Case Studies
Our work in a wide range of influence settings has informed much of the book. Below we give a few examples of how it's worked.
Case 1 - Emergency Coaching for $25M over pizza Like so many books, this one started in a café. The café in question was Bertorelli’s in London’s Soho, and the time almost 10 years ago. We were sitting opposite an anxious Caroline, the Development Director of a leading medical research unit in the UK. Through our consulting company, The Management Centre (=mc), we had been successfully advising her for some months on how to approach major donors in the UK and USA to raise funds for her research campaign.
But on this particular day Caroline had suddenly asked to see us for what she’d called “emergency influence coaching.” She had unexpectedly been invited to travel to Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia, in two days time. There she was to make a 10-minute, one-time, $25M fundraising presentation to members of the extremely wealthy Saudi Royal family and their Western advisors. This was a transformational opportunity for Caroline and for her cause. And she wanted us to advise her on… well, it seemed like everything:
- what information she needed before she left to make sure she was prepared?
- how to frame the case to make it powerful and memorable in 10 minutes?
- whether to mention the Royal family’s previous history of heart disease?
- at what point to ask for the donation – the beginning or end of the presentation?
- who specifically to ask… the advisors or the Prince directly?
- what she could wear that wouldn’t offend?
- where to find out about Muslim philanthropic culture
The list went on.
We had to hold our hands up and say we didn’t know the answer to many of her questions since this was a culture and a situation we weren’t familiar with. We weren’t even sure what really were key questions and what were irrelevant. But we gave her our best advice based on our experience, and we drafted the PowerPoint slides on a slightly stained napkin we still treasure.
Caroline made the presentation. And the good news is she got the money. As important, she came back and gave us challenging feedback on what advice had worked and what hadn’t. In some areas we were spot on. In others – particularly, it’s sad to say, some of the ‘sure fire’ principles we had passed on as established fundraising practice – we couldn’t have been more wrong. Two simple examples:
- Caroline was asked to wear a burka- the all-covering Muslim robe- for her presentation. So our clever body language advice was hard to apply… We had given her some advice about eye contact but her feedback made us realise we had underestimated the significance of this subtle communication element. We knew that different people and different cultures used eye contact in different ways. But from Caroline’s experience- and subsequent study- we learned there are distinctive patterns to this variation. By matching someone’s pattern- even if you’re dressed in a ‘burka’ you can create powerful and immediate rapport.
- Caroline used the classic ‘selling the vision’ case approach. And two key individuals in the audience looked puzzled. We realised from what she reported that much of the conventional teaching on solicitation techniques and case structure often doesn’t work in cultures outside the USA. (Even in the USA it doesn’t work at all with the newer, younger venture philanthropists.) So we began to think about how contemporary research from psychology and neurology could help fundraisers construct flexible individually-tailored cases that would have emotional and rational impact on a wide range of different donors.
We began to think more systematically about the key ideas behind influence for fundraisers. It made us wonder if there were some principles and approaches that would work across cultures and in settings ranging from a multi million dollar presentation to a royal family for an international initiative, to talking to a local shop owner about giving $200 to the annual pageant carnival, or persuading the board of a corporation to make significant social investment. It made us wonder at the same time how donors and their motivations were changing, and some approaches that worked even 5 years ago didn’t work any more.
This book is the result of that wondering – an organised wondering that turned into a systematic study of influence, what it was, and how it worked.
Case 2 - “Can you fly to Rio?” That’s what the voice at the other end of the phone said… And then the rest of the conversation was even more surreal. “Mrs Cardoso, the wife of the President of Brazil would like you to teach her how to raise money for her foundation.” (Apparently she had heard of our success in coaching people to ask businesses and wealthy individuals for donations).
So… we flew to Rio and then on to Brasilia and coached Mrs Cardoso to make an ask to expatiate businesspeople in Washington and New York to give significant gifts to her foundation. We were proud to discover she wasn’t just a president’s wife but also with a committed feminist, friend of Simone De Beauvoir and world famous social anthropologist.
The case involved helping Mrs Cardoso and her team work on versions of the 'case' designed for different audiences:
- Expatriates and locally based networks
- CSR specialists, corporate philanthropists and marketeers
The result of our coaching? Mrs Cardoso was able to shape and deliver a powerful case statement. And Communitas thrived- thanks partly to our fundraisng work www.comunitas.org.br. Today it is a leading South American INGO.
Case 3 - Influence on the mean streets of NYC You’ve probably met them. The charming young people who approach you in the street and ask you to commit to a monthly donation for a good cause. They’re called face to face fundraisers. And they spend all day approaching people in the street asking them to become donors. It’s a tough job.
In one of our most challenging assignment we were asked to help train the teams who work for one of the largest and most respected firms in the business Dialogue Direct- training their young people to make more successful asks. And we were asked to do it in the cold mean streets of New York.
Since we didn’t know much about face-to-face work we decided job one was to learn about it directly. The pictures below show Bernard hard at work learning how to fundraise in a different culture live. That was one part of our research. Another was to study Ricky- also pictured- who was the best face-to-face fundraiser on the Dialogue Direct team.
We studied him noticing how he built rapport quickly and easily… and used our own learning to establish the secrets of success. The result was we were able to create a powerful three-day course that helped improve the success of the youthful fundraisers significantly.
Feedback to us with your case We'd love to know how it's worked for you
If you have an influence case study you'd like to share based on the book's ideas- or your own- we'd love to know and share it. Simply email or call us with a brief outline and we'll post it.
