If You Want Money, Ask For It
“Ask for what you want, and be prepared to get it!”
What are you asking for?
Now, those of you that know me well may have read that last question with a New York accent, and a slightly obnoxious attitude. Like, “Whaddya askin’ for?” And expecting it to be followed closely by, “Who wants to know?”
I simply mean to get you to think about exactly what you are asking for. Especially when you’re asking for money.
There are lots of words for money. Here in the US, we sometimes call it “moolah”, “Benjamins”, “bucks”, and “greenbacks”. We also know that when we hear those words, the speaker is referring to a pile of paper legal tender. Too often, we are way less clear when we are actually asking for some of the stuff.
We ask for “support”. We ask for “resources”. We ask for “assistance”. If we’re being slightly less nebulous, we ask for “funding”. Or we ask for “investment”. When was the last time you actually used the word “money” when you were asking for money?
Much of this obliqueness (is that even a word?) comes from our fears and discomfort around money. We’re not supposed to talk about money. We’re not supposed to ask other people about their money. We’re not supposed to volunteer how much money we make or have in our bank accounts. Why do we have these fears? Too many hypotheses to put into this post. Suffice it to say that most of us have some fear or discomfort around talking about money.
Well, here’s a new hypothesis for you. How about asking for exactly what you want?
I just heard all of you gasp.
What, you don’t want to ask that foundation to actually write a check? You don’t want to tell the potential donor you need her to give you money?
Look at the flip side. Would you happy if the potential donor gave you her nasty old office furniture instead of cash? Does your work suffer if you’re secretly thinking, “how am I going to make payroll”?
Be clear about what you want. It makes it much easier for people to give it to you.
Drop your thoughts and ideas into the comments below. Was there a time you didn’t ask for what you wanted and ended up with something crazy? Was there a time when you asked for exactly what you wanted—and got it?
