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Make Everything A DRAFT

Sales (Major Gifts) Process, Visual Engagement Tools, Funding Plans | | Tom Suddes

Here’s a pretty powerful idea that even Nick and I don’t fully always appreciate:

MAKE EVERYTHING A ‘DRAFT’.

We put… and leave… the word ‘DRAFT’ on just about everything we do, for all kinds of reasons:

  • Creates opportunity for discussion and conversation.

  • Allows for a feeling of engagement, involvement and feedback.

  • Literally enables changes, re-design and ongoing versions!

Here are 3 very specific examples:

  1. A terrific university, in a $275+ Million Funding Initiative, has developed a simple, powerful PRESENTATION TOOL. In the top right-hand corner, it says ‘DRAFT’. The beauty of this is that it actually is a ‘DRAFT’… and people are feeling like they have some input.

    P.S. People actually say, "I love that this is a draft."

  2. An incredible For Impact Organization in San Diego, working with Nick as a Coach, put together a great ‘DRAFT’ PLAN that showed how much additional funds were being leveraged, etc. It also showed $5M for a particular project. The first prospect presented with this ‘DRAFT‘ PLAN asked, "What if we did that entire project ($5M)???"

    P.S. The answer was pretty obvious!

  3. A foundation proposal that I helped put together actually carried the word ‘DRAFT‘ at the top! We literally asked the Champion at the foundation to look at the ‘DRAFT‘… and give us some feedback and even suggest any changes that might help obtain a significant investment from the foundation.

    P.P.S.S. It worked!

The idea, nugget, lesson for this week:

MAKE EVERYTHING A ‘DRAFT‘!!!

Special Note: This actually fits perfectly into wonderful ideas like prototyping, testing and practicing.