Fundraising

 

These are the instructions given to Tvind students when they are sent out to fund raise, by  pan-handling from passers-by in the street.    They were supplied to Tvind Alert by a former student in Scandinavia.

Note that Tvind fundraisers have to learn a script off by heart, they are not allowed to take 'no' for an answer, and that dwelling on negatives is frowned on   -   all negatives have to be  turned into positives.      Note also that fund raisers are taught to deflect most objections with carefully calculated responses, but, in this scenario anyway, not to answer questions about 'where the money goes'.

Instructions for fundraising

1.  Motivation and mood

When you are stood there on the street on maybe the third day of the second week of fundraising, it may be raining and someone has just been rude to you, things can seem hard.   Firstly, never forget that you are stood there raising money to prevent a life or death, disease, poverty and starvation for children that may not even know you.   For that you should feel very proud. This can be a very good way to motivate yourself.

Maybe every now and again you can stop, look at the postcards* and really think to yourself, "What does this work we do really mean to the people of Africa or India?". What does it mean to a child who has lost it s parents in a war , or had them killed by AIDS, to have someone like you raising money for a school for them. What does it mean to a mother who has watched her children die one by one from infection, to have you bring them fresh water and latrines? This is reason enough to not give up.

Try to think about the thousands of volunteers who have succeeded at fundraising on exactly the same street you are standing on, it is possible for you too. Try to think of your team. No one minds how good you are or how much money you raise. They will only ask one thing of you, not to give up and to keep learning how to get better.**

2 Negatives

The golden rule about negatives is that you must never, never, never speak negatively to yourself, your team or anyone in your team. Why? Negatives bring not only your mood down but also the mood of the people around you [down] . You make reaching the goal, which is extremely possible, start to seem impossible. Try to imagine what it is like for the people in the team [who] may be having a tough time anyway if you start telling them that you find it hard. You may ruin their chances of succeeding, when with a bit of dedication and commitment, they could easily have succeeded. Read the following article from Balamuka and learn by heart [what] to do whenever a negative thought comes into your head:***

Postcard Paradise****

"I found myself in an interesting situation.   It was first thing in the morning on the first day of a two-week fund raising period in a small Swedish town. Only the day before had I announced to my teacher, my team, my school and the rest of the speaking world that I would be the biggest thing to hit to hit the postcard scene since colour photography. But alas, Id just watched the first nine people Id approached walk right through me like I was a ghost, the tenth, who obviously felt sorry for me, stopped to give me ten kroner which temporarily put a stop to my suicide plan.

The realisation hit me that unless I did some serious talking to myself, this was going to be the worst experience in my life , even worse than the first time I had tried the Norwegian national breakfast of Kulture Milk and brown cheese.

I had heard about the "pit. The pit is not a good place to be, it is when a fundraiser thinks that he or she cannot reach the goal of thirteen hundred and fifty kroner that is set per person per day. Being in the pit can make fundraising HELL! If you have read up on your Norwegian folklore you may know that the pit is guarded by a huge mythical beast called "Oscar". Oscar is not nice. He is seventeen feet tall and looks like a giant moose, only he walks on two legs. His shaggy coat can change into poisonous snakes if he so wishes and one of his hooves has grown into a hideous claw. He has a problem.

But I havent told you the worst thing about Oscar, get this, the worst thing about Oscar is that he can work on a fundraisers subconscious mind and draw them slowly, yet agonisingly into the pit.

His favourite tactic is to catch you at your lowest point and make you think things like, "I cannot sell postcards", "this town is not good", "there is not enough people", "Ill never sell in the rain", "I am just not able to stop the people"," who is going to buy these cards for sixty kroner, all these people give money to Red Cross and support two kids in Africa".

These are just a few examples of how this heinous creature operates, be warned , there are many more, and any one of them can start you on the slide into the pit.

So there I was on the street, informing the uninformed that Chris from England was studying in Norway and fundraising in Sweden to volunteer in Africa, not having much luck, not having fun, but no chance that Oscar would get a guy like me. I continued for 20 minutes or quite possibly my whole life, I was not sure, and in that time had managed to talk to enough people to fill a small country. I told them all about the merits of investing an a certain street kid school in Mozambique and eventually a 15 year old girl, who was probably missing a boyfriend from her life, open a rather small purse with rather a large amount of banknotes inside and handed me a few.

