If you are not asking your constituents what channels they wish to receive different types of communications, you are wasting a ton of time, financial resources, and energy.

If you are not asking your major gift donors when they might be open to discussing their next significant investment in your mission before inviting them to make that gift, you are running the risk of being offensive.

If you are not asking your prospective donors to identify the ways in which your mission matters to them, you are most likely inviting them to give ineffectively.

If you are not asking your closest volunteers if they might be willing to introduce you to new prospects in their spheres of influence, you are missing opportunities.

To be more effective, to enhance our influence, and to strengthen relationships during this extended period of disconnection and over the longer term, we need to be doing a lot more asking.

Far less of that asking should be for gifts, and far more of it for permission.