Hands-On Fundraising

Donor Communications

Here are the questions every nonprofit should ask

Mission or self-preservation?Let me share a brief and not too flattering story.

A few years ago, a friend announced her new job in an area that intersected with my organization’s mission.

I offered any help I could give someone new to the nonprofit world.

And then had a moment when I wondered if that could be a problem. Would I be helping some other organization succeed in “our” area?

What a completely stupid thing to think!

But it brought to mind a really good issue. One I’m not sure we wrestle with enough.

Are our organizations committed to a mission, or to preservation?

For organizations seeking to end something – like homelessness or social injustice – it’s crucially important. Is your goal to end homelessness and eradicate poverty?

Or is it to be the most well-funded organization facing the issue?

In other words, how many organizations are working to put themselves out of business?

(This might not always apply. It could be a fuzzy argument in an arts context, for example. Is there ever enough great theater in the world? I’m biased, but I don’t think so.)

But it’s pretty clear – or ought to be – for many of us.

Mission comes first.

And what about the role of collaboration?

I’ve been at meetings where it’s all collegial until we talk about money.

If collaboration helps the cause but hurts your organization’s funding, what’s your choice? And where do you draw the line?

You can’t do your work without stability and sufficient funding.

But working together might get more done. Though that might mean your organization gets less credit – and money.

It’s a little chicken and egg.

It can be hard to see what’s driving things – money or mission.

And what if your organization’s mission has been met?

Do you celebrate and shut the doors – putting people out of work, disappointing loyal donors?

Or do you reinvent and shift toward a different mission?

I don’t know what your answer is.

But we should be asking the questions often:

Are we focused on our mission?

What value are we bringing to the community?

Do we need to exist?

Asking – and answering – those questions often will help keep you focused on what really matters.

Then you’ll do better work and raise more money.

Scarcity or Abundance?

Abundance or scarcity?Some time ago, I sat in a staff meeting, where the talk was all about scarcity.

Not that anyone thought about it exactly that way.

We thought were talking about how to be careful with spending, about prudent choices about programming.

We were talking about what we couldn’t have and what we couldn’t do.

Of course, we talked about fundraising closing the gap between what we have and what we need. But it wasn’t a realistic conversation.

We weren’t thinking about what the community needed, or what donors might want to fund.

When it came to fundraising, it was more like wishful thinking. (“Oh we’ll just get a sponsor for that!”)

And then the conversation even turned dismissive: “Well, that’s Development’s problem. Now let’s get back to what we’re really about.”

I think we have it all backward.

Donors aren’t motivated by our budget. And they’re probably not inspired by how much fiscal prudence it’s wrapped in.

Our supporters look to us for the big idea, for the “vision thing”.

They look to us to show them not what can’t be done, but what can be done – with them.

I’m not suggesting that we should spend money wildly or thoughtlessly. I don’t think this is about spending at all, actually.

But it is about priorities.

How do we decide what’s important?

Do we protect the status quo – staffing, pet projects, things we do because we’ve always done it that way?

Or do we refocus on the mission and what we can do to further it?

From my point of view, that conversation felt a bit like circling the wagons:

Everyone, tighten up! Close ranks and protect the most critical things!

Doing that leaves our most important partners out.

Wouldn’t it be better if our donors and the people we serve were part of the conversation?

Which side of the circle are they on?

You don’t make good decisions from inside the barricades.

And you don’t get things done by focusing on scarcity.

That’s not inspiring, it’s not uplifting and it’s short-sighted.

That day, I sat there and wondered:

Are we circling the wagons or circling the drain?

Wouldn’t it be great if we focused on what we can do?

What if we joyfully envisioned solutions to problems and invited people to help?

If we put aside the programs we continued simply out of habit?

I think we’d get a lot more done and feel better doing it.

(This piece on How to Create an Abundance Mentality is focused on personal development. But I think there’s good advice for us in the nonprofit world as well.)

 

Photo thanks to Ryan McGuire at Gratisography

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