Fundraising: It's NOT About the Money

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Joanne is the author of the CharityChannel Press In the Trenches book, Confessions of a Successful Grants Writer: A Complete Guide to Discovering and Obtaining Funding.

It was written to help the practitioners, who has responsibility to increase donations through foundation, corporate or government funders, to increase their acceptance rate. The book is a guide for

• Grant writers

• Foundation, corporate and government relationship professionals

• Other development professionals

• Anyone wanting to raise more revenue through proposals

It will help the reader to:

• Understand various funder motivations

• Relate to funders in language they understand

• Discover new prospects

• Build successful relationships

• Write proposal narratives

• Present effective budgets

• Work with organizational and program staff

• Position the reader and the reader's agency for success

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Tags: fundraising Joanne Oppelt
Categories: Fund Development
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Fundraising is not all about asking for money.  Fundraising is about forming those relationships that best promote fulfillment of your mission.  It is about forming partnerships. Partnerships where all parties get something of value.  And the first step in structuring such partnerships is by identifying what who your potential partners might be.

As I explain in my upcoming CharityChannel Press book Transforming Our Fundraising Paradigm: An Innovative View of Partnerships (working title), a partner is more than just a collaborator.  I am defining a partner as any person or group who interacts with your organization and is interested in its success. Your organization has partnerships not only with organizations with similar missions or client groups, but also board members, donors, volunteers, employees and vendors. Potential partners can even go beyond existing relationships, such as organizations with shared markets. Basically, a partner can be anyone who has a reason to interact with your organization who can contribute to mission fulfillment. To identify potential partners, think of who your organization relates to now and who you can relate to that you aren’t right now.

Think of your board members, the organizational volunteer leaders who are legally responsible to ensure fulfillment of your mission. They are the most vested volunteers you have.  They know intimately the mission and vision of the organization. They know how well the organization meets it obligations. They are the agency’s leaders. How well do you promote their leadership development and emphasize their role in being the lead volunteers and donors of the agency? How well do you train them in how to do their jobs as lead volunteers and donors?

Think of your existing volunteers and donors. Why do they choose to give of their limited resources to your organization? Have you asked them? Do you know their needs and motivations? For example, are you thanking them in ways they can hear you and will be meaningful to them? How do you know? Will they recommend other donors and volunteers to you? Why? People who give of their time and money give because they get something in return. What kinds of returns do you give to your volunteers and donors? Are your returns meaningful to them? Have you asked them?

Think of your employees. Employees are extremely vested in your organization’s success. After all, they spend most of their time working in the organization and it is the organization that provides for their livelihood. Do you capitalize on that? Do you recognize the contribution employees make to the fulfillment of mission? Do your employees understand the critical importance of what they do to make the world a better place? How satisfied are they in the workplace? Employees whose needs are met and see an organization as giving to them, will most likely say good things about the agency to other potential employees, volunteers and donors. If they feel the organization gives to them, they will also be more likely to give to the organization. And that mean financially too.

Think of your vendors – the people who know best your business practices. They are vested in your success as they want to keep you as a customer and they want you to recommend their services to others. They might or might or might not care about your cause, but they do care about your success as a business. Even if all they care about you is as a business, you can still use that to help fulfill your mission. Their perspective on how you operate as a business can be used in marketing yourself to the corporate community. You might be able to use a quote from them in your marketing materials. If you are a good business partner, they might also help you expand your reach to other businesses. There are many ways you can partner with vendors.

Notice that I have spent a lot of time pointing out not only who your partners can be, but what their needs are. That’s right. Fundraising does not start with what your organization’s needs for money are, it starts with identifying and meeting the needs of others. Fundraising is NOT all about asking for money so your organization can survive. It starts with knowing and meeting the needs of your potential partners. It is about creating win-win partnerships where all parties’ needs are met. Your need is mission fulfillment. Meet their needs so they are able to and vested in helping you do that.