Nonprofit Leaders: What should you do when you feel like you blew an interview with a funder?

Nonprofit GrowthDevelopment
Written By Sherry Quam Taylor
Image of a male nonprofit leader with his hand on his face and showing frustration

Nonprofit Leaders: Have you ever felt like you blew an interview with a funder?

That’s the call I got from one of my favorite clients. She was discouraged and felt like she might not get selected for a large, multi-year investment. What was my response?

 

First, I listened. She is an absolute rockstar, but I could hear the disappointment in this leader’s voice.

 

I learned the funder’s questions were very specific. Pin-pointed. Nothing surprising, but nevertheless, intense. (They were fair questions – nothing slimy.)

 

My client knows the answers to these questions, but the metrics and results are in-progress as they’ve grown tremendously over the last few years. We all know they’re good growing pains. 

You know, it’s easy to feel like we blew a meeting and didn’t have the answers the funder was looking for. 

I proposed a reframe:

  • These are next-level questions.

  • These are next-level funders.

  • These are opportunities to tighten up and BE next level. 

Fundraisers: Welcome the tough questions. Welcome the financial analysis. You have the answers. Or you’ll get the answers. 

What most people (including me) might be tempted to do? Get defensive.

 

But what should we do? Go get the next-level answers and circle back.

 

Will she get the funding from this meeting? We don’t know yet.

 

Will she be even more ready next time? Yes.

 

Is she still a rockstar? Yes.

Whenever you’re ready, here are THREE things you can do next:

👣 Follow me on LinkedIn where I share insider info daily — the same lessons I teach my clients about attracting larger gen-ops dollars and diversifying revenue. 

🍎 Grab FREE Guides + White Papers — download robust resources you can use to push against the sector’s misconceptions, equip your board, and shift your team into High-ROI fundraising.

📈 Work with me to diversify revenue & secure the gen-ops gifts you need to grow. If you’re a business-minded nonprofit CEO with big growth plans but need to make charitable revenue from investment-level donors a bigger part of your budget, you can apply to work with me here.

Sherry Quam Taylor

Sherry Quam Taylor works with business-minded Nonprofit CEOs whose Strategic Plans require expansive budgets and larger amounts of general-operating revenue for growth. To become investment-level ready, Sherry helps leaders see their revenue potential and helps them see what may be blocking donors from giving in this way. Sherry’s clients know how to attract larger donors by solving the funding challenges at the root of the issue.

As a result of learning her methodology, Sherry’s clients become sustainable, diversify revenue, and know how to add significant amounts gen-ops revenue to their budgets. But mostly, their development departments and board have transformed into high-ROI revenue generators – aligning their hours with relational dollars and set free from the limitations of transactional fundraising.

Sherry attributes the success of her business to her passion for modeling radical confidence to the future CEOs in her house - her two college-aged daughters.

https://www.QuamTaylor.com
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