There are many positive adjectives that are regularly paired with the noun “fundraiser.” Words like passionate, courageous, determined, persistent, and mission-centered, to mention a few. However, a descriptor that’s seldom used is “risk-taking.”
By in large, we development folk are a conservative bunch when it comes to how we go about raising funds.
For good reason.
Where margins are slim and budgets tight, an experiment gone wrong can be disastrous — to an organization’s financial well-being and/or a fundraiser’s career. It’s little wonder that development officers are generally reluctant to take a chance on change.
Until they absolutely have to.
Which is where United Way found itself a couple of decades back. As chronicled in Harvard Business Review, over the past 20 years or so, the 132-year old organization has moved from working almost exclusively with employers to creating direct relationships with individuals. In other words, the United Way of today is very different from what it’s been for most of its history.
CEO Brian Gallagher explains:
It was very clear that to be more successful, we [United Way] had to find ways to get people more involved. They don’t want to just give a check. They want to help with strategy, they want to be advocates, and they want to know what’s happening with their money.
For most fundraisers, and especially those working in small and mid-sized faith-based nonprofit, Gallagher’s insight isn’t anything new. However, for United Way — an organization birthed and built on an employer-centered — the centrality of personal relationships to fundraising sustainability was a eureka-level moment.
HERE’S LOOKING AT YOU
The point of this post is not to shake a finger at United Way for being slow to embrace change, but rather, to challenge you, dear reader, to look anew at your fundraiser program — to question the wisdom of pursuing the same fundraising strategies in the same sequence, year after year.
Strategies are, after all, simply means by which we connect with donors. “Who” is and always has been more important than “how” when seeking to build a strong development program. All the more so when fundraising is pursued as ministry. With eyes firmly fixed on hearts grown more generous toward God (our ultimate end), we need not fear taking risks. Many roads can get us where we need and want to go.
Yesterday, today, and tomorrow, success in fundraising has, does, and will come down to this (in Gallagher’s words):
Ask people what they care about. Engage with them. Share information they are interested in. Then ask them to give – and there’s a good chance they will.
For more on this theme, see:
6 things you need to know about fundraising