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The Best Fundraising Idea

Jim Rohn said “rarely does a good idea interrupt you,” and anyone who has sat in on the first meeting of a new development committee can vouch for the truth in that statement. Of course I’m not talking about mature fundraising organizations staffed by a team of professionals who have worked closely with volunteer leadership to plan the meeting and the campaign.

Unfortunately young charities or schools that grow out of the vision of one person or a small group too often continue to think small. Bake sales, wrapping paper sales, and small events all too often pass for fundraising at the immature organization.

Even large or mature organizations can make mistakes in planning events. Last year my synagogue held a gala to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the senior Rabbi. He is very involved throughout the community, Jewish, interfaith, and secular. I believe there were 400 people there and the temple netted about $40,000. Wow, $100 per head seems good to some of you reading this. I assure you that they could have easily raised more than $100,000 and probably more than $200k had they done it right.

But, to quote Jim Rohn again, “the things that are easy to do are also easy not to do.” Raising major gifts for charity is not rocket science. It can be done with events, like the one described above. But those events need to incorporate the best fundraising idea ever. Here it is:

You need to ask for major gifts.

There you have it. I just gave away the secret that every professional fundraiser knows. I apologize to my colleagues for letting the cat out of the bag. The good news, for professional consultants is that although it is easy, it is also easy not to do.

Having elementary school students sell wrapping paper and candy to family and friends may be a good idea, if you want to engage the kids in the process, build ownership, and teach them important life skills. But if you want to raise major dollars, then you need to sit down with members of your community, identify major gift prospects, cultivate them, and then ask them for major gifts.

What makes a gift major depends on the size of your organization. It could be $1,000, or $10,000 or $100,000. Whatever the level, you need to start taking the process seriously and you need to plan how you are going to start raising real money from your major gifts program. You don’t even need a professional. You could hire one if you want to. But you can do this without us.

If you want to hear more about how to do that, just fill in your name and email to subscribe to this blog and get a notice whenever I post.

11 Comments

  1. But doesn’t that hinder the involvement of individuals who want to commit to a cause?

    Sunday, February 3, 2008 at 4:29 pm | Permalink
  2. jkarlin wrote:

    The most productive thing that anyone committed to a cause can do is to learn how to ask for major gifts. In the time it takes to plan a bake sale, make the brownies, stand at the table, organize everyone else to do the same, the average committed individual could sit through campaign training, practice and actually go out and ask for one gift which could do more for the organization than 50 bake sales.

    Tuesday, February 5, 2008 at 2:32 pm | Permalink
  3. Tip Diva wrote:

    Thank you for submitting your post to Carnival Of Tips!

    Good post – look forward to reading on how you ask for major gifts. Is there a certain etiquette to this?

    Sunday, February 10, 2008 at 4:49 pm | Permalink
  4. Tom Cannon wrote:

    A simple post with a lot of wisdom behind it. I’m a new development director and I’m trying to get on this path of major gifts. Part of my philosophy is “you don’t ask, you don’t get.” One challenge I have is that we’re a respected and comfortable part of the background in our area. Many people in the area highly respect what we do, but haven’t ever been in the Museum. So waving a signal flag will be part of how we raise our presence with a wider array of current and potential supporters.

    Monday, March 3, 2008 at 2:54 pm | Permalink
  5. its sad because most people are just afraid to ask because they think people will say no… its ok people are gonna say no but others will say yes.. go for it

    Friday, December 18, 2009 at 4:34 pm | Permalink
  6. devi iriawan wrote:

    yes i agree about your ideas.. we can get a lot of benefit from this method 🙂

    business plan consultants

    Tuesday, January 5, 2010 at 1:01 pm | Permalink
  7. Generally I do not post on blogs, but I would like to say that this post really forced me to do so! really nice post…

    Thursday, January 14, 2010 at 4:24 pm | Permalink
  8. billf wrote:

    Straight and to the point. Just like the Rolling Stones said “you can’t always get what you want”….But if you don’t ask you never get what you want 🙂

    Sunday, January 17, 2010 at 1:53 am | Permalink
  9. I wish I had found this site before because it is great!

    Wednesday, January 20, 2010 at 6:35 pm | Permalink
  10. My wife works in the development organization for a major university and that’s given me an insight I never had before into the whole “cultivation” aspect of how donors are groomed/handled. As this article said, it is a long-term project that should be planned strategically.

    Eric Sterling – Internet Marketing’s last blog post..Affiliate Marketing marketplace

    Friday, May 6, 2011 at 12:20 am | Permalink
  11. I think the biggest hurdle is just overcoming the fear of asking. Once you do you’ll see that it really wasn’t that bad, and like they said before, the worst thing that can happen is someone will say no.

    Micah Castro’s last blog post..Tucson Internet Marketing

    Thursday, June 23, 2011 at 10:22 pm | Permalink