Comments on: Popular Fundraising Models

By: Deborah de Castro

Deborah de Castro — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 21:50:45 +0000

I had my foundation for 10 years, Feed The Future, a grass roots effort foundation. My experience with Fund Raisers that was most popular, was the one that brought most value to the person participating. Sad to say, but those were the ones that we collected most money from. It was as if, giving for the cause did not motivate them, the motivation was if they got something back in return for the giving. They felt happy in participating and happier that they were receiving something in return.

By: Pamela Grow

Pamela Grow — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 17:35:15 +0000

It has been my experience that a combination of all of the above – and then some – yields the best results.

I’m fortunate enough to have taken both the Benevon coursework and the Penelope Burke Donor-Centered fundraising seminar. While both were enormously beneficial learning experiences, I found the most value in Penelope’s work – all of your development efforts do, indeed, need to be donor-centered.

Successful development really boils down to taking care of the basics. In all of my years in development I have managed to cover all the bases – grantwriting, individual giving, community engagement and public relations, online giving – and learned how to establish the systems that would allow me to juggle all these elements, usually in as little as 10-15 hours per week. It’s my experience that nonprofit organizations very rarely make the same commitment to their fundraising that they make to their mission.

By: Mark Brooks

Mark Brooks — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 11:19:44 +0000

Jason has summarized each of these well. I think that one lesson is there is no one size fits all. There are so many factors to consider. I do think that in each there is something that all can learn from and use. In this challenging times you have to first have a plan of action. That plan has to be multi faceted. The strategy may be utilizing some of each of these approaches. No matter what path you choose it is still true that Vision trumps bad economy every time. Have a compelling vision and find the best way to tell your story.

By: Joe Garecht

Joe Garecht — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 19:00:48 +0000

Jason,

In my experience, what works best is a combination of ALL of the above methods:

- Penelope is right, PEOPLE matter
- Terry talks a lot about walking people down the path, and having lots of non-ask contacts before you ask, that has often worked for us.
- Your fundraising moves definitely need a plan, and
- You won’t raise much if you don’t focus on your MISSION.