Fundraising Ideas

The reason fundraising campaigns fail is they are not planned well.  Let’s plan for a successful annual fundraising campaign. (At another time, we will plan for successful special events.)

Spend time gathering names, mailing addresses and e-mail addresses of potential donors

• Volunteers for the agency
• Board members
• Attendees at agency functions
• Families of clients, former clients, as appropriate
• Individuals who have given to other groups (arts, universities, United Way)
• Representatives of businesses which have given to other groups.

Divide the names you have gathered in three groups:

• Potentially large donors- These are individuals you will visit
• Potentially medium donors-These are individuals you will call
• Potentially small donors- These are individuals you will send a mailing to

Factors in deciding who should be in which pile are the time available to make visits, phone calls and mailings.  Another factor is how much these individuals have previously given to your campaign and that of other agencies.

Make sure to involve potentially large donors in your agency before you visit them:

• Invite them to an open house
• Send them materials about your program
• Include them on an advisory committee
• Invite them at no cost to any programs you offer

Learn as much as you can about businesses before you visit:

• Services
• Profitability
• Past giving
• Procedures for making requests

Once you begin an Annual Campaign with careful planning, you are on your way to success.

Visit as many potential donors as you can.  Call them to set up appointments in their office or home.  Begin by asking them to discuss any contacts they have had with the agency such as visits to an open house or an agency special event.  Describe briefly the programs that could be undertaken if the agency raised the funds included in the budget.

Ask for a specific gift as an “investment in the community.”  This number would be the largest amount you think they might contribute.

Thank the donor for any amount they pledge.  When you return to the office, confirm the amount of the pledge and thank them again.

If the prospective donor does not make a pledge, do not get discouraged. Perhaps they will give next year.

Meet with the planning committee again to share what you learned at each visit.

By spending quality time planning for fundraising, you will avoid the major reason why fundraising campaigns fail.

Among the many communications I receive from nonprofits are fundraising appeals. Often these appeals emphasize statistics, such as:

• last year donors like you helped over 600,000 patients…
• over 1.2 million animals need your help…
• help protect the rights of over 30 million Americans…

Very likely, the person who chose to base their appeal on statistics thought that the sheer numbers being cited would make an overwhelming, logical and convincing case that their cause is the one that the donor should support. Statistics are fine, but these fundraisers forgot one vital component of fundraising success.

They forgot to make it personal.

By that, I mean focusing on an individual who was helped, or will be helped, by the donor’s gift. Taking the same examples, see effective these appeals are when stated like this:

• Meet Linda, a patient helped by someone like you…
• you can save Hazel the labrador with your gift…
• If you donate, James will still have the right to…

Mother Teresa once said, “If I look at the masses, I will never act. If I look at the one, I will.” People tend to be overwhelmed when confronted by a great need, but when confronted with the needs of one individual, they’re much more likely to feel an emotional connection and act. And studies have shown that when appeals focus on helping individuals, donation amounts rise dramatically.

Gift amounts rise even further when you provide suggested gift levels as guidance. For example, “$50 feeds a kitten for one month” or “$100 pays for a puppy’s adoption into a loving home” tells a donor what they’re “buying” with their gift. When combined with a photo of just such a kitten or puppy, you have a powerful emotional argument for someone to not just donate, but possibly donate more than they would have had you not made that connection.

But the appeal can be even more personal.

Friend-to-friend fundraising has been around for decades. And personal online fundraising pages have become a fundraising staple. By encouraging your supporters to make the “ask” for you, you can dramatically increase both the number of donations as well as the donation amounts for your appeals. When asked why they chose a particular organization to donate to, over 50% of donors say, “A friend asked me to.”

The reason why friend-to-friend fundraising is so effective is that it’s very personal. I often explain it this way: When people receive an appeal from you, they likely don’t know your organization. You’re one of many communications they receive every day, from both non-profits and for-profits, and are likely to be deleted as spam or tossed away as junk mail. But when your supporters contacts them, then it’s their daughter, their nephew, their friend, colleague or neighbor. In essence, they lend their “brand” to you when they endorse your cause and break through all the other communication clutter. People like to help people they know do good works. So if your supporter has a fundraising goal, you can bet Grandma or Aunt Jane will want to help them achieve it.

So don’t be afraid to appeal to emotions in your fundraising communications. And definitely enlist your supporters. Remember, people give with their hearts more than their heads!

Fundraising is the lifeblood for many nonprofit organizations, but there is an art to it, and if you do not understand this art, your fundraiser will go from fantastic to failure.
 While there is no cookie cutter way to approach fundraising, here are some big things to avoid if you want to help ensure that your fundraiser is as successful as it can be:

Failure to Present a Clear Message

Some fundraisers are a little more obvious than others.  A fundraiser to help find a cure for breast cancer is clear to most without further explanation.  However, a fundraiser to raise funds to battle Chondrodysplasia Punctata disease may need more explaining.  However, no matter how obvious your cause is, you still need a clear message that wins over the hearts of people.  How specifically are you going to use the funds?  What specific research are you using the money for?  What results specifically do you hope for?  Being specific will give people a greater sense of why your cause is important, but it will also communicate to them that you are serious.

Failure to Keep Things Fun

Anyone who has ever done a fundraiser in the past knows that fundraiser can be, and often are, extremely frustrating.  Despite this reality, however, it is imperative to keep your fundraiser enjoyable.  Few people will care about your cause enough to show up even though it’s boring.  Creating a fun-filled atmosphere will not only bring your guests back in the future, but it will increase the morale significantly among your workers and volunteers.

Failure to Ask For Money

There is a fine balance between being clear and being pushy.  Asking people for money is extremely challenging for most of us, but you need to realize that people realize that that is why you are having a fundraiser.  They know that you want their money, so just ask for it.  Now you need to use some common sense here.  First you need to communicate to them why you need the money, develop in their hearts compassion and appreciation for what your cause stands for.  There is a sense of “preparing” them for giving.  However, you must be clear and just ask them to give.  It’s amazing what people will do when they feel lead and not pushed.

Failure to Create a Sense of Urgency

Urgency equals importance.  If something can wait, then it must not be that essential.  When you promote and launch your fundraiser you need to instill in the minds of everyone involved that what you are doing is vitally important and needs immediate action.  Creating this sense of urgency will instill in the minds of your potential donors that there is no time for vacillating; they need to give now because your cause simply can’t wait.  The world needs your cause now.  Now, as I said above, simply expressing urgency won’t fly; you also need to give specific reasons as to why your cause is so urgently needed.