A Small Change- Fundraising Blog

READ PART 1

How do I involve my board? A great way to start a fundraising campaign is to talk with your board about what your non-profit’s specific need is and have them think through what businesses/groups/persons they have a personal connection with. Have those board members commit to making a personal gift themselves and commit to ask 3 to 5 additional people. Sit down with each individual board member and talk with them and help them prepare to talk with those 3 to 5 persons. Then go along with them and help them out.

A great way to help a board member think about talking with donors is to get them to find a story about your organization that means something to them personally. A story about a client you served, or a part of your history. Make that story the piece they share and have them talk about why it means something to them. And make sure that there is something you are asking about or asking for as part of the meeting (plan this ahead of time and know who is going to do it). I like to look at this as providing the donor the opportunity to do something or give something. Donors want the opportunity and they want to be asked. (Let me know if you have specific questions about the ask and I’d love to talk about or get a friend to talk about that topic.)

Well I won’t go on forever… some other topics to talk about at some point include: the importance that your board members are giving and frequently asked questions from donors. One final note I want to say a great big thank you to board members & community volunteers. We could not do it without you it is your countless hours of help and support that keep us going.

Am I talking about things that interest you? If not let me know what you want to here visit my Ideas, Questions & Answers page.

From conversations that I’ve had with many board members of non-profits there is a bit of a fear about fundraising. Fundraising does not have to be a scary thing for your board it is all about setting attainable and reasonable goals and having reasonable expectations of your board members.

One of the most important parts of successful fundraising is getting the board involved. Your board no matter how big or how successful needs to be involved in helping you with fundraising. If your board is not behind you and is not willing to help with fundraising it will be very hard to succeed.

I’d love to hear from some of you on stories of creative ways that your board has been involved in fundraising. Every member of your board has connections into the community and a network of friends. Some of your board members may know local businesses or churches or other community groups. Make sure that you are collecting information about other business and groups that your board members are part of.

If you have never used your board to fundraise the important thing is to get them involved. If you have board members that are nervous about fundraising but want to help, a great starting point for them is to have them go with you to talk with a donor or to give them a list of donors to call and say thank you.

Am I talking about things that interest you? If not let me know what you want to here visit my “Ideas, Questions & Answers” page.

Read Part 2

Grassroots fundraising is the starting place for all kinds of fundraising. Every organization has a group of people that are close to it and that is the best place to start. Think about who those people are, they are the volunteers, the past donors, past staff or in some places clients. Is there a group of people that is part of your history like a body of students? Keep in touch with these people and communicate with them regularly. If you just launched a new program or built a new building let them know about it.

When you are communicating with these individuals let them know what your needs are and what they cost. We call these equivalences. If you are trying to launch a new program to help 100 people, say something like, with a gift of $25 you can help 5 people in this new way. Make your equivalences specific and understandable. Another great tool is to get donors plugged into monthly donations. Many people think that they cannot give $1,000 but if they are giving $85 a month they will give more than a thousand every year.

As you’re donor base grows and you start developing regular campaigns you can start to create your major gifts program. If you find that you have an individual that only gives $100 a year but they have the capacity to give quite a bit more this is a great person to approach. The best approach is to set up a time to meet with them. Thank them for their gifts, talk with them about your organization, do this through stories about people that you are helping, and then ask them for a specific gift. I would connect this gift into a current significant need, make sure that they understand how important to the organization this need is (and how it helps the people in your stories). (Also use board members to make these visits or partner with your board members… I’ll talk about this more in another post… I will also talk in another post about “prospecting” and finding new persons to approach.)

So that is just a few thoughts about grassroots fundraising. I imagine I’ll go into more specific detail on many of these topics at a later time. Let me know if you have a specific question.