My Best Advice About Nonprofit Fundraising

January 28, 2011 by · 1 Comment

As many of you know, most of my experience in the nonprofit sector was in fundraising. I came into the field eight years ago rocking my English major skills and using them to write grant proposals for different types of organizations. Since I quit my job as a development director last year, obviously I don’t raise money for a living anymore, but many of the groups I speak with struggle with this essential aspect of nonprofit management on a frequent basis. Given my experience, I believe fundraising will ALWAYS be one of the most important functions in any nonprofit organization (just like sales is in business). It’s also one of the “stretch assignment” areas I often suggest to new leaders coming into the field. My philosophy is that the more people you have bringing in the Benjamins for your nonprofit, the more stable your organization will be!

Since I started this blog in 2007, I’ve shared a lot of opinions, advice and resources about fundraising, from foundation research to my lessons learned from conferences and my formal training at The Fundraising School. Here I share my best fundraising advice for all the newbies and those who just want to learn more for their own professional development.

I also recommend this “short list” of fundraising and philanthropy resources if you’re just starting out. Many of these were invaluable to me when I was trying to figure out new ideas for raising funds from foundations and corporate donors.

Foundation Center

The Foundation Center has a content-rich web site with a variety of free search tools, tutorials, downloadable reports, and other information updated daily, including Philanthropy News Digest, its daily news service. Check out audio from their great events about fundraising and philanthropy and download podcast interviews with grantmakers and other experts in the field of philanthropy. Also follow them on Twitter @pndblog.

Association of Fundraising Professionals

AFP is THE premier professional association for fundraising professionals. If you can afford it, I highly recommend you beome a member. It’s a nice badge of honor (and resume builder) to be able to say you’re an AFP member, and I know from experience that many nonprofit employers count it as a plus. Not only is the networking second to none, but the conferences and trainings they offer are very good, no matter what stage of your nonprofit career you may be in. If you’re job searching, they also have a Job Center you can check for openings. Follow them on Twitter @AFPIHQ.

The Chronicle of Philanthropy

The Chronicle of Philanthropy is the newspaper of the nonprofit world. It is a trusted news source, in print and online, for charity leaders, fund raisers, grant makers, and other people involved in philanthropy. The Chronicle also maintains a great online discussion series and a column with fundraising tips called Prospecting. Be sure to follow them on Twitter @Philanthropy!

Simple Development Systems


Simple Development Systems is the only online coaching program created for the overwhelmed fundraiser in the one-person marketing and development shop.

Created by experienced fundraising professional Pamela Grow (listen to the interview I did with Pamela on my radio show), the program will show you step-by-step how to:

  • Grow your donor database and build an email supporter list
  • Create a monthly giving program to create sustaining monthly income – and build stronger donor loyalty
  • Target small to mid-size foundations for general operating support grants
  • and lots more!
Simple Development Systems contains eight chapters, ranging from how to effectively tell your story, to grants, to stewardship, to events, and everything in between. As part of the package, Pamela has also included a number of really useful bonuses from others in the field. Worksheets, samples and templates are included in the accompanying toolkit!

Get your copy here.

Filed Under: Nonprofit Management, Philanthropy · Tagged With: ,

You Gotta Give

July 7, 2010 by · 23 Comments

This is a guest post by Brigid Slipka, a fundraiser and sorta philanthropist in Los Angeles.  She blogs about giving at www.actuallygiving.com

There are so many good fun things about having a career in nonprofits! Like not making very much money, and having no professional development, and also never having a life outside of work.

And if all that weren’t delightful enough, there’s another thing you’re going to have to do in order to succeed in a nonprofit job, something that we in this sector don’t much talk about:

You’re gonna have to make a financial donation to your very own employer.

I hear you already: We give up our time, we give up a higher paying salary in the for-profit sector, we give our hearts and souls for our nonprofit career.  And in return we get a pittance of a salary.  And of that little bit of income that you do get, that little bit that’s actually yours at the end of the day… you have to give part of that, too.

Yep, it feels totally unfair.

But while it’s true that we feel underpaid compared to the other hundred or so people at our college reunion, compared to the other billion or so people occupying the rest of the world, we’re doing just fine.  We’re professionals working in America.  We’ve all can make a few choices to free up a few extra bucks to give.

(This doesn’t mean we still don’t address the low salaries.  We must.

It just means that when we do get paid more, we also have to give more, too.

Can y’all tell I’m a fundraiser?)

Ok.  So we agree to give.  But do we have to give to our own employers?  The place that somehow seems to demand not just our expertise but our every waking thought and heartfelt passion?

Well… yes.

Three reasons why:

You can’t be a hypocrite.  You’re going to ask other people to support the mission of your company, and you’ve got to be backing that up.  You can’t make a sales call on behalf of Coke, take your prospective client to lunch and order a Pepsi.

Your employer is addressing that issue that you care about.  You’re in health care/education/arts/social justice because you want to make a difference there.  And that cause needs money.  The same pull-in-the-gut that got you behind that desk has to get you to punch in your credit card number in your company’s own online donation site.

(If you don’t think that your company is solving the problem you’ve dedicated your life to, ok, you can be excused from giving them a gift.  Because you’ve got a far bigger problem to start addressing – or a new job to find).

You are an evangelist for your cause.  In his manifesto, Sasha Dichter decries fundraising as “necessary evil” and instead cajoles us to “be an evangelist for your idea and to convince others about the change you want to see in the world. Tell them that if this idea is worth supporting then they should jump in with both feet and support it with their time and money and by telling their friends it is worth supporting.”

He’s absolutely right.  The people you talk to should want to financially jump in with both feet.

The first person to leap must be you.

