Author: Hank Lewis, MA, CFRM

(Adapted from an Article on “Founders Syndrome) Written in 2004)

In his blog, “Consulting Skills,” dated April 23, Carter McNamara asked, “What is a Mature Organization.” I’d like to try and answer that question from the perspective of a fundraising consultant.

I have to base my “answer” on a couple of basic concepts — that a NPO can’t function effectively (no less raise money) without:

1) A set of operating parameters (i.e., by-laws) that enables (and doesn’t prevent) an organization from operating in a manner that is most (cost-)effective and best serves the needs of those being served. Including:
• Term-limits for board members – as the “community” changes there is a real need to have board members who understand the cultures and the needs of the various segments of the community
• Procedures to ensure that board members are selected based on both the current and anticipated needs of the NPO
• Job descriptions for board members and board committees
• Provisions for board member evaluation, training, and removal – to include a focus on the fundraising process and their roles in it
• A clear statement that the CEO (an employee — paid or not) takes direction from the board, IS NOT A MEMBER OF THE BOARD, and can be replaced if s/he doesn’t observe the policies set by the board (This issue does not directly impact the fundraising process, but it’s a pet peeve of mine and I wanted it said!)

2) A set of policies that delineates:
• From whom the organization will/will not accept support
• The types of gifts it will/will not accept
• The types (with examples) of recognition it will/will not grant
• How contributed funds will/will not be retained/spent/invested
• How mission, vision and ethics will impact decision making

And, if in addition to the above, a NPO has a balanced/diverse fundraising program – an appropriate mix of funding sources (foundations, corporations, mass solicitation, special events and major gifts) – without reliance on “fundraisers,” then I’d probably consider that NPO to be a mature organization … from a fundraising perspective.
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Have a question about starting or expanding your fundraising program? Email me at AskDCA@Major-Capital-Giving.com. With over 30 years of counseling in major gifts, capital campaigns, bequest programs and the planning studies to precede these three, we’ll work to answer your question.

 
In case you haven’t yet been there and done that, applying for and accepting a grant is the equivalent of signing a contract – in some cases there really is a contract.

The process is that grantors publish parameters for projects/programs they will fund, and you request funding for a project/program that is within their parameters.

If you are granted funding, it is understood and expected that said funding will support the project described in your proposal; and, that you will report back on how the grant was used and how it helped you to attain the goals stated in your proposal.

Some grantors require periodic (financial and activity) reports on the progress of the project for which they’ve provided the funding. Some don’t. In either case, you should take great care in preparing and submitting such reports, as they will look at the reports from your last grant, before providing new money.

You can improve your chances of being funded, but only if your applications go to the right funders … only if they contain the required information … only if you’ve provided the required follow-up information on prior grants … only if your programs meet the specific requirements outlined by those grantmakers.

And, btw, in addition to publishing guidelines describing who and what they will fund — a significant number of foundations specify who and what they won’t fund.

Know this, funders talk to each other. If you use your grants effectively, in the manner indicated in your proposals, then many grantors will let other foundations and corporations know that you are worthy. They will also pass the word if you are less than successful in meeting their requirements and your goals.
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Have a question about starting or expanding your fundraising program? Email me at AskDCA@Major-Capital-Giving.com. With over 30 years of counseling in major gifts, capital campaigns, bequest programs and the planning studies to precede these three, we’ll work to answer your question.

Every day, thousands of non-profit organizations, believing that their financial problems are soon to be over, generate/send proposals that receive, at best, a brief reading.

Contrary to popular belief and unlike the grants Mr. Question-Mark touts in the TV ads, grants to non-profit organizations are not free-money. Grants come with a variety of obligations. Corporations, foundations and government agencies don’t just give it away. It takes more than mailing applications and waiting for the checks to arrive.

To Get Funded, you must know how to tell your story. You need a well-written narrative that tells:
• How and why and by whom your organization was created;
• The community needs you have been serving and/or intend to serve;
• Why there is a need to create/expand your program, and how you will do that;
• How successful you’ve been; and,
• Specific funding needs for all aspects of your operation.

The vast majority of grantors want to see your audited financial reports and your budgets. They want to know where the rest of your funding is from, and you will need to prove that you are fiscally responsible, can be trusted and that you operate in a business-like manner.

Funders want to know who your leaders are — trustees, volunteers and staff. And, they want to see if/how those people are financially supporting the organization.

You must also be able to tell the funders:
• How your mission/project(s) meets their guidelines;
• How your mission/project(s) will make a significant difference to the community;
• How their funding will help create a project/program that will become self-sustaining; (Remember, most funders don’t’ want to adopt you. Funding is designed to help you create something. You’ll then have to learn how to generate the ongoing funding by yourselves.) and,
• In the case of corporate funding, how the relationship will benefit the corporation — how it will impact their bottom line.

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Have a question about starting or expanding your fundraising program? Email me at AskDCA@Major-Capital-Giving.com. With over 30 years of counseling in major gifts, capital campaigns, bequest programs and the planning studies to precede these three, we’ll work to answer your question.

