will feel more supported and understood. Support staff will have a greater understanding of the critical role they play. More money will come in. And people will be happier in their work.
Turnover happens in large part because of a disconnect between fundraiser and administration. This course will help bridge that gap by helping you develop a process that is based on research and data, and that taps in to the donor’s personal, emotional, primal motivations for giving and having an impact in the world.
4. Valuable Professional Development from a Community of Fundraisers Facing the Same Challenges as You
Nothing compares to having like-minded peer support when embarking on a difficult task.
Like fundraising.
The Epic Fundraising eCourse includes access to the exclusive Epic Fundraising community. Here, you can ask questions of other fundraisers taking the course, run ideas by them, vent and let off steam, celebrate wins, and share your own ideas.
Everyone wins when we work together, and by not feeling as isolated, you will be less likely to get discouraged when things don’t go as well.
The Epic Fundraising community is another reason the course reduces turnover. This is one of the best reasons to join. You never know what valuable insight or suggestion you might hear from a fundraiser who lives halfway across the world.
5. Based on Dr. Russell James’ Research
Dr. Russell James is the foremost researcher in the field of major gifts and planned giving. He was even named to the National Association of Charitable Gift Planners Hall of Fame in 2021, a prestigious honor that recognizes his lifetime of innovation and contribution to the field of major gifts fundraising.
In short, he’s a giant.
Tell your boss that what you’ll learn in this course isn’t just a bunch of stuff that seems like good ideas. Dr. James’ recommendations and strategies for the specific ways you should alter and elevate your fundraising processes are based on years of experimental data and research.
The course references dozens of studies including fundraising data, but also brain imaging science that looked at how the brain responds to different motivations and promptings that you can use in your fundraising.
6. Go at Your Own Pace
Tell your boss that taking this course won’t dominate your life, because your investment pays for an entire year of access, and each team member who joins can go at their own pace. And after a year, you can renew for another year.
That means no one will need to disappear for weeks to study, like they’re back in college.
The course also comes with a Fast Track version, which you can work through in just a few hours. And then there is a longer version that goes into much more depth and detail. That means you could go through the course once using the Fast Track, and then spend more time revisiting the details after that.
The point is – it’s flexible for every team member who wants to join.
7. 20.5 CFRE Credits – for Up to 6 People
You and up to five others at your organizations who register for the eCourse can each get all 20.5 CFRE credits, even though you only have to pay the $999 price (regularly $1,997) once, plus a $25 surcharge for everyone else. So that’s $1,024 for six people to get the training and 20.5 CFREs each.
How much does your org already spend on professional development, and what would you have to spend elsewhere to get the equivalent of 123 CFREs (20.5 x 6)?
Ask your boss that question. Donor Story: Epic Fundraising eCourse is one of the best values available when you look at it that way.
8. You Get to Participate in the Monthly Mastermind Mixers
The Donor Story: Epic Fundraising eCourse doesn’t hang you out to dry and make you figure everything out on your own.
In addition to the fundraising community mentioned earlier, every person who enrolls – including all the people who don’t want the CFREs but still want to take the course – gets to attend our monthly Mastermind Mixers.
That’s a great opportunity to get everyone motivated to actually work through the course materials, talk about how to implement them, and have great conversations with peers.
These calls help you engage with your peers and make sure everyone on your team gets the most out of the training. It also helps you stay motivated as you continue to go through the content and implement it into your fundraising process.
9. You Can Add New Hires, Volunteers and Board Members at Anytime
What happens if you get a new board member in six months, or hire an extra fundraiser or key support person four months after starting the course?
Remember, you get a full year of access, and you can renew each year after that for another $999 (unless you join after the bi-annual registration period closes… then it’s $1997).
That means you can add any new coworkers onto the course, and use it as part of their onboarding and training. That way, all your key personnel will always be working from the same foundation, and the organizational momentum you gain from this course won’t be lost just because someone retires or moves on to something else.
This is one of the biggest problems with professional development – the people who take it leave eventually, and the new hires start from scratch.
With the yearly subscription and the freedom to add new people throughout the year, your team will be permanently operating using Dr. James’ groundbreaking, industry-defining research and strategic recommendations.
Your organization will never – NEVER – be the same again.
10. You Will Know What to Say to Donors that Really Works
Lastly, the Donor Story: Epic Fundraising course will transform the way you communicate and interact with donors.
Your team of fundraisers will know what to say, when to say it, and how to respond when donors react in various ways. You’ll be given hundreds of questions to ask and statements to make in specific situations that all fundraisers experience, such as:
- Calling up a prospect on the phone
- Requesting a first meeting
- Making the first ask
- Reacting to their response, whether yes, no, or maybe
- Suggesting various giving options
- Suggesting they donate gifts of assets
- Talking about their motivations for giving
- Helping them discover what matters most to them
- Bringing up planned gifts
- And SO many more specific situations
There’s a ton of stuff here that you can start using right away. It is one of the most practical and useful courses you will ever take. And all of it is backed by research and data.
Tell your boss that as much as your team will love this course, your donors will respond very well to the new way your team will be communicating and interacting with them.
Let’s Recap
Got that? Your boss may be hemming and hawing a bit about this, because to them, it may seem like “just another” professional development opportunity.
It isn’t.
Donor Story: Epic Fundraising is THE course to take for anyone involved with major gifts, planned giving, or any administrative support role related to those. If you took no other courses the rest of your life, this is the one you’d want to take.
Here again are the top ten reasons why, that you can share with your boss:
- It pays dividends for years to come
- One price, unlimited team members
- You’ll have less turnover
- Valuable professional development from a community of fundraisers
- Based on Dr. Russell James’ research
- Go at our own pace
- 20.5 CFRE credits – for up to 6 people
- You get to join our monthly Mastermind Mixers
- You can add new hires and board members later
- You will know what to say to donors that really works
So, don’t delay. Learn more or register today here.
Related Resources:
- Donor Story: Epic Fundraising eCourse
- The Fundraising Myth & Science Series, by Dr. Russell James
- How to Quickly Learn What Used to Take Experienced Fundraisers Decades to Understand and Apply
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Feeling like your job is getting harder because donor expectations have changed and competition for the charitable dollar is growing?
Finding that the old orthodoxies and conventions espoused by so-called experts in online echo-chambers and at conferences don’t work anymore?
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Engagement Fundraising was developed from the perspective of a donor who discovered firsthand that the impersonal, spray-and-pray approaches of his beloved charity were not only offensive but also wasteful and ineffective. So he took action. And now, you can too.
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