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Opinions: Fundraising Webinar Notes
Fundraising Webinar
The Good Partnership - Cindy Wagman
Bio: I'm on a mission to make great fundraising achievable for small nonprofits.
I began The Good Partnership after 15 years as an in-house fundraiser at organizations large and small. I’ve been the lone fundraiser in grassroots organizations and held a leadership role at one of the largest fundraising institutions in the country. I’ve worked in social justice, health, arts, and education. I’ve worked on everything from annual campaigns focused on participation to multi-million dollar gifts. I became a Certified Fundraising Executive in 2009 and received my MBA from the Rotman School at the University of Toronto in 2013.
Presentation Notes
There are many types of ways to fundraise, need to figure out the best way for you and what you’re doing
- Fundraising is about focusing on relationships
- People think that if someone has money, they should be giving it away - not true. This is not how it works.
How to get to “yes” without asking
- Think about fundraising as matchmaking
- Find the people who will fall in love with your organization and foster that love
- It is built over a mutual vision
- The love doesn’t always come from the person with the deepest pockets
- Don’t propose on the first date
- Getting to yes is a conversation, not a pitch
- Understand what value your donors get out of giving
1: Plenty of fish
- As a small non-profit, it may feel like you want to focus on big donations
- Many small nonprofits don’t have access to donations (at least not in an immediately obvious way) but if you fail to focus on all size donations, no money comes in
- Think of everyone you meet as a potential donor
- The most important criteria: are they inclined to care about your organization
- This is the fastest way to raise money - who is closest to the organization, who is most inclined to say yes
- Don’t judge a book by it’s cover - anyone can be a donor
- Remember: not everyone will be a donor
- If someone is not the right match, you move on
- Who will value your work? Find that spark!
- You can’t convert someone to your cause, but you can convert them to your organization
- Your job as a fundraiser: not to convert a climate change denier that climate change is real - instead you need to find people who care about climate change and get them to give to your organization
Step 1: Find the people who are most inclined to say yes
- So few people think this way but it is so important!
- Find the passion, then think about the money
- Naturally and authentically find ways to talk about your organization in conversations
- Either people’s eyes will gloss over - move onto another topic
- Or they will be interested and ask questions - a conversation will happen
- If you are having these conversations, then tell stories about what you’re doing
2: Don’t propose on the first date
- Fundraising doesn’t happen overnight (or in one meeting)
- The most successful asks are when you have tapped into their hearts - that takes time
- 95% of fundraising is not asking
- Get to understand your donors and get them to understand your organization
- Think of fundraising as a conversation that takes place over time and many asks
- Build a meaningful relationship so they will give again and again
- Get to know what kind of impact they want to have with their support
- To get an ask right, it needs to resonate with the donor
- It needs to spark their passion and come out of conversations you’re already had with them
- The ask is just a formality because you already know the answer is “yes”
Homework:
- Book a meeting.
- There are many ways to start a conversation
- Book a meeting with the next person who donates to your organization. Ask them to a coffee to say thanks. Ask things like:
- What attracted you to our organization?
- What has been your favourite experience with us to date?
- What have you seen other nonprofits do that you think we should consider?
- From a fundraising perspective or programming perspective?
- What has been the most valuable way that we communicate with you?
- What can we do better?
- Do you ever tell your friends or other people about us? What do you say? How do they respond?
- If someone says “I’m nobody, you don’t need to meet with me, my donation isn’t big enough”
- Respond: “We’re not looking for another donation, we just want to improve our fundraising strategy. We just want to learn more about what motivated you to donate.”
- You can have a donor survey - can’t meet with everyone, can do phone calls and meet with people face to face. You need to start somewhere
- You can have your board members call donors and learn more
- Pick up the phone or send the first email.
3: Ask for Advice / Remember the passion
- Why do you work or volunteer with your organization?
- Probably not the lucrative pay
- Looking to create lasting change
- Passion
- For some reason, when it comes to asking others to support you work, people don’t realize that this might be important to them and it may add meaning to their lives
- How can you help donors create the change they want to see in the world
- Not about mission drift - think about the work you are already doing or want to be doing, how does this help fit with your donors needs
Homework:
- Ask for advice or feedback
- Case Study: Margaret starting a new project (financial literacy among illiterate people)
- Had no existing donors.
- Made a list of people who might care about this cause
- She had the first meeting and the call went amazing
- First call was not a huge philanthropist
- Wanted to get his advice on building out their fundraising program
- Bob told her about all the things he felt were important
- 1. Needed to develop a clear sense of what they were raising money for in the short term (what are the immediate needs)
- 2. Not being a registered charity was a barrier - he gave her specific directions on how to partner with a charity that does issue tax receipts
- Bob gave Margaret a road map of how to get his support, she just had to do this and get his reactions and advice
- She now had a clear path to getting that yes! It was easy, authentic and comfortable
The magic is in talking to and engaging your donors and building those relationships
- You will see trends to see things that will be meaningful to them
- The more you do this, the more clarity you will have around what your fundraising should look like
- Donors want to give you money, they want to see you doing something that they feel is important in this world
- Note: Awareness raising is part of fundraising