I’m excited to share with you my review of the new fundraising book, “Asking Styles: Harness Your Personal Fundraising Power.”

You know how there are lots of personality profiles out there?

Maybe you’ve done DISC or Myers-Briggs or something similar?

Well, Andrea Kihlstedt and Brian Saber have found a way to identify your asking style, based on a number of characteristics, in a similar fashion.

After reading their book “Asking Styles: Harness Your Personal Fundraising Power,” a lot of things made sense to me. Like why sometimes I would attend a workshop on major gifts, and the asking techniques described by the presenter felt off to me.

I found out from her book what my asking style is and how to best play to my strengths in asking.

Andrea and Brian define the four types as:

  • Rainmaker
  • Go-Getter
  • Mission Controller
  • Kindred Spirit

Which type you are depends on whether you are introvert or extrovert, and analytic or intuitive. They go into quite a bit of detail for each style, from how to set up a meeting to how to make the ask.

Here’s a nugget that I highlighted from the book:

“Invariably, when we ask somebody for a gift, we become anxious. And when we are anxious, we revert to the patterns and the ways that are most natural to us. We are far less able to adapt who we are – so a strategy based on adapting to others is not going to hold up well under pressure.”

Doesn’t that just make a ton of sense?

We need to work with who we are, and not try to be someone we aren’t, especially in a stressful situation.

One of the most helpful things in the book is a chart that explains how you might want to be prepared for various kinds of donors. For example, if your donor is a Rainmaker type, you may want to be prepared with facts and figures.

The book is a quick read and perfect for you if you are just getting started with face-to-face asks, or if you haven’t quite mastered that kind of ask.