Fundraising – shaking that icky feeling of asking

So I just had an inspiring conversation with the CEO of an area foundation.  Before joining this foundation, he had twenty years of nonprofit fundraising experience, and it is clear what a dramatic impact his has had on the way he functions in philanthropy.  Our conversation forced me to realize how my relationship with fundraising has changed over time, and how this process has made me a better (although far from perfect) nonprofit professional.

When I started off, fundraising was a necessary evil.  I had ideas about different items I wanted to acquire so that  we could do more things in the education program, but soon found out that just because you want something doesn’t mean there’s any money to get –  no matter how well you can justify the expense.  As a result, I began writing small grants, and was fortunate that most of these were successful.  Fundraising through grantwriting was my work-around to the situation, a way in which I could get the supplies I wanted.

Of course, as I was promoted in the organization and became responsible for managing employees, fundraising was no longer about acquiring new stuff.  It was about ensuring your staff got paid and that the doors to the facility stayed open for the youth we served.  This certainly added to the stress level.  This was also a time that I discovered raising money for stuff was often easier than raising money for payroll, even though the staff were so much more vital to the program than anything else.

When I reached this point, I attended my first development training where I discovered that grants are not the main source of charitable giving – and not by a long shot.  Individual donors, they stressed, were the source of most philanthropic dollars.  Unfortunately, this is intimidating to a number of people whose background is in the program and not the fundraising.  Acquiring those individual dollars seems to require a certain mindset.

I was taught two lessons very early on.  First, if you don’t feel comfortable asking someone face-to-face for money for your cause, then you are involved with the wrong cause.  If you believe in your cause, though, it should be easy to make an ask; after all, you’re giving the person an opportunity to invest in something great, to be an integral part of positively impacting the community.  Talking to a number of fundraisers who talked about getting  a rush from making the ask made me realize I needed to reconsider the frame of mind with which I was approaching the situation.

Second, it is important to recognize that in a particular ask (whether it be direct mail or face-to-face), the relationship with that donor holds much more value than the gift itself.  After all, donors are more likely to want to give to a cause they already know and trust, and so may result in multiple gifts.  Rather than focusing only on the dolars raised in a particular campaign, think in terms of the lifetime value of a donor.

So now I am starting to see fundraising not as a necessary evil but as a real opportunity to impact the sector; after all, how often have we lamented upon all that we could do if we just had more money?   Of course, I’m also still figuring a lot of things out.  If fundraisers all agree that relationship is important, I have two questions about what I’m seeing take place:

• Why do so few nonprofits measure their performance in regards to customer (or donor) service?  Donors need to feel adequately thanked, need to be informed about how the money is being used, and should believe that their gift has resulted in measurable positive impact.  It is worth it to find out whether or not our donors feel this way, and if not what the organization needs to do differently.  While some donors will leave, attrition rates between 40 and 60% are totally unacceptable, and demonstrate a lack of efficiency in fundraising dollars.
• Why do many nonprofits talk at their donors instead of with them?  Agencies are constantly broadcasting their messages, through newsletters, mailings and emails, and yet typically ask only for money.  These are people who have clearly bought into the mission; maybe they have a couple ideas about programs, or maybe they’d like to do more than give money and offer their expertise.  Social media has given nonprofits a lot of tools with which to manage these conversations, and yet I see many nonprofits continually blast their supporters with organizational news/needs never attempting to engage in any level of conversation.  How many friends would you have if you never stopped to listen to their stories or asked questions?

Well, as a result of this conversation, and out of a desire to continue to refine my ability to do fundraising effectively, I asked this established fundraiser for advice.  He made a couple of book suggestions:  The Artful Journey by William Sturtevant, and Donor-Centered Fundraising by Penelope Burk.  I’ll be checking those out for sure, but I’m looking forward to seeing what comments this post evokes.