Now's the time

For the last four years, I have been on the periphery of directly persuading individuals to support United Way. I have conducted 100's of group presentations to ask people to give, dozens of group trainings to encourage people to implement campaign "best practices" and quite a few small group meetings to ask for a CEO's support to improve their organization's campaign. And while I have even attended training sessions on how to influence individual giving, most of my experience has been on an indirect level in the form of the aforementioned group presentations.

And now, in my new position, I am charged with building personal, one-on-one relationships on behalf of United Way in order to persuade individuals to both continue and deepen their support, i.e. give more money, to our organization. It is a little frightening, a little intimidating.

While I do have a natural acumen towards asking questions, learning about others and creating relationships, there is usually no deeper purpose, other than having them like me and becoming their friend. Now, I am trying to do something, their is a purpose, a goal, a measurement. I think I can do it, I hope I can do it, and I am excited to try. But I still wonder and ask myself, can I do it?

Well, I guess now's the time to find out!