I gave her the 8 postcards, added some polite conversation just for good measure and watched her disappear into the distance. I suddenly remembered that I still had another 13 days, 7 hours and 12 seconds left of this ordeal. I sat down and cried.

I reminded myself that guys like me could never end up in the pit , and just at the tears stopped pouring down my face, the rain started. The sky opened up and the water fell out, most of it on me. It was then that I uttered these immortal words, "Ill never sell in the rain, Ill just not be able to stop the people".

Oscar had struck, not a particularly vicious attack*****, but just enough to start a guy like me sliding into the pit. The situation was critical, I knew that there was only one man who could save m from slipping further into postcard hell, and that man was me. I had to do something I had to do, had to done fast!

I quickly racked my brains for a way to deal with this unpleasant situation and then it came to me. The words of wisdom from an old Chinese man that Id met at the school , or was it a young Irish guy?

Anyway, the teller was not as important as that which was told. He had said "to slay the beast without any fuss you must first turn his negative into a plus". I think I understood , I thought Id give it a go.

I picked myself off the floor and walked back into the pedestrian street. Oscar walked too. I knew it was going to be a tough fight , I knew at the end of it only one man, moose, would be left standing. I knew what I had to do. I started with a vengeance, "Hello sir", "Hello madam.",. Sir and Madam did not want to support Africa that day.

Oscar hit me with a "Ill never be able to stop anyone today" jab, I countered with a "the more people that I do not stop, makes me closer to the person that does." Oscar was down for a ten count. I continued selling.

School must must have closed for the day as hordes of youngsters were injected into the street. A group of about 10 teenage boys came side by side towards me. It was the guys! "Hi guys, sorry to disturb you! How about supporting some kids in Mozambique?". One guy who looked strange, looked at me strange, 2 were scared, 4 giggled and 1 farted. "Sorry, aint got no money man he said. Oscar tried to hit me with a "no-ones got any money in this town" punch. I ducked it and hit him with a "Isnt it great that people here have so much money, that the team here last year all made over the goal?"

As if by magic two of "the guys" got out their wallets and gave me 5 kroner each. The strange-looking guy stopped looking strange, the scared guys stopped being scared and the gigglers stopped giggling. They all then divided into their pockets and out came came tens, 20s , and fives, total of 45 kroner. Mr. "I aint  got no money, man" looked embarrassed and suddenly remembered that he did have money and gave me three as well. Result! 53 kroner and I did not even mention the postcards.

I was on a roll and Oscar stayed well away. Every time I felt him returning and one of his negatives trying to enter my head I remembered my wise friends words and turned all negatives religiously into positives.

Oscar would say: "Do these people only get 8 pictures for 60 kroner?"

I would say: "Arent these people lucky to be able to help such a worthwhile cause for only 60 kroner? And they get a free pocket of postcards!"

Oscar would try the old morning trick: "I am so tired, its raining outside, do I have to stand on a street for 8 hours and then go around the houses 2 hours?"

I would say: "Good, Ive still got energy left today, the rain should make it a good challenge, its a good job its only 6 hours on the street with almost 2 hours break and house selling aint so bad, meeting some new people and seeing some new places".

The fight with Oscar started to subside. I now knew how to keep him at bay and get on with the more important business of making money for a worthwhile project, for some worthwhile kids.

The thing about mythology
Is that, it is a thing, you cannot see.
When things in life seem hard for you
I understand, I really do.
We all have beasts inside our head
That we wish, we could knock dead.
But life is a journey and the day will come
Where difficulties become so much more fun.
We have a gift, both you and me
It is priceless and it is totally free.
It fills your life with energy
It is name is positivity.******

I do not see Oscar quite so much on the streets these days. I choose not to. I truly hope you choose the same. I am off to the cleaning cupboard now to see Angus, he is a seven foot tall Venezuelan lizard, Know what I mean! Good luck at the school, good luck with your fundraising, see you in paradise.

 

3. The pearl diver and the Numbers Game

If I had to choose a top fundraiser, someone who could really be guaranteed to hit the goal each and everyday, no matter what he had to endure or which town he was in, who would I choose? Would it be some super flash executive salesman who could sell oil to the Arabs? Would it be top fundraiser from UNICEF or maybe the Red Cross? Would it be the loudest, the prettiest and most happy person in the school?

