making the ask facilitiator guide

Making the Ask

East Central Division RFL Summit 2011 Facilitator Guide

Making The Ask

Workshop OverviewReminder: notes to the facilitator are in blue; text in purple reference a trump learn-ing style

Audience: Event or Community Level Relay For Life volunteers and staff Relay For Life Staff

Objectives: Explore the history of the ACS and tie our past to our future. Create a sense of urgency for participants to always be prepared to make the

ask. Apply those key components to “the ask” through examination and practice.

Length of Session: 1 hr 15 minutes

Pre-Summit Work: Flip Charts Wall Charts

Supply List: 8x6 Post It Pads (1-2 for each table) One black marker for each person ACS By the Numbers- answer key Evaluation (place enough for each person at each table before the breakout be-

gins)

Program Handouts:1. How & Why did you get involved? 2. ACS by the Numbers3. The Ask: Plan & Process4. Create your Plan to making “the ask”5. Relay Committee Overview

Agenda:Welcome/Introductions Activity 15 minutesUnderstanding Our Past and Planning Our Future 20 minutesPlanning, process 25 minutesPutting it into Practice 20 minutesWrap Up 10 minutes

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Flipcharts: are listed in the order in which they will be presented in the breakout, make sure to keep a blank page in between each written page.

Turn to page ___ in your program and complete Why did you get involved? Hand-out. Once completed, find someone you do not know and share with one another what you wrote.

Feel free to write your

own scenario

I began my journey as Relay Committee member when I provided feedback to im-prove the Survivor/Caregiver lap at my Relay. The chair asked if I would head up the program so I could make those changes at next year’s event. My grandmother was diagnosed with breast cancer when I was younger, so I thought it would be a fun way to help her celebrate each year. – Patty “I bleed Purple” Relayer

In order to save lives even faster, we must… Involve as many people as possible; Raise as much money as possible; Educate as many people as possible about the disease; Continuously improve the quality of our events;

We must inspire our communities to Fight Back!

Do 4 times > write

headers at the top for space to write an-

swers

What are factors that keep you and your committee from making the ask?

The Plan...1. Clarify your need and the skills/traits for each position2. Collaborate with others to identify volunteers and decide who

to ask3. Have a face-to-face conversation4. Get their commitment – Make the ask!

Practice, practice, practice!

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Making The Ask

The Process 1. Start with a greeting, then make a transition2. Make a connection3. Share what is at stake4. Get the commitment: make the ask!5. If the answer is no, have a list of other asks

Do 4 times > write headers at the top for

space to write answers

Real World Relay Asks...←

The following flip charts are to placed around the breakout room > feel free to make them “look pretty”

Objectives: Explore the history of the ACS and tie our past to our future. Create a sense of urgency for participants to always be prepared to

make the ask. Apply those key components to “the ask” through examination and prac-

tice.

Practice, practice, practice...

← If not you, then who?

← We can’t and will never stop

← Did you tell them or did you touch them?

← I’m not going to apologize for saving lives!

← One’s ask must be organic

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← Facilitator names (hometown Relay, ECD region) and e-mail ad-dresses

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Welcome/Introductions (15 Minutes)_____________________________________________________________________

Talking/Movement: Ask participants to reference the instruction on the flipchart and to start the exercise immediately.

Turn to page ___ in your program and complete Why did you get involved? Handout. Once completed, find someone you do not know and share with one another what you wrote.

How & Why did you get involved?

Once you see the majority of the group has found a buddy and shared, ask them to re-turn to their seats and ask audience to read a volunteer’s story on a flipchart piece of paper on the wall.

I began my journey as Relay Committee member when I provided feedback to improve the Survivor/Caregiver lap at my Relay. The chair asked if I would head up the program so I could make those changes at next year’s event. My grandmother was diagnosed with breast cancer when I was younger, so I thought it would be a fun way to help her celebrate each year. – Patty “I bleed Purple” Relayer

What made more of an impact — reading somebody’s story as we just did or hearing somebody’s story as you all did when you first came into the room?

Most likely, folks will say that hearing somebody’s story made more of an impact.

So, what we’ve learned is that hearing somebody’s story in person is more effective. In today’s breakout, Making the Ask, we will uncover how making this personal connection can better help us in making the ask in our Relays.

Talking Can I have a volunteer to read our objectives for today? Have someone read them off the flipchart.

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Objectives: Explore the history of the ACS and tie our past to our future. Create a sense of urgency for participants to always be prepared to

make the ask. Apply those key components to “the ask” through examination and prac-

tice.

Thank you! Now by this time I bet you are all wondering, who we are??