You make a gift to your own employer not for any arm-twisting eye-rolling fine-I’ll-do-it-if-I-have-to-reason.  You make a gift to your own employer because you love this work.  You make a gift because you know you can address this issue.  You make a gift because you aren’t the kind of person to just observe life.  You’re the one to dive headfirst into life.

Make the dive.  Make the gift.

Filed Under: Career Advice, Philanthropy · Tagged With: , , , ,

YNPN 2009 Guest Blog: Opa Owiye, Fundraising is Not About Thinking Outside the Box

April 24, 2009 by · 1 Comment

by Opa Owiye, YNPN 2009 Guest Blogger
Opa shares her great notes from the YNPN 2009 Professional Development Workshop: Fundraising in a Tough Economy

Luke Driscoll, Regional VP, CCS Fundraising, Development Services, Strategic Consulting did a great job of giving basic tools for young fundraisers in a tough economy. It seems that there isn’t a secret to fundraising during a difficult economic environment. What he recommended was “thinking inside the box” instead of “thinking outside the box”.

As he put it, the box is there for a reason. In thinking inside the box look at what the best practices are, what’s worked in the past, what’s working now, what’s not working, why it’s not working, and how can we be innovative.

He also gave us a 10 pt. plan for meeting the challenges ahead.

  1. Reaffirm your organizations’ mission and impact
  2. Increase activity especially in cultivation and engagement
  3. Motivate internal leaders that you will remain successful
  4. Encourage your staff to support each other
  5. Increase prospecting to expand your potential donor base
  6. Explore diversification in fundraising
  7. Introduce gift options
  8. Using those you know for prospects, expanding network, helping board
  9. Share the latest philanthropic information to both motivate leadership and temper expectations
  10. Open new doors to longer term prospect cultivation

Lastly, he reiterated the key traits of a successful fundraiser.

  • Belief in the organization and leaders
  • Enthusiasm and passion
  • Sense of urgency
  • Willing to take risks
  • Strategic thinker
  • Sees opportunities, when others see problems
  • Aligns donors/prospects with organization’s needs

So, be encouraged fundraisers! Philanthropy is not a function of the stock market but a function of the gross national product. Philanthropy has never gone down. It has always either gone up or held steady. And, a recent survey by Bank of America showed that majority of people gave simply because they were asked. So, people get out there and ASK!

Filed Under: YNPN 2009 · Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Life as a New Board Member

November 16, 2007 by · 2 Comments

This week I was voted onto the board of directors for the D.C. Creative Writing Workshop, a nonprofit that blends my love of poetry and the arts in an afterschool program for African American youth living in the poorest sections of Washington, DC. The mission of the D.C. Creative Writing Workshop, based at Charles Hart Middle School in the Congress Heights neighborhood of Southeast D.C., is to unite parents, teachers and professional writers-in-residence to transform the lives of youth through self-expression and the power of the written word. As a new board member, I’ve already chosen a committee to work on: fundraising, which is what I do in my day job. But the great thing about serving on the Workshop’s board is that I will get a chance to try my hand at individual fundraising, which I have not yet done very much of in my nonprofit career so far. So you know I wouldn’t be doing my board duty if I didn’t encourage readers to support the DC Creative Writing Workshop by donating online or sending a big fat check to: D.C. Creative Writing Workshop, Inc. 601 Mississippi Ave SE, Washington, DC 20032. Bonus if you donate before the end of the year to get a nice tax break from Uncle Sam!

After one board meeting, you can bet my head is still reeling with all of the information presented, but I want to share my observations so far on being a new board member:

  • Food is a key ingredient if you want people to show up for evening board meetings – the board member who hosted us at her lovely home treated us to a nice catered dinner that made us feel even better about leaving straight from work for a 2-hour meeting
  • It’s important that board committee chairs communicate about the agenda well in advance of the meeting so everyone’s on the same page and well-prepared during the meeting – everyone has busy schedules so it’s best to request information for reports, etc. as early as possible
  • Board meetings are a great time to ask questions of the staff that attend, but make sure they have a purpose so time doesn’t get taken away from the agenda – time really flies during the meetings once you get into them
  • When you agree to do something or send out information to other board members, try to do it right away
  • Always try to remember what your role is to the organization – as a volunteer you want to help where you are needed and not create more work for the staff
  • No matter what committee you are on within the board, it is still your responsibility to ask your contacts and friends to financially support the organization

I think this is going to be a great experience in so many different ways and I’ll keep sharing here, especially on the progress in my leadership journey. Want to join a nonprofit board yourself? Here’s how I did it.

Filed Under: Leadership, Philanthropy · Tagged With: , ,

Blogging From the Fundraising School: Some Basic Principles

August 23, 2007 by · 1 Comment

This week at the Fundraising School in Indianapolis has been an intense learning experience for me with 37 other development professionals from all over the country. The course is called Principles and Techniques of Fundraising and gives a survey of the different fundraising methods and planning processes involved in raising funds for our nonprofits. There are students here from large organizations as well as start-ups and we’re all learning something from each other. The main thing I’ve learned was that although everyone in the room has different missions, the principles of fundraising are the same. Whether you are in human services, environmental and conservation issues, or work for university advancement, you still have to learn some basic ideas about fundraising and ethics to guide your work. I share some of these basic principles we’ve talked about that have set a context for me in my fundraising work, including:

The key to success in fundraising is getting the right person to ask the right prospect, in the right way, for the right reason, at the right time, for the right amount.

If you are meeting a community need, you have an obligation to ask people for money.

We must constantly ask ourselves as fundraisers, how can I involve more people with my organization?

No connection = no gift

Fundraising is essentially a management process.

Whoever spends money in your organization should be involved in raising money for it.

Filed Under: Philanthropy, Professional Development, Social Media · Tagged With: , ,
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