Description

Hands-On Fundraising Training for Nonprofit Staff & Boards

Many nonprofits rely heavily on grants and want to build more sustainable funding through individual donors, but feel unsure about how to ask or how to fit donor fundraising into already full workloads. This hands-on training is designed to build clarity, confidence, and practical next steps.

Two identical in-person workshops will be offered in Bridgeport and Charleston:

March 10 | 10:00 AM – 3:00 PM
Steptoe & Johnson PLLC
400 White Oaks Blvd, Bridgeport, WV 26330

March 12 | 10:00 AM – 3:00 PM
Girl Scouts of Black Diamond Council
321 Virginia Street, West, Charleston, WV 25302

Registration is $25 per person for WVNPA members and $35 per person for nonmembers and includes lunch.

Each in-person session provides the same core content and is designed for nonprofit staff and board members to attend together, but individuals are absolutely welcome to attend on their own. That said, we strongly encourage organizations to send more than one participant, as having colleagues alongside you makes it easier to implement and sustain what you learn.

During the in-person training, participants will learn how to:

• Prepare effectively for a face-to-face donor ask
• Ask for a gift warmly, confidently, and clearly
• Follow up after the ask, both with donors and internally, to strengthen relationships and integrate new gifts and insights into the organization.

Following the in-person workshops, two optional (but highly supportive) virtual sessions will be offered as a follow-up for those who attended in person. To make it easy, all in-person attendees will be automatically registered for the virtual sessions – no additional sign-up required.

April 9 | 9:00 AM – 11:15 AM | Virtual

May 7 | 1:00 PM – 3:15 PM | Virtual

These Zoom sessions bring participants back together to answer questions about implementation, help develop strategies, and practice real-world fine points of your asks using your own situation as examples.

We recommend you attend both! 

The virtual follow-up sessions will respond to participants’ needs first and foremost but can certainly include:

• Integrating donor fundraising into annual planning using a simple, realistic calendar
• Preparing staff and board members to make donor asks, including role clarity, coordination, timelines, and boundaries
• Managing donor information appropriately and efficiently
• Identifying the time and people needed to sustain donor fundraising efforts
• Participant-submitted questions and open Q&A.

All sessions, both in person and virtual, will be led by Beth Raps of RAISING CLARITY, a seasoned fundraising practitioner with over 40 years of experience. These sessions will focus on real-world application rather than theory by itself, although rules and tools will be taught. Participants will leave with practical tools, increased confidence, and clear next steps they can immediately put into action to diversify revenue, strengthen donor relationships, and reduce reliance on grants.

This is a rare opportunity to break through fears around fundraising face-to-face by working hands-on with someone who has been called “incredible” at what she does: teaching and modeling how to make an in-person donor ask and feel confident doing it.

Together, the in-person and virtual sessions provide a structured, supportive path for nonprofits that want to diversify revenue, reduce reliance on grants, and build stronger, longer-lasting relationships with their donors.

Meet Your Trainer

RAISING CLARITY’s Founder Beth Raps began fundraising in her 20s, training in face-to-face asking with two of the best in the field—Kim Klein and Andrea Ayvazian, as well as learning event planning, annual planning, and mass appeals. Her learning was also in the field–she put these skills to work immediately as just one of three staff in a statewide organization, and then used them to create a statewide grantsmaking foundation when she was just 26. Moving to Washington, DC led Beth from grantwriting for national organizations to development consulting with a focus on major donor gifts and face-to-face asking. Certified by the Money Coaching Institute as a money coach to help both individuals and nonprofits heal their relationship with money, Beth founded RAISING CLARITY in 2012 to integrate relationship-driven, annual-plan and campaign fundraising with the art of face-to-face asking and the healing power of money coaching. She leads with empathy, humor, and joy in her trainings, where laughter and “Aha!” moments abound. For more about her approach: https://raisingclarity.com/consulting/