Privacy Policy: I promise never to sell, rent, trade or share yourFundraising for Nonprofits – Explore Other Sources of Income
Nonprofits must be prepared for inevitable changes in funding priorities and sources of funding. While we are in uncertain times, nonprofits can be certain about one thing…organizations that invest time and resources into diversifying their funding sources will endure the economic ups and downs in shifts of charitable giving.
Here are some alternate revenue streams for fundraising for nonprofits that you should consider.
Fundraising Training for Nonprofits – Best Practices
Whether you are raising funding for ministry funding, ministry support, or non-faith based nonprofits there are some best practices that apply to all. Here are just a few.
Fundraising Training – Who Are Your Top 20?
Quick, right off the top of your head, who are your top 5 major financial investors/partners?
Those of you who know get an A for the day. Congrats! Those of you who don’t know have some work to do.
If you did not know who your top 5 partners are, then you probably have no idea who your top 20% are. And these are the people who are the key to your financial success.
In my fundraising training for nonprofits I include a section on maintaining the relationship with all financial partners, but particularly the top 20% who provide 80% of your funding. These are your major investors/partners.
Fundraising Training – Passion Alone is Not Enough!
After working with hundreds of nonprofits I rarely find a founder (and even more rare a board member) who has a passion for raising funding. What they are passionate about is the mission of their organization. Founders created their nonprofit because of their passion. They saw a need and they filled it. And they love what they do. But passion alone is not enough.
It takes money.
Fundraising for Non Profits – Why I Don’t Call Donors, “Donors”
Early on in each of my 6-hour Get Funded and Stay Funded workshops I make it a point to offer money to anyone who can find the word “donor” in the workshop manual. Participants come to the workshop saying and thinking “donor” but leave with a new word…PARTNER.
The goal of my fundraising coaching is sustainability. You get that from financial partners and not from donors. Donors give you body parts and once donated…that’s it! Donors give you money to make you go away or to make themselves feel good.
Partners are just that…partners. They are in this for the long haul.
Fundraising Training – Are You a Successful Fundraiser?
As fundraisers, we really want to succeed, so we implicitly define fundraising as follows:
Successful fundraising = How much money was raised
This definition assumes that the result alone is what drives the success. While money is certainly an important metric I don’t believe that it is the most critical one.
It is impossible for us as fundraisers to have any control over when someone gives or how much that they might give. But we do have control over how often we ask prospects for funding. We also have control over how many prospects we ask for funding.
So I believe that a much better metric to use to determine fundraising success is: Read the rest of this entry »
Ministry Funding – Has Your Funding Suffered Due to Mission Drift?
Recently I had the pleasure of lunch with a few friends who work for a large faith based non-profit organization. They had mentioned to me that the income from the year, actually from the past couple of years, has been on a decreasing trend from prior years and leadership is contributing this decline in income solely to the economy.
I remembered that I had read recently about several organizations that had surveyed non-profit organizations and the state of their income through donations. I shared the results with my friends and now with you.
The surveys basically showed that for faith based nonprofits 29% of the respondents have experienced a decrease in income during this recession. However, 24% have reported that their income has remained the same with no decrease at all. Amazingly, 47% of those responding stated that their income has actually increased 47%!
Fundraising Training – 3 Proven Winners to Build Relationship with Your Partners
We all know how much planning, implementation and time it takes to find, cultivate and move prospects to financial partners. So who is most important to us, the next prospect or the current partner?
My answer might surprise you…my current partner is more important to me. Why?
Because it is simply much easier and cheaper to keep a partner than to go and find another one. That does not mean that we stop prospecting, but definitely not at the expense of maintaining partners.
Too often fundraisers think that since they have a partner “on the team” that further relationship building is not necessary. That’s just plain dumb.
Here are three things to do to keep that partner near and dear to you…and you to them.
Fundraising for Non Profits – Don’t Make These 4 Fundraising Mistakes!
Small nonprofit organizations face many challenges when it comes to fundraising. Unfortunately, I have found that too many of them are “their own worst enemy” as they approach, ask and keep financial partners.
Here are 4 of the top mistakes fundraisers make in trying to become funded on a sustainable basis.
1. Asking for money too soon.
You have to earn the right to ask. You can’t simply meet someone, consider them a prospect, and ask away. OK, they might give you $100 to “go away”, but that’s not what we’re after. We’re after perhaps $100 per month every month for multiple years.
Build into the relationship, earn the right to ask, and then ask.
Fundraising for Non Profits – A Bad Economy and Your Fundraising
The latest Giving Report information from the Giving USA Foundation has given some very interesting numbers during this time of economic challenges.
The total giving to non-profits in 2008 was $308 billion. Giving in what has been described as the worst economic climate since the Great Depression exceeded $300 billion for the second year in a row, not at all what one would expect.
Individual giving continues to be the largest component of charitable contributions at 75%. Charitable bequests are approximately 7%. Foundation grant making is 13%.
Two-thirds of public charities receiving donations saw decreases but there were noteworthy exceptions.