Whether you’re soliciting funds person-to-person or front-of-room, it is critical that you establish your presence. You want to communicate with confidence and warmth, steadiness and strength. You want to capture others’ attention and establish rapport that facilitates connection.
Ninety-three percent of human communication is conveyed through body language and tone of voice. Spoken words are a mere 7 percent of communication. Focusing on body language can shift your energy and tone of voice, causing your audience to experience a physiological reaction to your energy and posture. Everyone has unconscious patterns that show up in our body language in high stakes situations, like fundraising. Attending to the body-mind connection can help you establish a strong presence and transform your fundraising skills.
While these techniques are most effectively explored with practice and individual coaching, below is a brief framework for working with body language and breath to establish presence when fundraising. Review the suggestions below, choose one or two things to work on, practice regularly and pay attention to the effect. Subtle changes can have big impact.
Step one: Connect to yourself: Fundraising preparation starts with you.
Begin by focusing on feeling confident and steady both on a physical level and on an emotional level. The tips below are intended to calm the nervous system, build positive energy and help you stay grounded when you are speaking.
- Use touch to stay present by placing your hands on your body, feeling the back of the chair, and your feet on the floor. When sitting, press your feet into the floor and release.
- Arrive – land and pause when you walk into a room.
Balanced and aligned posture (avoiding slumped shoulders or chest puffed out). - Connect to the breath, both by slowing down your breathing and feeling the breath in the belly and chest.
- Make eye contact, keeping the eyes at eye level rather than looking up or down.
- Raise your arms in a victory posture for two minutes – to build energy and imagine yourself as a winner (before speaking, of course!)
- Connect to how the work of your organization touches you. Get clear about how the work of your organization moves you, and what you find compelling and meaningful. When you make your pitch, soften your belly and try to speak from an open heart sensing into what moves you.
Step two: Connecting to the other: your audience.
While building a relationship with your prospects and donors, you want to convey body language that is confident and open, These qualities help you to build rapport.
- Use eye contact to connect. Keep a “soft” gaze.
- Let your head be mobile and loose.
- Have a relaxed smile.
- Use open arms and open palms to convey openness and to connect with individuals, and allow your arms to relax by your sides when not speaking.
- Use the power of a pause or a sigh- silence is not your enemy, breath is your friend.
- Keep the spine erect and aligned. Practice moving from slumped, rounded shoulders to arched shoulders back and then move to center to align your posture.
- Keep your feet balanced, not favoring weight on either side.
Ready to command more presence?
Now that you have a framework for shifting your body language, commit to developing your skills so that you can deliver a powerful, persuasive pitch. Join Stephanie Brown and Laura Paradise at Foundation Center San Francisco’s April 10th full day workshop: Presence and Persuasion: Polishing Your Fundraising Pitch. You’ll get individual coaching instruction and lots of front-of-room experience.
http://grantspace.org/classroom/training-calendar/San-Francisco/polishing-your-fundraising-pitch-2015-4-10-san-francisco-ca