Good fundraising is not about money; it’s about the desire to improve your community or world for the better. Creating effective talking points will help you speak about your work in a condensed, compelling, and easily digestible way.
Create Your Talking Points
Answer the following questions to start developing your pitch. Be sure to focus on your group’s strengths, not just your needs, to demonstrate how you make an impact in the community. Be both emotional and rational by including accomplishments and stories that appeal to the heart, as well as statistical information where possible.
Your Story
Why are you part of an Indivisible group? Tell your story and what brings you to this work. Be honest and heartfelt—politics is personal.
Alternatively, share personal stories of people in your life who have been impacted by extremist policies, or who have benefited from your work. Be specific.
Your Group
What are the goals and mission of your group?
Last Year.
What were your most successful actions in the past year? What was the end result? Don’t spend too much time on this section—share just the top highlight or two.
Going Forward
What are your upcoming goals and actions, and what will be the impact? Be as specific as possible. Why should your audience care about the issues you’re tackling?
Ask: What is your call to action?
What resources do you need from the audience to support your group’s work?
Practice and Improve
Practice your pitch with other group members. Ask for feedback so that you will be as prepared as possible. When you start using your talking points, your audience may want more information about something you mention. Make sure that you are comfortable speaking in depth about anything you bring up.
Continue to Develop
In the fast-paced, ever-changing political world we live in, new issues, votes, and scandals will pop up everyday. Be sure to develop new talking points to keep up with those that are important and relevant to your group. At the same time, you can’t know everything about everything. Be as prepared as you can, but don’t feel like you have to be an expert on every topic in order to fundraise!
Sample Talking Points
As you begin to think about upcoming actions to link to your fundraising pitch, be sure to check out the various resources listed on our website for more information.
If you ever have any questions about your fundraising pitch, reach out to fundraising@indivisble.org