No, no and definitely no. My choice would be simple pearl diver:

The Pearl Divers story

You see the pearl diver does not understand much about life, the world, the universe. He holds no qualification in marine biology. He could not even tell you what kind of animal and oyster is. But there is one thing he understands better than anyone else on the planet, he understands the Numbers Game.

He fills up his boat with oysters. He picks one up and quickly slides in his knife, opens it, checks for a pearl, it does not have one. He does not get upset, he throws it away without thinking.

He picks up another one up and quickly slides in his knife, opens it, checks for a pearl, it does not have one. He does not get upset, he throws it away without thinking.

He picks another one up and quickly slides in his knife, opens it, checks for a pearl, it does not have one. He does not get upset, he throws it away without thinking.

He picks another one up and quickly slides in his knife, opens it, checks for a pearl, it has one.He gets little bit happy and puts the pearl in his bag.

He picks another one up and quickly sides in his knife, opens it, checks for a pearl, it does not have one. He does not get upset, he throws it away without thinking.

He continues this all day long. He knows that to get one pearl he has to open on average 5 oysters. To meet his daily target of 200 pearls he has to open 1000 oysters. He does not get upset if when he opens an oyster there is no pearl in it, why? Because he knows his success is not based on his fantastic skill on picking the right oyster, his success is based on understanding the averages. In short, he understands the numbers game. *******

How do we relate this to the street and fundraising?

Well, out of everybody that you approach on the street and say   "xcuse me Sir / Madam, sorry to disturb you!", on average four people will walk straight past you and one will stop to listen. Out of every 10 people that stop to listen to the speech, one will buy your postcards / magazine, 5 will make you a donation******** and 4 will not give you anything. You see, you HAVE to understand it is just a numbers game.

Your "speech" is the pearl divers "Knife". The pearl diver uses the same knife to open the same part of the oyster EVERY TIME! Why ? Because it is quick and it works! You should use the same speech, spoken in the same way to the people EVERY TIME!  Why?  Because it works!

 

4. The speech

"Excuse me Sir / Madam! Hello! Sorry to disturb you!"

This gives the person time to realise that you are (a) polite and (b) speaking English. It must said happily and positively with a big smile and good eye contact, EVERY TIME!

"My name is .., I am from and I am volunteer teacher going to work in Mozambique / Zambia / India, etc, with .. projects."

Here I am pointing to the postcard of the school and the teacher. LET THE PICTURES DO THE TALKING! If you do not know which project you are going to I would suggest you say street children for obvious reasons*********

"Today we are asking people, if they would support the work that we do in Africa, such as street childrensschools, by buying a pack of postcards! would be extremely kind if you would help us!"

Here you are telling them excatly what you want from them make up their mind. They will be thinking about what you said and looking at your clipboard with its childrens school picture and ID card. They will then ask you a QUESTION , or make an OBJECTION.**********

Tips:

"Excuse me, do you speak English?" "No I do not speak English, goodbye!"

"Excuse me, can I speak to you for a minute?""No you cannot, goodbye!"

"Would you like to buy some postcards?"."No I would not , goodbye!"

5. Answering questions and objections

Objections can come in many forms, but they are not what they appear. If you understand what the person is really saying, and not what you think that they are saying, you can very often turn an objection into a donation.

You should understand that many people may not have 60 kroners to spare but almost everyone can spare 1 or 2 kroners. Any good fundraiser will tell you that about half their money comes from small donations and not selling the actual postacards or magazines. Here is the main question you will hear and what it really means and how to answer:

Question:  "How much are they?" (I am interested but want to know the price first!)

Answer: 

Pause and wait.

 

Objections

These are the objections that the people say to you, AFTER you have said your speech to them and they have stopped to listen. They are NOT the objections you will hear when people walk right past you and do not even bother to stop, let these people keep on walking. Do you understand this????

Here is what they really mean and how to answer them..

