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NonProfit Fundraising 102

It happened again the other day. Except this time from a dear friend. He happens to be the Founder and Executive Director (I’ll call him Ed, in order to be able to use a name, easily read it as Executive Director, and maintain anonymity) of a not-for-profit that he started about 7-8 years ago. He does incredible work, so great that I’m frustrated that he has not grown faster so he can have an impact on more people. The world needs him to grow! I could not love him more as a person nor the work he does.

I’ve never offically consulted with Ed on the growth of his organization though we talked quite a bit about funding as he was launching the organzation. Years later he finally hired a full time professional development person to help him raise funds. He could not have done a worse job!

Like so many other Execs of small not-for-profits, he succumbed to the fantasy that someone else could bring him the donors he needed. He would hire someone who could easily reach people that were not on his radar. What could be better than hiring someone who brought his own rolodex! Someone who had raised funds for another organization and came with a long list of donors with whom he had previously worked! No matter that the previous employer was only peripherally related to the work the organization does. This should work out great! The Development guy was to bring his own contacts, develop his own donors, and bring the organization new funds! This was going to be easy.

Or so he thought. Six months later the Development Director has broght in very little money and has not changed the culture of the board or the organization in any way (not his job/assignment). I still hope he succeeds in raising funds, but I know the odds of that happening are pretty slim. The whole enterprise (of fundraising in this way) is doomed to fail because the premise it is built on is a fallacy.

There is no professional who is going to work for you, bring his own donors, and fill your coffers without you doing any work or making changes to the way you are operating. You do not go from being a $500,000 per year organization to a $1M per year fundraising organization without work, without growth, and without change.

If, like Ed, your organization has not grown much in the past 5 years, then you need to have a conversation with your board of directors about why that is. Why aren’t they doing their job? (But try not to be that blunt.) Or engage a consultant to help you ahve that conversation.

The way you grow an organization is to hire and train leadership who are willing to do the work to help you grow. That means that your board understands that fundraising is their responsibilty and that the responsibility of the Exec and the Development Director are to work with the Board to identify new donors from their contacts! Your Board are the ones with the realtionships with potential donors, not your professionals.

Think of this for a second. If a development person is bringing his own contacts that we developed at another not-for-profit, what do you think he is going to do with your donors when he leaves your organization? But I digress.

Fundraising has to be one of the fundamental responsibilities of the board of a not-for-profit. Every board needs the diversity of the 3 W’s. “Work, Wealth, and Wisdom.” Fundraising is at the heart of the first two. Another cruder way of explaing a standard for board members is, “Give, Get, or Get Out of the Way.”

Fantasies are fun, unless you are wasting money on them. So when you are ready to do the real work of growing your organization, start with your board, or start with a professional who can help you engage your board.

MajorGiftsNow and E-gagement™

I am pleased to announce a spinoff from Aliya Marketing Group. MajorGiftsNow will focus on bringing the technology of e-gagement™ to the charitable world. E-gagement™ is the marriage of The Science of Engagement to the Art of Relationship Fundraising.

Using technology you can engage more donors, more deeply, and in a way they want to be engaged. As your donor moves through the cycle from awareness, to exploration, to expansion, to commitment to your charity, they need different kinds of communications. Early on a transactional relationship might be more appropriate, but as the donor becomes more involved communications need to be on point to what the donor cares about most.

E-gagement™ begins with permission. We begin the process asking your donors to take a survey and then we take their lead in communicating with them about what they have told us they care about most. It saves substantial amounts of money as there is no need to pay for donor research. And it is more accurate too.

Ultimately we automate the process of contact and we track interactions with your website and information offered. In so doing, we know who is most engaged and what they are interested in making deciding who to meet with and what to talk about with them a much more efficient and productive process.

Ultimately e-gagement™ leads to major major gifts and legacy gifts, faster, less costly, with happier donors and more productive professionals. And for charities that qualify, the standard 12-month program even comes with a guarantee of a return of 20 times your investment.

If that sounds interesting, check us out at MajorGiftsNow.com

The Best Music on Hold Ever

 

 

 

Fundraising Advice to a Start-Up Charity

I recently received a letter from a woman who wanted to raise funds for her newly formed organization. She asked for advice without being specific as to her needs other than the need to raise funds. This was my reply:

My specialty is Major Gifts fundraising. I’ve always thought time is better spent cultivating people who have an affinity to your cause rather than putting on events that engage a small group of volunteers and raise a small amount of money from a larger group.

I don’t know if you have a board of directors yet, but building one is a great way to engage people in your cause as well as to cultivate and prospect for major gifts.

There are no short cuts. Individuals and Foundations that have funded other organizations affiliated broadly with your cause is the place to start. Pick up the phone, write letters, and connect (which you seem to be very good at.) You may know this already, but basically a fundraising campaign looks something like this:

  1. Plan your campaign with a total goal, pyramid, and with goals for number of gifts at each level. Yes it is a pyramid. No, you don’t raise $100,000 by getting 1000 people to give you $100 each. You will want to tweak this based on your prospects and feedback, but roughly it looks like this:
  2. 1 gift of 25% of goal
    2 gifts of 10% of goal
    4 gifts of 5% of goal
    8 gifts of 2.5% of goal
    15 gifts of 1% of goal

  3. Make a list of qualities you want on your board which might include the following: wealth, connections to wealth, connections to the community, time to invest, connections to foundations or others involved in your cause, leadership…
  4. Make a prospect list of potential donors. Ideally 3 prospects per gift on your pyramid. Foundation fundraising is much like individual fundraising except with more paperwork and more information available. Ultimately individuals will make the decisions so do your research and meet with people who make those decisions.
  5. An old adage is “if you want advice, ask for money. If you want money, ask for advice.” So call/write and follow up asking for advice. Tell people you created a new organization to achieve X and are building a board and raising funds and would love their advice.
  6. When you meet, tell them about your organization. Ask them about their connection to the cause. Ask what excites them most about it. Show them your plan. Ask them advice. And then ask if they can see themselves as one of your supporters. If they are leadership material, ask if they will help you by joining the board. Ask if they know others who might support you in your work.

That’s it! Easy peasy! Hope it was helpful.

Of course if you have more money than time, then you can hire a consultant to help you do all that.

Good luck!

If there is anything else I can do for you, please let me know.

warmly,

Joshua