The Secret Sauce to 7 Figure Fundraising’s Success
One source behind the success of 7 Figure Fundraising is the book Make it Stick, The Science of Successful Learning. (Not to be confused with Made to Stick by Chip and Dan Heath.)
A facilitator is like a mountain climbing guide. You are guiding the group to achieve something but to achieve that you need to teach them a few lessons along the way. Trevor figured out the teaching part and many of his techniques he uses in 7FF come from this book.
The book explains how we learn and techniques you can use to increase your own learning or the learning of your attendees. Here are a few of those techniques.
First, inform attendees that you are using learning techniques backed by empirical research otherwise they’ll think it’s a gimmick. Be transparent that some of these techniques are difficult and that is on purpose. Point to the book Make It Stick for credibility.
Generative learning
Have attendees wrestle with a problem before you’ve taught them the concept or method to solve the problem. This gets the attendee to think creatively and search for existing knowledge they can apply. When you teach them the new concept or method, they will more easily connect it to what they already know. More connections to what they already know makes the knowledge stickier. Do this on a piece of paper to reduce anxiety of having to answer in front of people (anxiety is not good for learning)
Low Stakes Quizzes
Low stakes quizzes are one of the most effective teaching techniques. The quiz forces recall of the knowledge, forcing the recall strengthens a student’s ability to recall the knowledge later. For more on this check out the Testing Effect.
- Ask questions and have them write answers in journal or workbook.
- Or have questions printed on worksheets or in a workbook.
- Make sure quizzes connect back to activities not just the most recent lesson.
- Questions that link together different concepts are golden.
Reflection
Have attendees take moment to reflect on what they have learned, having them write it down is even better. Use these reflection questions.
- What were the key ideas you learned today?
- What are some examples those ideas?
- How does this idea relate to what you already know?
- What is an example of when you would use that idea?
- What did you do well?
- What could you have done better?
- What do you need to learn next?
- What strategies could you use next time?
Promote flashcard creation
Just like quizzes, flashcards enhance recall ability.
- Inform value of flashcards, make them available and easy for attendees to make.
- Highlight a few key points to turn into flash cards.
Peer Instruction method, by Eric Mazur
A popular teaching method that incorporates many of the techniques. Go deeper here.
- Assigned reading prior to class or workshop.
- Lecture interspersed with quizzes.
- Attendees answer the quiz questions independently
- Instead of the facilitator providing the answers have small groups work together to generate the answer.
- Bring the whole group back and discuss the answers
Follow-up questions via email
Make a list of questions that will be automatically emailed to the attendees.