Fundraising On Fire

Two houses from our house lives a squatter who has been living there for over a year—since the house sold. The new owners are trying to get permits to tear down and rebuild.  I could go on a rant as to why permits take so long, but this is a different rant.  The one about how several times a week the squatter (or squatters, not sure how many people are camping there) sets a fire.  Then three or four police cars and a fire truck descend on our street.  Often they pull guns; more often they try to chase the squatters into the creek behind our houses (another rant could be about the neighbor who complained to LA County about the gate we had put up and they blocked it-but that is also for another time).  Then everyone goes home, until the cycle starts again, a few days hence.

One day, I think, the fire will get larger and I can only hope that my neighbor’s and my houses aren’t victim to this recklessness.  What truly is bothersome is that the police say there is nothing, really, they an do except to respond to emergency calls.

That this seems wasteful and, frankly, quite stupid, is clear to the rest of our block.  There is a problem here.  You are spending enormous amounts of time, money, energy NOT dealing with it.

Groan.

So let me ask you this:  Does this sound like your nonprofit? Spending lots of time talking about the problems facing your organization, but not really dealing with solving those problems?

This is often the case—most often when it has to do with fundraising.  Staff and board members wring hands, worried about how to keep the doors open, pay salaries, enhance programs…whatever it is that running lean does not allow you to do.  But actually building a comprehensive and sustainable fundraising plan?  That rarely happens, nor is there a commitment to work the plan, any plan, you may have.

In my ideal world, every organization would have a real fundraising plan, one that made clear what on a monthly, weekly, daily basis needs to be done with clear instructions on how to do it.  But clearly we do not live in an ideal world.  If your organization is not regularly raising funds from diverse audiences in many different ways, that’s fine.  Truly.  But think about how you could build a comprehensive fundraising plan—one that would be sustainable and help you to thrive.

Start small. And focus this effort on individuals.  That’s where most of the funds come from and it is the best way to ensure successful fundraising.

Don’t have a pool of prospective donors?  Who do you have?  A board?  Some staff?  Maybe people who volunteer with you .  Just you?  What about your network?  Your neighbors, friends, the people who service your car, take care of your teeth, cut your hair?  Think large here, and then go to your board, staff, volunteers, your network!  Ask them to build their network.  And then….do something easy.

Reach out to that network and ask them to support some milestone in your life by giving a charitable gift to your organization.  And when they do—as some will—thank them and show them how their gift has contributed to the important work you do.  Make it very personal:  Your generosity helped do this.  Your support makes that happen.

Over the next six months, reach out at least three times to thank them again and again tell them how they have made a difference.  In about 6 months, ask them for something.  It could be another gift.  It could be to come to a tour.  It could be to agree to a visit so you could tell them more about your work.  It could even be that you ask them if they know anyone who may also want to learn more about your organization and what you do.

Slowly, you will build a pool. And better yet, if you keep doing this, you will have learned how to raise funds from those prospective donors.