Making the Ask: From Cultivation to Donation (7-Aug-25)

Major Donors
07 August 2025 - 07 August 2026
10:00AM to 04:30PM

Individual Prices

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Package Type Available To Price
Individual Member 2024 Fee Held Until 31.12.2024 All Days Individual Members £330
Non-Individual Member 2024 Fee Held Until 31.12.2024 All Days Non Individual Members £390

How do you ask for a major gift professionally, confidently and with gravitas? As donors begin to support fewer charities, with larger donations, it is now more important than ever for charities to know when and how to make the right ask to the right donor.

Standard Content

Major Gift Fundrasiers must understand and align their donors’ motivations with the correct ask and demonstratable impact for success.

Using the Seven Stages of Solicitation, you will learn how to build long-term, mutually beneficial relationships, deliver powerful messages and show the impact of your organisation which means donors want to say ‘yes’ when you make an ask.

Who should attend?

Whether you’re new to major gift fundraising, or an experienced fundraiser, this course will support you in not only making the ask to a donor but the journey before and after making the ask.

You will learn tactics to deepen donor relationships and further engage with your donors to make asks confidently and secure long-term sustainable income for your organisation.

What is the format of this course?

The course will incorporate:

  • Trainer delivery
  • Group discussions
  • Role play

Participants will benefit most from the course by ensuring they are able to use a camera and microphone to enable them to participate in all elements of this course.

What's covered on this course:
  • How to ask successfully
  • How to build long-term, mutually beneficial relationships to create successful asks
  • New and creative ways to engage and steward our supporters before, during and after the ask
  • Emotional storytelling to inspire your donors
  • How to effectively thank after an ask is accepted
Learning outcomes:
  • Apply the main components you need to make an ask confidently
  • Examine your donors, their worlds and adjust your approach to align with your ask
  • Build long-term relationships with your donors
  • Tell positive emotional stories confidently
  • Create, develop and deliver impactful thank yous

About your trainer

Lynda Harwood-Compton

Lynda is a skilled trainer and coach, specialising in philanthropy, corporate partnerships and trusts fundraising as well as prospect research.

Lynda is an award-winning, innovative and published global fundraising leader, with 18 years’ experience in the charity sector. She has her own international fundraising consultancy, Latch Fundraising, and has a track record of leading global fundraising teams to consistently achieve and exceed their fundraising targets.

The live virtual training experience

The Chartered Institute of Fundraising's live virtual training is delivered by trainers who are leading experts in their chosen discipline. Each virtual course has been especially designed to deliver a rich virtual learning experience. Your course will feature:

Technology requirements

The course is being delivered via the online platform zoom. To enable you to interact with your tutor and your class you will need to have access to a microphone (or access to a landline phone) and ideally have a working video link via a camera. To test compatibility with your system, you can join a test meeting via this link.

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