In this chapter of “FUNDRAISING DOs & DON’Ts”, we will look at a handful of ways how Mother’s Day can strengthen your charity’s fundraising capacity.
In this chapter of “FUNDRAISING DOs & DON’Ts”, we will explore why and how relatively new and peppy volunteers who haven’t yet found their place within the charity are excellent candidates play the role as Ambassadors who get conversations started with donors.
Conversations with friends and colleagues who firmly believe that charity overhead should be as low as possible can be awkward and exhausting. Yet they can also be viewed as opportunities to advance the public’s understanding of how operating expense items directly affect the impact of an organization’s programs.
Do you feel awkward or uncomfortable thanking donors on behalf of your organization for their support? Simply include a “thank you” in conversations that you are already planning to have with donors. Here are three (3) types of conversations with donors where this tactic can be effectively employed.
In this installation of “FUNDRAISING DOs & DON’Ts”, we explore the relative importance of a pair of metrics that we tend to monitor when executing funding campaigns. One is an extraordinarily common variable that perhaps gets tracked too closely, while the other unequivocally demands more of our attention.
Do you feel awkward or uncomfortable thanking donors on behalf of your organization for their support? Simply include a “thank you” in conversations that you are already planning to have with donors. Here are three (3) types of conversations with donors where this tactic can be effectively employed.
We are excited to announce the launch of our Four-Day Virtual Donor Stewardship Boot Camp taking place from Tuesday, April 11th to Friday, April 14th, 2023. Registration will open very soon and we encourage you to visit our website often for updates. Join us to discover the key to fundraising sustainability!!
Wow! What a time to be launching the inaugural post of Sustainable Solutions – the official blog of People First Fundraising Solutions. Nearly every country on Earth is embracing social distancing and encouraging their citizens to hunker down in their homes in solidarity to combat the novel coronavirus and ‘flatten the curve’. At the time of this post, the virus has infected more than 1.3 million people with close to 75,000 deaths worldwide.
Although some progress in containing the spread of the illness has been achieved in places like China, South Korea and Italy, the exponential growth of new cases continues for most nations. Populations are scared, schools and businesses are closed, economies are in peril and regular life has screeched to a grinding halt. People are scared for their futures and are desperately turning to their leaders for answers.
We have not confronted a crisis of the magnitude since 9/11 and many of us recall how the fear of that horrific chapter in our world’s history gripped us so tightly, executing simple daily activities became a challenge. As they are doing now, people turned to their leaders for solutions and thankfully many responded to unify their populace and commence the war on terrorism.
However, not all leaders have been as responsive or dependable during this pandemic as evidenced by the inexcusable shortages of testing kits for suspected cases, ventilators for severely infected patients and Personal Protective Equipment for the courageous doctors and health care workers battling to contain the disease. In spite of a lack of support, many communities have taken ownership and are finding ways themselves of acquiring the resources they need to save the lives of their citizens. Rather than wait and hope for government assistance that is likely not forthcoming, many key people of influence have stepped up, galvanized their communities and discovered ways of getting what they need to ‘flatten the curve’.
True leaders do not wait or place their hopes on exogenous forces to obtain the resources they need to help the people they pledged to serve. They do not defer responsibility or allow petty disagreements with others interfere with their duties. Listening to their people and fully understanding their needs before formulating plans is a step that true leaders never fail to take. Real leaders foster collaboration and team chemistry. In short, real leaders find a way to solve problems optimizing every asset at their disposal to get the job done.
We in the fund development profession must espouse these tenets when helping organizations establish sustainable bases of support so they may achieve their missions. It is our duty to ensure that the change that the organizations with whom we work are striving to create not rest upon factors outside of their control like government grants. We must step up as leaders to do all we can to help organizations devise sustainable fundraising strategies so they can take ownership of their quests to fulfill their missions.
Chief among our obligations is introducing organizations to new sources of ongoing revenue such as third-party fundraising, peer-to-peer appeals, special events and major gifts so they may diversify their bases of support. Equally crucial is ensuring that organizations safeguard the functionality of their fund development infrastructure items including their fundraising volunteer teams, donor database software, gift processing systems and effective stewardship practices. Ultimately, fundraising leaders must ensure that their organizations focus on nurturing a solid and loyal donor base that positions them to respond proactively to the evolving needs of their communities.
In the entries ahead our aim is that you will discover new insights, perspectives and strategies to enhance your organization’s, community’s or enterprise’s ability to acquire the resources to create positive change. We urge you to bookmark and visit our Upcoming Workshops page regularly to hear about our scheduled Online and In-Person Grant Writing and Fundraising Workshops that we have planned. Whether you are a fund development professional, volunteer, staff or board member, your fundraising knowledge will be enriched through these reading experiences. We are grateful to have you and we look forward to sharing them with you.
Times are scary, so please continue to embrace social distancing and stay well.
All the best,
Mike
Proven Fundraising Strategies for Community and Grassroots Organizations
