Nonprofit Fundraising 101- Surrey Tech 4 good

The majority of your fundraising will occur within a 6 week period at the end of the year. Here are the basics I took away from our Surrey Tech 4 Good workshop focused on the basics of fall fundraising by Melanie Crombie. She was a fantastic speaker with great depth of knowledge and experiences to share as she has done successful campaigns for BC children’s hospital, Canadian Diabetes Association and various other organizations.

The Basics

FUNDRAISING MINDSET

If you’re new to the fundraising role the pressure can seem daunting, but take a look at the word “Fundraising”. The key to success is in the first three letters, FUN.  If you’re hosting fundraising events make it not only fun for your donors but also for yourself as well. Focus on creating real positive relationships and it will go a long way towards helping you succeed. Make them into partners of your organizations and more than just a donor. After all, people give to people.

Here are some of the key things to establish as base line before you start fundraising.

CREDIBILITY

If you have History/Program/Awards/accreditation then make sure it’s on your website or the information is readily available. You need to be able to prove that you walk your talk. Donors want to know the impact that your organization has. Are you not sure what information your donors would want to see you to believe that you are a credible organization? Google nonprofit performance evaluation and you will find whole bunch of organizational scales and metrics used to evaluate nonprofits. With that in mind you can start collecting the data you need to show your proof of impact.

POLICIES

If you’re a new nonprofit here are the policies that you will need to have in place before you begin fundraising:

• Privacy Policy

• Donor Bill of rights

• Donor Recognition Policy

• Receipting Policy – CRA

• Establish who is responsible for donations in your organization

The Power message

There are over 4000 nonprofits in BC competition for donations so you need to present your story very powerfully to differentiate among the other nonprofits. Take time to develop a power message that tells the story of your organization. It is also something everyone within the organization should be trained as well. Here are the basic guidelines for your message:

• Articulate the need

• Prove there is a need

• Develop an audio story

• Lead your power message with your impact

• Be Clear and Concise

Here is an example:

“I lead a team of people that help students get their life back. An example would be when I met Jason who was living behind a dumpster on the downtown east side. Jason was 14. Through our work we were able to provide him with a home and this year he is going back to school. Jason isn’t the only one who needed our help, there are many others like him as well. Would this be something that you would like to be involved in?”

The easiest way to figure out whether it’s effective or not is to tell it to your friends and family and get feedback. Keep refining it till it has the impact you want it to have.

Who do you target?

You’ll want to start out with focusing your efforts on those who are most likely to give and slowly concentrate your efforts outwards towards those who are less likely to give.

1)      Those who care

These are individuals that you are servicing or foundations or corporations who are already providing you with a contribution. They are engaged and care about the work that you do.  They are individuals or groups you already have a relationship with and ones where you can be the most creative with when it comes to donations. Take time to look at each situation and see where there are more opportunities to collaborate. If they can’t provide a large donation maybe it would be possible to create a smaller monthly pledge of $3 or $5 a month?

2)      Those who should care

These individuals are more broadly defined as people who have not given as of yet or this year but have a connection to the organization. That can be past donors who have lapsed, friends and families of customers of the services you provide or even the customer themselves.

3)      Everyone Else

If your fundraising goals can’t be met with the first two groups then you will need to craft a strategy and goals for this group. It will be the most difficult of the three and you will need to evaluate what resources you have before you begin.  A great way to get started and help with the planning of this is to hold focus groups. Ask for your current donors/partners to meet with you and ask for their opinions. This helps further develop the relationship you have with them and provides them with an opportunity be engaged in a positive way as a partner. People love to give advice and their advice can help steer you in the right direction and be more successful.

How do you reach out to them?

Letters

The key to successful letters is that it needs to be powerful as well as concise. Keep it short to one page. A great way to get started with these is to simply google letters from other nonprofits successful campaigns and use them as a template. If you are a small nonprofit and targeting a small group, hand writing the letter can make it that much more powerful. Here are some quick guidelines:

• Powerful and concise

• Tell a story

• Make the ask

• Give different options

• Keep to one page

Proposals

Creating a successful proposal is all about putting in the required research for it to be successful. It is especially important if your organization is young or new. You have to prove your idea and why do you think it will work. Thorough research is how you put credibility behind your idea. Provide both passion and proof with your proposal and it will be that much more likely to be successful.

Call before you write your proposal as well, especially if the writing is unclear for criteria. This extra effort can make the biggest difference between success and failure. You can tell them that it is important to you that you have a clear understanding of what their criteria is and go through all of them one by one.

• Do proper research

• Include proof of the need for your services

• Call before you write

• Match the need to the donor’s criteria

Personal Visits

It always helps to do some research before you visit, especially if the individual has a relationship with your organization already. If you’re being introduced through a connection you should bring that person along if possible. Other individuals that are great to bring with you would be a volunteer or those who have been positively impacted by what you do.

Email/Newsletters

These are a great cost effective way to maintain and continue building your relationship with donors/partners. If you are asking for a donation then you will need to again show case the need, provide proof and donor recognition towards impact. For end of year gift campaigns, a good topic can be the potential tax ramifications and benefits of donating.

The donor cycle

Fundraising isn’t a onetime engagement but the beginning of a relationship for those with your organizations. It is a continuous process where you interact and strengthen that relationship over time. Don’t forget to have fun during the process and enjoy building new relationships.

Let’s Start the Conversation

If you are a happier IT client and would like to start a conversation with your happier IT vCIO, please reach out to, team@happierit.com.

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