 

Objection 1

Answer:

 

Objection 2:

Answer:

 

Objection 3:

Answer:

 

Objection 4:

Answer: "

 

THESE ARE THE MAIN QUESTIONS AND OBJECTIONS THAT YOU NEED TO BE ABLE TO ANSWER TO MAKE THE GOAL OF 1350 NOK PER DAY. **********

Be aware there are some more questions and objections that come up occasionally such as: "How do I know that the money gets there?", "Are you going there yourself?", "Is it UFF?", etc., etc. With experience and the help of your group leader you will learn how to answer these. But it is only important to understand the basics at this stage.

 

6. Passing the test

To pass this control you must show that you have a good understanding of the following points:

1)   Prove that that you have a clear understanding of the numbers game by explaining the Pearl Diver analogy. To pass you must explain the significance of "the knife" and that you have an understanding of the averages.

2)   Do you have clear understanding of the speech? D o you understand the main question and the four objections , what the person is really saying, and how to answer them? Learn the speech and how to answer the main question and objections by practising in a role play situation with someone from your team. You must know the speech and how to answer the objections OFF BY HEART to pass!!!!!!!

3)   Negatives. Read the files "Negatives" and "Postcard Paradise. Be able to answer the following questions:

4)   Be able to explain three ways that you will use to motivate yourself when you are tired or things do not go your way.

5)   Have you already decided that you will be a successful fundraiser, right here, right now? Have you really? Are you going to be the person that puts the children in Africa before yourself? Are you going to be the one who does not stop for coffee just because it is raining? Most importantly of all, are you the person, that no matter what happens, no matter what pain, hardship and difficulty you come across, irrelevant of how much money you raise, continues to strive hard to be the best you can be in fundraising? If you are ready, complete the following. Stand up and announce to your team, your teacher or even the whole school that: "I. will learn the art of fundraising, and no matter how much money I raise, or hardships I face, I will always try to improve and never give up!"

6)    Ask your teacher if you can take the Quality Control oral exam

 

Teachers guide

The students should first be given a course titled Postcard Selling: Quality Control 1.    The course should be a step by step guide through the sections of this task.

The students should then be able to go through the task to complete the directives.

They will then have to be competent and confident enough to be passed by a judging panel comprising of one teacher and at least one student competent in fundraising, that have both completed this quality control and / or are familiar with it.

They must be able to:

"Excuse me Sir / Madam! Sorry to disturb you! My name is .., I am from.. and I am a volunteer teacher going to work in Mozambique / Zambia etc, with..projects. Today we are asking people , if they would support the work that we do in Africa, such as street children s schools, by buying a pack of postcards! It would be extremely kind if you would help us!"

PAUSE + WAIT FOR THE QUESTION OR OBJECTION.

Q "How much are they?" (I am interested but want to know the price first!)

A "Well we sell 8 different pictures of our projects and they just 60 kroners, it would be extremely kind if you would help?" Pause and wait.

Objections

Objection: "I do not have any money" (I maybe have got money, but do not want to spend much!) A: "No problem, I understand, but could I just ask you to make a small donation, maybe you have 1 or 2 kroners, just some small money? Anything you can give can help."

Objection: "I am not interested." (I maybe have got money, but do not want to spend much!) A: "No problem, I understand, but could I just ask you to make a small donation, maybe you have have 1 or 2 kroners, just some small money? Anything you can give can help."

Objection: "I do not have any time right now." (I maybe have got money, but do not want to spend much!) A: "No problem, I understand, but could I just ask you to make a small donation, maybe you have 1 or 2 kroners, just some small money? Anything you can give can help."

Objection: "I already support a child in Africa / Red Cross, etc." "I want you to know that I am also helping people, if you respect that, then I make a small donation.) A: "Oh! Thats great , thats really good of you! Well in that case, as youre already helping people, is it possible that you could make a small donation towards the work we do. Maybe you have 1 or 2 kroners, just some small money, anything you can give can help."

                    (a)  Stop the person with confidence?
                           Stop the person with enthusiasm?
                           Stop the person with a smile?

                    (b)   Present the speech word for word?
                            Present the speech slowly and clearly? 
                            Point to the clipboard to tell a story?
                            Have good eye contact?
                            Did they smile?

                    (c)   Did they pause and wait?
                            Did they answer the question and objections correctly?
                            Did they answer quickly with confidence?

                    (a)    What is the golden rule about negatives?

                    (b)    What must you always turn negatives into

          "I am tired, its raining, no-ones going to give me money today."

           "This town is no good, there is just not enough people."