(Be sure to see “Musts” 6-10 in this blog, too)

5. Please, do not — you MUST NOT — write your own fundraising materials. And, if you insist on doing so, pay an experienced fundraising writer to review and comment on your writing.

Writing for fundraising is an Art. Most fundraising letters, case statements, grant proposals, etc, are nowhere near as effective as they could be. Many fundraising letters (and you’ve probably gotten some of them) are really terrible.

4. You MUST diversify your sources of funding for your fundraising program to be successful over the long term,

Every time the economy takes a hit, government, corporations and foundations reduce their funding of non-profits. The greater the number of individual major donors an organization has, the smaller the chance that an economic downturn will force you to reduce services to your community.

3. You MUST NOT assume that a special event will make everything better!! You can’t expect to create a special event and have it be instantaneously successful. An event most often requires a multi-year period to establish itself and begin generating enough income to do more than pay its own costs.

A great number of attendees at special events are paying for entertainment or to “honor” someone they care about. You can’t count on those people buying tickets every year. They may find an event that’s more entertaining or that has an “honoree” to whom they feel a greater connection.

2. All donors MUST be thanked/recognized for their gifts, but not every donor wants to be thanked/recognized in the same way. Some like seeing their names in print, some don’t; some like plaques, some don’t; the better you know your donors, the more appropriately you can thank/recognize them.

1. A successful fundraising program MUST be designed based on the needs of donors, not the needs of the organization. Donors give to satisfy their needs, not yours.

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Have a question about starting or expanding your fundraising? Email me at AskDCA@Major-Capital-Giving.com. With over 30 years of counseling in major gifts, capital campaigns, bequest programs and the planning studies to precede these three, we’ll work to answer your question.

10. All Board Members, MUST be donors – to the best of their ability. Not all board members are wealthy, but everyone should give at the highest level possible for their circumstances. It is important to be able to say to the public that 100% of your board supports your mission with their dollars. If your board members won’t give, why should anyone else?

9. You MUST give people reasons that will make them want to give. That you need money is not one of those reasons. Show prospective donors how their giving will make a difference in people’s lives. And, more importantly, show them how their giving will make a difference in their own lives.

8. You MUST understand that the best person-to-person fundraiser is a well-trained and well-motivated volunteer who solicits his/her peers, friends, family and colleagues. Professional fundraising staff or counsel can help you design and run your program and train your volunteers, but staff and counsel cannot usually do as good a job soliciting as can an impassioned volunteer.

7. You MUST do adequate planning/research before implementing any fundraising strategy — no matter the size of the gifts you’re soliciting or the goal you need to reach. And, you MUST periodically test variations of your fundraising methodology to ensure that your efforts are as cost-effective as possible.

6. You MUST have a means/method of tracking your fundraising and leadership prospects, your donors and your contacts with them. If you’re a very small organization and only have a few prospects/donors, you could probably use file folders and/or spreadsheets; but, once you have significant numbers of individuals to track, you must have the appropriate computer software.

There are many brands of such software, some is free, some is expensive, but don’t buy on the basis of cost. Select the software that will allow you the best use of the data you will collect. And don’t try to design your own — unless you’re a fundraising database expert, you don’t know what information to collect and how to arrange it.

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Have a question about starting or expanding your fundraising? Email me at AskDCA@Major-Capital-Giving.com. With over 30 years of counseling in major gifts, capital campaigns, bequest programs and the planning studies to precede these three, we’ll work to answer your question.

1. If a mechanism you’re using to raise funds for your programs/operations is called the “Annual Fund,” and if you solicit the same constituency more than once each year, then a response you’re likely to get from donors is, “I already gave this year.”

You may not hear them say it but, for sure, many of them will be thinking it.
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2. I’ve met many board members, executive directors and development staff who believe that it “isn’t nice” to ask people for money more than once a year. That means that those folks are uncomfortable asking for money, which makes them (want to) believe that there’s something socially improper about doing so.

To them, “begging” bears a stigma, and they believe their friends will avoid them if they “bother” them too often !! These folks are often identifiable by the emphasis they put on writing grant applications — the more, the better.

Hey, I’ve also met many folks in the non-profit sector who believe that asking for money, even once a year, is tacky/low-class/shameful/etc. Those people hire development staff to bring in the money … so they won’t have to !!
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3. The Annual Fund folks at the vast majority of colleges and universities are the least experienced people on the development staff. Why do you suppose that is ??

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Have a question about starting or expanding your fundraising? Email me at AskDCA@Major-Capital-Giving.com. With over 30 years of counseling in major gifts, capital campaigns, bequest programs and the planning studies to precede these three, we’ll work to answer your question.

After thirty years in the non-profit sector, I often find myself questioning, not what we do, but how we label what we do — and how those labels often limit us. The best example of that concept, I believe, is the label “Annual Fund.”

