Speaker · Auctioneer · Author · Mother
Raise your voice. / Raise the room. / Raise them all.
Manifesto
Everything that matters begins with an ask. Every grant funded. Every paddle raised. Every glass cracked. Every yes that changed a life — someone, somewhere, asked first.
The art of the ask is the art of building the world you want. I've spent twenty years asking. Let me show you how.
— Eliza
About
Eliza Sterling is one of the most-booked charity auctioneers in the United States and the founder of The Ask Institute. She has raised more than forty million dollars for organizations she believes in, delivered two hundred keynotes across thirty countries, and trained executive teams at Fortune 100 companies on the most undervalued skill in business: asking clearly, confidently, and for what they actually want.
She is also a mother of two, an unrepentant optimist about other people's potential, and the author of The Ask — a book about getting what you need by saying what you want.
Three rooms · one voice
01 · The Stage
Mainstage keynotes, opening sessions, and fireside conversations on leadership, sales, and the art of the ask. Past stages include the Aspen Ideas Festival, the Forbes Women's Summit, and the Massachusetts Conference for Women.
02 · The Gavel
Five nights a week in gala season, Eliza takes the stage as the auctioneer for missions she shares. Forty million dollars and counting — for women's shelters, scholarship funds, hospitals, and arts education.
03 · The Page
A practical, generous handbook for anyone who has ever swallowed a question. Twelve chapters. Three hundred pages. A career's worth of asking — distilled. Out this fall from Penguin Press.
The Book · Out this fall
How to get what you need
by saying what you want.
Twelve chapters. Three hundred pages. A career's worth of asking — distilled into the practical, generous handbook the author wishes she'd had at twenty-two.
"The most useful book on negotiation, fundraising, and plain-spoken courage I've read in a decade." — Naomi Asher, founder & CEO, Halcyon Ventures
Praise
"Eliza did in forty minutes what we'd been trying to do for a decade. She made the ask feel like a gift."
Jordan Reyes
Executive Director, Step Up
"I have never seen a room of two thousand people lean in like they did. She is the entire room."
Mariko Tanaka
Chair, Forbes Women's Summit
"Half the things I asked for last year are because of her. The other half are because of her, too."
Naomi Asher
Founder & CEO, Halcyon Ventures
As featured in
Bring Eliza into your room
For keynote bookings, benefit auctions, or executive workshops, write to my team. We reply within two business days.