Each facilitator should introduce themselves; share their history with RAT/Relay and share how each of them were asked to be part of Relay For Life.

Understanding Our Past and Planning Our Future (20 Minutes)______________________________________________________________________

Talking/Movement/Writing Instruct participants to turn to page ___ in the program for the ACS By the Numbers handout and working together in pairs to complete the worksheet. After five minutes, go over the answers

ACS By the Numbers

Today, the American Cancer Society Relay For Life has built a recognizable brand, with more than 4 million people around the world participating in 6,200 Relay events in 2011 (5,200 in the United States and 1,000 more in 20 other countries).

Relay is the largest cancer awareness and fundraising activity in the world. In fact, this April, Relay surpassed $4 billion raised for the fight! Relay’s purpose is to save lives, but we need to save more lives faster.

In order to save lives even faster, we must… Involve as many people as possible; Raise as much money as possible; Educate as many people as possible about the disease; Continuously improve the quality of our events;

We must inspire our communities to Fight Back!

How many of you know someone who has benefited from the work of the American Cancer Society? It could be research, prevention, early detection, advocacy or patient services. Ask one or two participants to share their story.

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For many Relayers, sharing these benefits and making the ask of someone to join Re-lay — whether it be as a committee member or a team member — is something they are not comfortable doing. Today we will share coaching points to help you, help others over coming making the ask!

Writing/Talking Ask a participant to be the scribe for this next exercise.

What are factors that keep you and your committee from making the ask?

Have scribe jot down these factors as people say them. If the room gets stuck, try to sway them toward the following responses:

• They do not feel prepared • They are not sure who to ask or for what• They are intimidated by the idea • They are not comfortable with a face to face conversation or are used to commu-

nicating electronically.• Fear of rejection

Thank the scribe and have them sit down after the brainstorm.

So how do we overcome these issues?

Planning Process (25 Minutes)______________________________________________________________________

We plan!

First, let’s take a look at the planning process for making the ask for a new committee member. Please reference page ____ in the program for “The Ask” handout, fill in the blanks as we go along. We will review these steps listed, discuss how they help us as leaders and then put them together for real situations in Relay.

The Ask: Plan & Process

Number one, blank your need and the skills/traits for each position. What do you think this answer is? Pick on a few people, if they do not get it correct answer is CLARIFY.

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In order to clarify we must coach our committee and ourselves to use a few probing questions.

What questions does your committee ask when identifying a new committee member? Pick on a few people to share.

Talking Let’s take a look at some of the probing questions listed for us. Pick a different person to read each one.

#1 Clarify your need and the skills/traits...• What are the volunteer leadership roles on your committee that need to be filled?• Of those positions, which are important to getting the people and bringing in do-

nations? (these are the people we should address first in our recruitment efforts)• How many people are needed for the subcommittee? • What tasks do we want these roles to complete before, during and after an

event?• What resources are available to help them be successful?• What skills/personality traits would be valuable for each vacant position?

Why would we want to know all of that information? Ask one or two people to reply.

Having answers to these questions helps you determine the level of commitment or time necessary for a given position and also provides a clear objective to the person you are asking to come on board. You as the “asker” are now prepared with what you really are asking someone to do on the committee – and you have a better idea of what type of person you need.

#2 _____________ with others to identify volunteers and decide who to ask. Pick on a few people, if they do not get it correct answer is COLLABORATE.

How do you currently decide whom to ask? Get some participants to reply.

• Utilize your Community Assessment Profile to map untapped affiliations.Before moving on make sure folks know what this tool is. It’s basically their Relay phone book that lists all contacts within a community and is broken down by like groups known as affiliations (ie. faith based, school, media, healthcare, etc.)

• Who do you know that is not involved in Relay within those targeted affiliations?• From our clarifying questions, what positions do we need to fill?• How can they help you — make introductions, serve a role, give you “insider” in-

formation about the person, open the door for you, go with you to make the ask?

Now we know what we need and who our potentials are now the next thing we need to do is, Set up a face-to-face _____________. Pick on a few people, if they do not get it correct answer is CONVERSATION.

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Movement: Please stand if you think face to face asks are more beneficial than elec-tronic asks?

Ask a few people who are standing why they find it more beneficial.

Though we have done our homework in steps 1 and 2; however, some information you can only learn from the individual themselves.

Let’s recap what we have learned thus far, filling in the last bullet. The Plan...

1. Clarify your need and the skills/traits for each position2. Collaborate with others to identify volunteers and decide who

to ask3. Have a face-to-face conversation4. Get their commitment – Make the ask!

Practice, practice, practice!

