The Fundraising Super Bowl is your nonprofit's big game - and winning looks like raising the funds you need to serve. Here are some lessons from that "other" big game.

Football coaching legend Vince Lombardi famously said to his almost-champion Green Bay Packers team,  “Gentlemen, this is a football.”

What he meant was they needed to execute the basics well, if they expected to win the big championship game. They had failed to win the championship the year before. But by focusing on the basics, they became a football dynasty.

Lombardi's advice is relevant to you, today, as a nonprofit fundraiser.

Even the best players aren’t perfect.

This year, the winning Super Bowl quarterback was Patrick Mahomes. He completed 21 of 27 passes in the big game. The Eagles’ Jalen Hurts completed 27 of 38 passes.  Not perfect. I find that reassuring.

During the season, the Mahomes completed  67% of his passes.  I’m sure he’d love to be perfect, but he also knows there has never been a perfect game. Nobody has ever started and finished a game without throwing an incomplete pass.

Can you imagine if Patrick Mahomes went out to play, threw a couple of incomplete passes, and then said, "That’s it! We obviously need to just run the ball. No more passing, because I can’t complete every one." He wouldn't do that, because he knows 67% is good.

You Real Job as the Fundraising Quarterback
If you’re the quarterback on your fundraising team. You have a job to do. And that job is simply to move the ball down the field. You line up your team, and execute the appropriate play for the moment. 

In fundraising, that means you’re doing the basics: 

• Communicating consistently with donors
• Getting your message in front of new people
• Thanking them when they give
• Sending emails 
• Telling stories 
• Reporting back

Ladies, and gentlemen, this is an email.
This is a phone call.
This is a face to face visit.

These are the basics that move us incrementally down the field, one play at a time.

Some of those incompletes have nothing to do with you. Other times, you need more practice, training, or time with a coach.

Keep doing the basics–with excellence.
If you need training to tell your stories, check out Mission Writers. 

If you struggle to tell stories, you’ll struggle to raise funds. 
In the Mission Writers course:

• Learn the exact stories that every ministry, missionary, and nonprofit needs to tell.
• Master the fundraising story calendar.
• Develop and practice essential storytelling skills to increase funding for your mission.
• Build your story library and your confidence.

Details at MissionWriters.org
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