Fundraising: Preferred Practices

Fundraising: Preferred Practices

(By Joel J. Orosz, The Dorothy A. Johnson Center for Philanthropy and Nonprofit Leadership . Used with permission.)

Concentrate on individuals. Corporations and foundations control substantial resources, but the sheer number of individuals makes them by far the largest source of funding - more than 80% - for nonprofit organizations.  

Create an endowment. Endowments help to stabilize organizations by providing a steady stream of reliable income, in good times and in bad. 
 
Embrace creative fundraising techniques. Place a "donate now" button on your website; form a strategic partnership with a business that shares your organization's values; include workplace funding in your campaign; try grassroots givers like churches and service clubs; seek gifts in kind from retailers and manufacturers. 

Place your eggs in different baskets. Just as your personal savings are safer if you invest in many different types of securities, your organization is safer if you raise funds from many different sources, including individuals, corporations, and foundations; never depend on a single "angel" to support your organization. 

Fundraising, like charity, begins at home. It is vital to be able to demonstrate that all of your organization's board members, officers, and volunteer fundraisers make significant gifts to your campaigns; what is considered to be a "significant gift" will depend on the size and budget of an organization.  

Hire the help that you need. Complex fundraising instruments like capital campaigns and planned giving programs are usually more successful when organizations seek professional help in creating and operating them. 

Just as all politics is local, all fundraising is personal. Donors, as a rule, do not so much give money to organizations, as they give money to people - to people whom they know, trust and respect - which means that who does the asking is at least as important as the cause for which the funds are being raised.  

Keep meticulous records. Every successful campaign is well documented, especially for legal and fiduciary reasons; documentation includes such things as expenses, donation amount, date donation was received, portion of donations that are tax deductible, and donor contact information. 

Keep your promises, and demand that your donors keep their promises. Always use donated funds for the purposes intended by the donor, and require donors to honor their pledges.  

Know your donor. People give for different reasons, at different levels, in response to different needs and opportunities, so it is essential to know your organization and to study its donors; also, do not be afraid to give donors different levels of recognition, depending on what they give. 

Make donating to your organization a long-term relationship. Make sure that between solicitations, donors are thanked for past gifts, receive updates on the use of previous gifts, and receive general information about the organization; being a donor should be an ongoing, not an episodic relationship with your organization. 

Organizations cannot live by gifts alone. On average, earned income - fees for service, sale of products, royalties, etc. - provides nonprofit organizations with about half of their income.