Now let’s dive further into the process of the ask, the conversation set-up.The Process

1. Start with a greeting, then make a transition2. Make a connection3. Share what is at stake4. Get the commitment: make the ask!5. If the answer is no, have a list of other asks

Walk the audience through each line item, first asking them what they feel each number means- if they get it, great move on to the next one; if not use the talking points below:.

#1 Start with a greeting, then make the transitionUse the information you’ve learned to talk about any family, friend, work connections you might have with the person. If you don’t know the person directly, it helps to bring someone who does.

Once the small talk is out of the way, make a transition so that people know the topic has changed to something far more serious.

What are some examples of good transition statements? Ask audience.Possible answers, if audience is stumped:

“I want to talk about something important...” “I’ve got a serious question for you...” “(Name), I need your help...”

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“I know that your company has had a Relay team for the past two years…”

#2 Use the conversation to make a connectionEarlier we asked you to think of your emotional connection to Relay For Life. This is the time you can share why you are personally involved. Connect it to them. Spend time learning about the person by asking questions. Ask if they have been touched by cancer — what is their story?

By having the conversation, you’ll have the information you need to connect the right person with the right role.

#3 Help them to understand what is at stakeWhen you ask someone to join the committee, makes sure they understand how they would be making a difference. Direct attention to the two wall flipchart noted below, pick two people to read them.

← If not you, then who?

← Practice, practice, practice...

Don’t be afraid, when planning, to write out a script for yourself and practice it so you’ll feel more comfortable.

Movement: So you’ve planned out your ask. But what happens if the person you’re ask-ing says no?

Please stand if you have been told no when making a Relay For Life ask? Everybody probably will stand.

Remain standing if you had a ‘plan b’ in other words you had another option for that per-son or company to participate in Relay. If anyone is standing, ask them what their plan b was to the ask they received a no to.

Writing/Talking Beat the Clock: At your tables, your group will have two minutes to write down as many back-up plans you all can think of if somebody says no to ask to join the Relay committee.

At the end of the two minutes, have everyone stop and stand up to show they are fin-ished. The table with the most responses written down will be the team you pick to have read off their ideas to the classroom.

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Movement: Raise your hand if you have a better idea on how to coach your committee to develop a ‘plan B’?

For those that raise their hands, ask them how they will take this concept back to their events.

Putting It Into Practice (20 minutes)______________________________________________________________________

Talking: Scenarios What are some situations that you encounter in your role where you would need to make an effective ask? Flip chart the answers. Try to get about four answers. In case they can’t think that day, ideas include:

Staff partner recruiting an Event Chair Event Chair recruiting a Co-Chair Sponsorship chair recruiting a High Level Sponsor Team Development Chair recruiting a Team Captain Team Captain recruiting Team Member

Real World Relay Asks...

Break the participants into four groups. Assign each group one of the scenarios listed and have them use the planning and process model to work through how they would make the ask.

Give 5-8 minutes and call back together. Have each group share how they addressed their scenario. Get feedback from the other groups on how they would address that ask.

Great job everyone! Thank you for working through the process to become more com-fortable with making the ask.

Now let’s take 10 minutes for each of you to build your ‘plan and process’ steps to an “ask” you know you will have this season in Relay for your committee.

Writing/Talking: Use the “Create your Plan” handout on page ____ in your program to guide you through the steps we went over today. Also reference the Relay Commit-tee Overview handout for examples on tasks each member of your committee can complete.

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Create your Plan to Making “the ask” & Relay Committee Overview

Once the time is up, ask a few people to share what they came up with.

Wrap Up (10 minutes)__________________________________________________________________

So, what have we learned? Let’s go back to our objectives:

Talking: Ask three people, each to re-read one of the objectives.

Objectives:o Explore the history of the ACS and tie our past to our

future.o Create a sense of urgency for participants to always be

prepared to make the ask.o Apply those key components to “the ask” through ex-

amination and practice.

Movement: Please stand up if you feel we achieved those objectives.

Before you sit down, we need 10 people to tell us what they’ve learned. Select 10 and have the rest stand, or go through as many people as time allots.

The bottom line is that, while technology is convenient, it does not allow us to maximize the potential for our Relay For Life committees.

By making the ask with a plan and an emotional connection, we have a greater chance of building our Relay For Life network for the future. We hope through this breakout you will know how to better coach your peers to better themselves at making the ask. We focus today on leadership issues, but the steps can be applicable to any ask you have within your Relay.

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Please fill out the evaluation for this breakout before you leave.

Evaluation

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making the ask facilitiator guide

Documents

staff relay

relay committee overviewagenda

relay committee member

person acs

community level relay

key components

answers real world relay

life staff objectives