The ask is 30 seconds. Most of us have never practiced it.

You know your case for support cold.

You've done the cultivation. You've built the relationship. You know the donor's story, their family, their why. Then it comes down to one sentence — and that's the one sentence almost nobody rehearses.

We rehearse board presentations. We rehearse the elevator pitch at the gala. We rehearse the hard conversation with our ED. But the actual ask, the 30 seconds that decides whether a transformational gift happens this year or slips to "let's circle back in the spring," most of us have said out loud maybe twice.

Nobody expects a musician to nail a composition they've never played. Why do we expect that of ourselves?

This script fixes that. Five questions, one page, ten minutes. Use it in the car, with a colleague, or with an AI role-play partner. The first time will feel awkward — that's the whole point. Better awkward in your driveway than in the donor's living room.