MODULE 1: FUNDRAISING
MODULE 2: PROPOSAL WRITING
End of Course Assessment

Creating a Culture of Fundraising

Despite its obvious importance, nonprofits:

  • spend as little as they can on fundraising
  • they talk as much as they can about how little they spend on it
  • think that fundraising cannibalizes program funding
  • spend most of their time on programmatic work
  • are hesitant to explore different fundraising techniques
  • are hesitant to hire dedicated fundraising professionals

This is especially the case for small/start-up nonprofits. Why is that? Remember, without fundraising, there are NO programs.

The expression “it takes money to make money” is as true for fundraising as it is for any other arena. Even the smallest non-profits must find a way to secure at least one professional dedicated to fundraising.

It is unrealistic and ineffective to expect any other staff member, especially the Executive Director, to simply add ALL fund development responsibilities to their already full plate (Executive Directors have ultimate responsibility and always some role in fundraising of course).

In addition, without someone responsible for the fund development program, it will never reach its potential.

What Can Nonprofits Do To Elevate The Importance of Fundraising?

a.Invest more time into fundraising and development operations.

b.Invest more money into fundraising including hiring the right people

c.Assess how much the development staff make. To get talent to do fundraising, you will need to pay them accordingly. This is not a place to skimp.

d.Try new fundraising strategies which mean making more asks, being bolder, and being ready to spend more of your energy on development… so that you will eventually have more money to carry out your mission.

Does your organization have some budget for trying new fundraising tactics each year? Innovation is essential to reaching your long-term fundraising goals.

e.Think about how updated your fundraising technology is. What type of donor database do you have? What kind of online tools does your fundraising team have at its disposal?

For example, do your fundraiser/s have cell phones or laptops provided by the organization so that they can get out of the office, do donor meetings, and have meals with prospects?

f.What is your budget for fundraising training and innovation?  Training and innovation are integral to the long-term success of your fundraising efforts.

Does your nonprofit pay for the fundraising team to take any online classes and webinars, buy books, or go to conferences and seminars? Are they encouraged to take a couple of days per year to brush up on their skills and learn new fundraising techniques?

If you want to master fundraising, you must create a culture of fundraising within your organization.

One of the biggest obstacles to fundraising success is an organization’s inability to mobilize diverse people in the organization to participate in fundraising activities and the lack of integration between “program” and “fundraising” work.

Program staff are considered to have a deeper understanding of the issues in which the organization functions.

Fundraisers, on the other hand, are seen to have little to do with the mission of the organization and have the role of carrying out specific tasks. Often program staff do not want to be part of the development team, and so the fundraising staff feel the burden of thinking that they have the entire onus to meet the fundraising target.

Turnover in fundraising staff is often far higher than for non-fundraising staff. There are frequent complaints about how hard it is to find a good person to fill a fundraising position.

Well, no wonder! Fundraisers are seen as doing the work that no one else wants to do, but not as having the programmatic skills, political vision, or connections to the issues that would make their jobs more interesting and their contributions to the work more powerful.

By ignoring these potential strengths, an organization loses some valuable input from key staff people as well as a way to decrease turnover in their development department.

When an organization embraces a “culture of fundraising,” in which fundraising and program responsibilities are shared among staff and integrated with each other in their planning and implementation, these problems lessen, if not disappear.

Tips for Creating a Culture of Fundraising

a.Send staff and board to fundraising training
This should not be done once, but periodically as the need for greater skills arises. Providing regular opportunities for training in specific areas — such as asking for money, and writing effective letters — will build more skills among a broad group of people in your organization.

Congratulations! By taking this course you are already acquiring the much-needed fundraising skills to help your organization.

b.Set aside time once or twice a year at board or staff gatherings to discuss some aspect of money and our society’s attitudes about it.
You can start with an old favorite: “What are your earliest memories of money and what were the messages you got about money from your family, your community, or your school?”

From there, the group can come up with topics they want to pursue e.g. the role of taxes and the government in funding the work we do, and soon.

Creating greater comfort among the board and staff in speaking about money will not only give your fundraising a boost, but will also increase your level of engagement with each other about issues that affect your work. This helps build morale and a sense of shared involvement.

c.Develop specific ways for people to get involved.
Telling board members or volunteers that they must engage in fundraising but leaving it up to them to figure out exactly how doesn’t work.

For folks who are reluctant to have anything to do with fundraising, find simple tasks that aren’t so threatening, such as adding personal notes to letters or making calls to thank donors for their gifts. Later they can move on to ask for money or plan a house party.

d.Create an annual pledge form on which board members indicate what they are willing to do that year in the area of fundraising (and giving).
In addition to specifying various activities they can choose from — such as joining an event committee, hosting a party, or selling raffle tickets — you can give board members the option to decide for themselves how they want to participate. This often gets more positive results than giving them a preselected set of tasks to carry out.

e.Leadership from the executive director and the chair of the board is critical.
They both need to support the notion that fundraising is a shared responsibility among all members of the organization.

If the executive director believes that the development staff is responsible for doing all the fundraising for the organization, then other staff will follow that lead.

