A good coach has you show up in the best way, in the best frame of mind, and success flows from there. — Lori Jacobwith

Lori L. Jacobwith Speaking Topics

Lori combines information from her day and ½ workshop and offers an exciting, information-packed session that gives tips and strategies for raising more funds from individuals.

Imagine What's Possible workshops address the following topics:
• Money and how your organization talks about it
• Raising funds in challenging economic times
• Sharing the story of your organization powerfully
• Confidently asking people to be involved or to give
• Donor cultivation, what it is and how you can identify opportunities to deepen donor commitment
• The role of the staff and board in fund development

3 hour workshop, 75 minute break-out session

Asking for gifts can be the one task that staff and board members don't do enough. It can cause sweaty palms and anxiety. Fear and time management can be barriers to asking as often as we should. What if there was a way to shift the fear into action? What if there could be a way to ENJOY asking? This session addresses fears and provides practical, hands-on information that can be put to use immediately. This session is highly interactive with a combination of lecture, group conversation, and actual paired asking practice for both yes and no responses.

Keynote, 2 1/2 or 3 hour workshop, 1 hour webinar, 75 minute breakout session

Session is also titled: Sharing Your Mission Powerfully
In a challenging economy how do you communicate so people listen and understand what you need? And more importantly how do you communicate so people take action? Words can often be the least effective way to communicate because they are so easily misunderstood and often don’t convey exactly what we want to say. If feeling is the ultimate tool of knowing, how do you cause people to feel something so they share their important resources of time, advice, and financial support? Lori’s interactive session will help you shift your communication to create connections that endure and generate dollars from individuals. Attendees of this session will learn new tips and strategies for leveraging the power of clear, bold communication in support of their organization.

2 hour workshop, 60-90 minute webinar, 75 minute breakout session

The good news: Information about top donors & volunteers is a resource that is as valuable as cash in the bank.
Not so good news: Much of that information is in people's heads and doesn't become part of the institutional memory of the organization

Many nonprofit organizations don’t even realize they are not fully leveraging their fundraising data tracking system to support their individual donor fundraising. This is an energetic and interactive session that will cause you to take a closer look at how well you are using your donor data to raise more funds each year. A real-life case story will be examined. Participants will also examine where to focus staff and board member time in their annual development and communication plans based on the information they’ve collected about their donors.

 This session is not based on any specific data tracking system.  Tips and strategy shared will be applicable to most any system.

2 or 3 hour workshop, 60-90 minute webinar, 75 minute breakout session

Your board can be among your most powerful assets. Too often though the board doesn’t want to be involved in fundraising or views it as a daunting task. The result is that many board members do nothing or very little when it comes to fundraising. To address this challenge, your board members may need more clear direction and guidance about how they to participate so fundraising feels rewarding and an integral part of their board involvement. In this interactive session you will learn some concrete tools and techniques that can help make fundraising a rewarding experience for you AND your board.

3 hour workshop

Asking for money is something most people simply don’t want to do. So between board & staff whose job is it to do the tasks that lead to getting more gifts from individuals? This session is designed to dispel some myths about the differences between fundraising and development. This is a high-energy, interactive session that will help you and your team identify ways to provide your board members, donors & staff with clear direction and guidance, even training, about how to participate in helping raise awareness & dollars so it feels rewarding and an integral part of their role. You’ll leave this session with concrete tools and techniques that will result in raising more money from individuals.

90 minute to 4 hour workshop

The word choices we make create the experience our supporters have. Being clear about who you are and what your organization does requires a laser focus on communication. In this hands-on session participants will identify words that describe their organization clearly and boldly, and then use those words or phrases in three tools of introduction: 1) a short three-sentence framework - your “elevator speech” on caffeine; 2) two minute "mission moment" stories; and 3) six-word stories that are engaging and cause people to want to learn more about your organization.

Full day or 3+ hour workshop, 90 minute webinar

Spending time planning is one of the last things most of us do in our organizations. We are most often reacting to the next crisis or grant deadline. Lori’s session puts fun into planning and takes participants through an easy-to-use template for creating an annual fundraising plan. The template works for organizations of all sizes. The template can be used to build on the plan you already have in place OR create a new one. This is both a lecture and working session. Bring your development team: staff, board leadership, and community volunteers to move your organization to a whole new level of success.

This is an interactive session that will:

• Provide a simple framework for creating an annual fundraising plan
• Begin the process of filling in a plan template

2 or 3 hour workshop, 60 minute webinar, 75 minute breakout session

Storytelling is one of the most powerful ways to engage listeners. This session catapults attendees to a new level of fundraising & communication awareness and participation using storytelling as the tool. Participants learn ways to succinctly share their mission by sharing stories of varied length that cut through the clutter of day to day communications. This is a hands-on interactive session.

40 - 60 minute Keynote

Words create experiences. Paying attention to the words we choose affects success at work and in our personal life. National communication strategist and trainer Lori L. Jacobwith believes that paying attention to our communication CAN be the path to success. In this very personal and interactive keynote session Lori will bring awareness to your language choices and you’ll identify ways to make small shifts in language that can cause different outcomes. Lori is known for her high-energy sessions that leave audiences inspired and viewing life from a new perspective.