A Small Change- Fundraising Blog

Earlier this week in my post, Tuna or Caviar, I talked about serving good food to your donors. Today I’m going to talk about how much and how almost any nonprofit can do this. Eating well does not mean eating a lot. Appetizers are a great way to serve high quality food at a lower cost than a full meal. If you have tasty food and enough quantity to give everyone a sampling there is no need to gorge everyone on appetizers. Donors want to be “wined and dined” but they do not need to think that you have an endless food budget.

It’s all about being strategic with the money and guests that you have. It does not take a lot of food or large portions to accomplish your goal. Food is not present so that your donors have the chance to chow down. In fact if they come for the “free food” then they probably are not coming for the right reasons and are not going to be a significant donor.

Unless your charity involves cooking or preparing food or you have a celebrity chef you do not want food to be at the center ring at your event. When people leave they should be talking about your organization and what they learned about you.

One new lesson I recently learned is that the food at your events needs to be at the “level” of your donors. What I mean is if you want “wealthy people” at your events your food needs to be high-caliber and gourmet. Peanut butter and jelly slices or Costco platters just will not do.

If your donors and board members attend your events with great food and a beautiful set-up they will be eager to show you off and give to you as well. Your donors will turn into advocates by inviting their friends and associates. If your donors are going to invite their friends then you better not have cheese cubes and deli meat slices.

This simple little trick can put your organization in the same league as your local hospitals, universities, or United Way. You do not need to have a huge budget or a lot of food present; you just need to present yourself well. And if your guests see you as a major player they will start acting (and giving) like major players themselves. This will also set the stage for you to keep and attract high-level community members to your organization.

What kind of food are you serving your donors? Do you usually have food at your events? Have you ever used this strategy before? Leave a comment and let us know.

I was sitting in a marketing committee meeting the other day and it started my mind thinking about how fundraising and marketing mix. I started to wonder what kind of connection there is between marketing and fundraising. I think there is an obvious connection between sales and fundraising and being able to confidently and concisely talk about your nonprofit. But does running radio spots or television spots make a difference?

Fundraising is more about word-of-mouth and keeping & upgrading existing relationships. From what I have seen providing your donors with a good experience and talking with them about how their gift makes a difference is better for your organization than always trying to find new donors. The idea that keeping them is easier than finding them.

What about using marketing with a new annual fundraising plan? If you are trying to build community support, maybe there is a place for marketing. I don’t think that a solid marketing program is going to get very far in finding new major donors or upgrading existing donors. But, I think marketing could be a huge help in getting your message out there into the community. Helping build your image to a community that does not know you exist or change your perceived image to a community that has hear about you but doesn’t know what you do.

Do you use marketing campaigns at your nonprofit?  Have you found marketing to be an important piece of your annual plan?

Everyone is always looking for ways to grow their donor base so I thought I’d offer a few suggestions and tips that I’ve used myself. Feel free to add some of your own ideas. The first step would be to figure out what you mean when you say “donor base.” Are we talking about monthly donors or annual donors? If you want to grow your base you have to know what you are growing them to be.

• Send an appeal to lapsed donors from a year ago and invite them to get involved again. You can highlight a new project or just tell them you missed them.
• Ask your faithful donors if they could introduce you to some of their friends. I often let the volunteers, community advocates, and close donors know that if they ever want to introduce a friend of theirs to the organization that I am always available to give a tour or meet with them.
• Look at other similar organization’s annual reports or donor recognition publications.
• With local businesses I will often make sure I am watching the local news & skimming the paper for organizations that might be interested. I will often follow that up with a cold call or a letter.
• Get your “unsolicited gifts” and fringe givers to be involved more closely in the organization through a tour or event.
• An annual fundraising event can be a great way to bring in new donors.
• Chambers, Rotaries, networking groups, and other associations can be a great way to meet new business donors and individual major donors.

What does your organization do? Anything you’d like to add to the list? Leave a comment.

I’ve worked in three very different fundraising shops in my career and have found that they all have done things very differently and raised very different amounts of money. I know we have all looked enviously at other organizations and how well they can raise money and lamented why people are not knocking down doors to fund our programs. But the truth of the matter is growing a fundraising program takes a lot of work.

It is important that you rejoice in the fundraising strengths of the organization that you work for. I worked for a children’s hospice that was closely tied to a professional hockey team and they raised most of their money from hockey enthusiasts and businesses that wanted to align with that organization. I recently worked for a social services organization that had fantastic grassroots support. Currently I work for an organization who’s development program has great connections but is still relatively young. Every one of these nonprofits has it’s own strengths.

I want to take a moment to encourage you to improve on what you are already doing well. If you have great community support learn how to maximize it. If you are connected to a sports team then see what kinds of partnership things you can do to raise more money. I’m a huge advocate of trying new programs and having a well-rounded development office. But, don’t forsake your strengths as you continue to improve. Take a close look at what you are doing successfully right now and find ways to grow your successful programs. Once momentum has begun with a program you can often raise a lot more money improving it than starting over and trying to build momentum again in another area.