Similarly, if the board chair is not doing their share of fundraising and encouraging and motivating other board members, it is unlikely there will be full participation from the board.

f.Explicitly include expectations regarding giving and fundraising into the roles and responsibilities of board members and key staff.
When recruiting volunteers be sure to offer each the opportunity to give and participate in fundraising. Provide all employees, students, clients, visitors, and others who benefit from or appreciate your work with the opportunity to participate in fundraising, and include it explicitly in the job descriptions of key staff who should have a role (the Director but also others).

g.Celebrate your fundraising successes.
Make sure people are recognized and rewarded for their contributions, even if there isn’t a lot of money to show for them initially.

h.Start building and strengthening your fundraising culture by including fundraising in your mission, vision and values. Tie your strategic plan and business plan to a fundraising plan.

i.Make sure everyone within your organization knows how much funding needs to be raised on an annual basis, what the funds are used for, and the impact that will be achieved. Be transparent. Show where the money currently comes from and ask for help identifying where additional funds could come from.

j.Commit to creating a culture of fundraising, knowing that it may take some time.
Keep in mind that changing an organization’s culture can sometimes take years. Don’t give up too fast. The question needs to change from, “Who is going to do the fundraising?” to “How can I help with fundraising?” Start now.

k.Assign fundraising activities to team members
How engaged is each key team member in fundraising planning, important fundraising activities or support work, etc.? Identify how a team member is currently supporting the organization’s efforts in fundraising. Use the examples below to discuss the work involved.  

l.Make sure you have representation of staff, board, volunteers, and members for each important fundraising activity.

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Special events are one type of fundraising activity that often involves a volunteer committee of board members and others along with staff support.

Major donor campaigns, too, will raise more money if you make sure to include people on the committee who represent different constituencies of your organization.

Examples of Key Fundraising Activities:

  • Developing Fundraising Strategic Plan
  • Networking and Engaging Prospective Donors
  • Event Organization
  • Relationship-building of current donors
  • Making the direct asks of donors
  • Preparing Communication Material for Donors
  • Coordination of Donors Requests
  • Administrative support for donations and Managing Donors database
  • Proposal development, and reporting
  • Others

What To Look For When Hiring Fundraising Staff

Hiring the right fundraiser(s) for your nonprofit can literally make or break your development program. Several things allow you to know whether or not someone is going to be a great fundraiser, for example:

a.Passion for the Mission
Having an interest in and passion for your non-profit’s mission is important for your fundraisers.  Passion comes through in conversation, and your donors and prospects will know if a fundraiser is just “going through the motions.”

b.Ability to Tell a Story
Fundraising is all about building relationships, and much of what we do to build those relationships is tell stories – about ourselves, our organizations, and the people we serve. Great fundraisers need to be great storytellers. Build this into your interview process.

c.Willingness to Make an Ask
Nothing spells trouble for a fundraising program more than fundraisers who have trouble making asks. Fundraisers should expect to be making asks every week, if not every day.  In your interviews, have your interviewees run through some asks with you.

d.A Successful Frontline Fundraising or Sales Track Record
As noted above, experience in nonprofit fundraising isn’t the most important qualification for a fundraiser,  although a record of accomplishment of successful fundraising or sales is a good indicator of future success in fundraising.

e.Professional Competency
Finally, you want to hire fundraisers who have a certain base level of “general professional competency” – people who can think on their feet and make small decisions on their own.  You should not have to worry about printing out directions to prospect meetings for your fundraiser or explaining to them that they should assume there will be traffic and leave a little early.

e.Think Outside the Box
A good fundraiser is able to think outside the box; he/she can search for donors where others did not, he/she can write project proposals professionally and engagingly, he/she is ready to dedicate time and resources to make sure that a project can begin even when it is a small community project.

f.Personal Traits
They should be passionate, committed, curious, honest and reliable. They should possess good communication skills, highly developed social skills, good ethics, problem-solving skills, and be creative.

Fundraising is far from an easy task. Fundraisers spend time writing up applications that will never be funded, they plan activities and set targets for projects that will never begin and they will also send letters and pleas to many potential donors who will hardly reply.

To be a fundraiser implies being able to manage rejections and disappointment and transform it into a learning experience. Resilience is key.

The ideal candidate should have a positive attitude and an optimistic approach to life. He/she should be able to easily establish relationships and build long-term working partnerships.

He/she should be able to read between the lines and understand what the donor’s real needs and motivation are.

As such, the ideal candidate is someone who can engage with research critically and someone with an analytical mind.

g.Avoid Limiting the Search to Candidates with Previous Experience
Fundraising skills are mostly transferable skills, which could have been developed while doing other jobs.  Therefore, do not ask exclusively for people with experience in the field! The best fundraisers may have started off in other fields and later approached fundraising as a profession.

For instance, salespeople can make good fundraisers because of their experience pushing sales. You could also consider candidates with teaching experience or who had worked in human resources because they had been trained to listen to people, understand concerns, and solve problems quickly thus they will best profile potential donors and quickly develop strategies to approach them. 

Staff who have managed programs bring in-depth knowledge and direct experience with your beneficiaries that can translate into strong proposals or donor pitches.

h.Strong writing and other communication skills
These are vital for a good fundraiser, as they need to write compelling, punchy messages asking for funding and often proposals or reports.

Fundraisers are the main contact your donors will have with your organization. Be sure that the people you hire reflect well on your non-profit.

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