Every major gift solicitation should start with an ask ladder: three prepared ask amounts for a single prospect, built before you ever walk into the room. Prepare a primary amount, a second amount at roughly three-quarters of the first, and a third at half of the first. If your top ask is $100,000, your ladder is $100,000, then $75,000, then $50,000. Build a separate ladder for every prospect, based on their wealth capacity, giving history, and areas of interest, so you're never caught guessing mid-conversation.
If the ask seems too high, you don't panic, you go to three-quarters, then half. The ladder means you're never caught off guard by a prospect who feels you haven't found the right number yet.
Do your homework before you ask
Before any major gift ask, conduct due diligence on the actual cost of the project or program, current construction and operating costs have moved fast in recent years, and outdated numbers undermine your credibility with a sophisticated donor. Turn that research into a written case for support, then distill it into four or five key talking points for every prospect, plus two additional points held in reserve for the largest asks. Prepare both print and digital versions of your materials: older prospects in particular still want something physical they can hold onto and revisit.
Frame every ask with donor recognition
Donor recognition should never be an afterthought, it should be built into the ask itself. Rather than asking a prospect for a flat dollar figure, frame the request around the recognition or naming opportunity that comes with it: “We’d like you to consider a leadership gift of $1,000,000 to name the new conference room in your honor.” Framing the ask this way does two things: it signals the gift is significant, and it heads off the awkward “how did you arrive at that number” conversation, because the number is tied to a specific, tangible benefit rather than a formula.
Plan for three visits, not one
On average, it takes three visits to close a major gift, and treating each visit with a distinct purpose dramatically improves the odds of getting to yes.
- Visit one is education and information. You likely won’t make the ask here, but come with your ask ladder ready anyway, some prospects will ask “how much do you need” before you’ve finished your talking points. Before you leave, secure a specific date and time for visit two.
- Visit two is where the ask should happen. Bring answers to any questions from visit one, confirm there are no new questions, and then make the ask. If unfamiliar new people show up to this visit, a spouse, a financial advisor, treat it as a reset and plan for a visit three.
- Visit three must include the ask, even if it feels premature. A fourth visit is rare, so an early ask beats no ask at all.
Set the meeting like a professional
When you call to set the appointment, state the purpose, the format, and the amount of time you need: “I’d like forty-five minutes to bring you up to date on an exciting project at [organization].” Forty-five minutes reads as a reasonable, specific ask, easier to get on the calendar than a full hour, and long enough to allow for the personal conversation that should open an in-person visit. Virtual meetings can run shorter, thirty minutes is usually enough, since there’s naturally less opening small talk over Zoom than in person.
When you have to go through a gatekeeper, offer a specific date and time rather than asking an open-ended yes-or-no question: “Would he be available for forty-five minutes next Wednesday at 4pm?” That framing puts the gatekeeper to work finding a yes rather than deciding whether to say no.
Handling pushback on the ask amount
When a prospect says an ask is too high, listen for the difference between “this is more than I was expecting” and “I wish I could make this gift.” The second is not an objection to the amount, it’s a scheduling and structure problem. In that case, don’t drop to the next rung of your ladder. Instead, offer to restructure the same gift: a multi-year pledge, a graduated or “balloon” payment plan with smaller amounts in year one and larger amounts in later years, or a combination of a current gift and a planned or estate gift. Only step down your ask ladder when the prospect has clearly indicated the original number itself, not the timing, is the issue. And only ask “is there an amount you have in mind” as an absolute last resort, it cedes control of the number back to the prospect.
If three out of ten prospects give, you have to go get seven nos to find them. You might as well go get the nos, and go get them quickly.
If the answer is no, keep the door open
A declined ask is not a closed file. Ask permission to reconnect in three, six, or twelve months depending on what the prospect has told you, then follow through with genuine stewardship in between: a birthday note, an update on the project, a call with no ask attached. Prospects who say “I wish I could” are telling you they want to give, your job is to keep the relationship warm until their circumstances change.
Want help building an ask ladder and a solicitation strategy for your top prospects? Start a conversation with Catapult Fundraising.