Many fundraisers go into donor meetings on instinct and come out hoping for the best. Training changes that. It helps you rethink your strategy, your approach, and how you show up.
When you pair training with coaching, you start to notice what’s working in real time, reflect on it, and adjust. That cycle of doing and noticing is how good fundraisers become great ones.
A good fundraising coach helps you think about your language before you walk into a conversation. And afterward, they help you understand why something landed — or didn’t. That awareness is what accelerates your growth and solidifies your learning.
What Fundraising Really Is
Truly effective fundraising is finding the ideal fit between the needs of a charitable organization and the impact an individual wants to make on the world.
That means your work as a fundraiser is really about asking the right questions — seeking out what matters to a donor, what’s meaningful to them, and what they want to accomplish in their lives. And then listening.
Your job is to find the alignment between your donor’s goals and your organization’s mission and help make both possible. Coaching is one of the best ways to build that skill.
Who Gets the Most Out of Coaching
I believe great fundraisers are both born and made. Curiosity, genuine interest in people, and comfort with conversation — some of that comes naturally. All of it can be developed.
In Kittiwake Academy: Major Gift Intensive, we teach you how to connect authentically with donors in ways that make a meaningful conversation — and a yes — far more likely. We also help you understand that “No” in fundraising is rarely the end of a conversation. It’s information. We teach you how to stay curious when you hear it.
How Kittiwake Helps You Practice
We practice a lot in the Major Gift Intensive — through role play, active listening exercises, and real conversation work. The goal is to help you feel more confident, connect more genuinely with donors, and articulate your organization’s mission with greater clarity.
That confidence translates directly into closing more gifts, and larger ones.
If you’re ready to invest in your practice, I hope to see you in the classroom this September.
— Penny
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