It seems as if, for as long as there have been formal development programs, there have been “Annual Funds.” Each year, goals are set, development staff gears up for another year of activity, constituents get letters and/or phone calls asking for a gift, development staff worries about making/exceeding their goals and they look forward to the end of the fiscal year, when they can put it all to bed and take a deep breath….

While going through this process, however, we are sending the wrong message, not only to our constituents, but also to ourselves. The message is that we should only ask for one gift per donor per year, and that the donor should only give once each year !

Somehow that seems contrary to what fundraising is all about.

By focusing on the (single) annual gift, we and our constituents lose sight of why the giving is important — what and who it supports. People become focused on the process, not on the reason for the process.

Let’s name the process (of raising money on a fiscal year basis) in honor of a founding member of our organization, after the organization itself, or what the funds support, but no more “Annual Fund.”

Let’s not allow what we call an activity to limit what we can accomplish via that activity. And let’s not stifle the creativity that takes us beyond mere process.

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Have a question about starting or expanding your fundraising? Email me at AskDCA@Major-Capital-Giving.com. With over 30 years of counselling in major gifts, capital campaigns, bequest programs and the planning studies to precede these three, we’ll work to answer your question.

MYTH: Every Board Member must make an “example-setting” major gift.

REALITY: Every Board Member must set an example by giving to the best of his/her ability. Even a dollar (if that’s all s/he can afford) will help demonstrate, to other potential (individual and institutional) funders, that every Board Member has “supported” their organization. Keep in mind that other funders would have less reason/motivation to give, if they see that an organization does not have 100%, wholehearted, Board Member participation.

MYTH: The Board is responsible, in some way, for the networking, cultivating and soliciting of 80-90% of a NPO’s charitable income.

REALITY: The Board is responsible for providing a mechanism to fund any budget that they approve. Board Members could assume actual responsibility for giving and getting; They could vote to authorize creation of a volunteer group, the members of which would accept responsibility for giving and getting; and/or, They could authorize the creation of one-or-more staff positions that would be responsible for generating income — not necessarily limited to charitable gifts.

MYTH: Hiring a staff “fundraiser” or creating a separate volunteer fundraising body means that the Board doesn’t have to have a role in the fundraising process.

REALITY: Everything that a Board does can impact the organization’s ability to do fundraising. Board Members may not all be major donors, and may not all be involved in the identification, cultivation and solicitation of donors, but all Board Members do have to be involved. Their level of involvement makes a statement to others as to their level of commitment…. Sometimes, what they don’t do also makes a statement.

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Have a question about starting or expanding your fundraising? Email me at AskDCA@Major-Capital-Giving.com. With over 30 years of counselling in major gifts, capital campaigns, bequest programs and the planning studies to precede these three, we’ll work to answer your question.

In her recent (April 16) blog, “To Lead” vs. “To Manage” (see: https://staging.management.org/blogs/leadership/), Julia Fabris McBride observed that “Organizations need leadership AND management.”

That made me realize that … up to now, I’ve been talking about fundraising from the perspective of “management – the role of the director of development – managing the volunteer leaders who will be responsible for actually making “it” happen. The DOD is the manager who supports, encourages and trains an organization’s fundraising leaders.

The fundraising “Leader” is someone who sets an example; and, by that example, gets others to want to become donors/advocates/leaders for a non-profit organization.

The fundraising leader:
1. Helps identify other potential leaders/donors;
2. Conveys to those individuals the depth of his feeling/passion
for the organization and its mission;
3. Exhibits the satisfaction that she gets from seeing how people
are helped by what the organization does;
4. Helps to make all that possible with his contributions; and,
5. Gets the prospective donor to where she wants to share in
those feelings.

The fundraising leader should not be seen as a “fundraiser.” S/he is a visible example of how a potential donor can share in the warm-and-fuzzies of being part of something really satisfying.

Don’t get me wrong !! At some point it will be time for the “leader” to ask for the gift, but one of my favorite “rules” is that the leader should not ask for the gift until the donor is ready to say, “Yes.”

And you’re thinking that it’s easy for me to say that, but you’re wondering how easy that is in reality. Want to know, stay tuned. Have specific questions to ask, ask’em.

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Have a question about starting or expanding your fundraising? Email me at AskDCA@Major-Capital-Giving.com. With over 30 years of counselling in major gifts, capital campaigns, bequest programs and the planning studies to precede these three, we’ll work to answer your question.

Let me start with who you shouldn’t hire: your buddy, someone who’s been “active” in the community, a “popular” person, or someone who just got out of banking or marketing. Dismiss all the thoughts/suggestions that first come to mind.

This is serious stuff.

The best directors of development are those who have served in various positions in development, have “worked their way up” – and have made a real effort to learn what development/fundraising is all about. They need not be experts in all areas, but they must be great organizers/planners.

In 30+ years in development, I’ve met lots of D.O.D.s. And, what’s scary, is that so many of them weren’t people people. Too many wanted to sit at a desk, do paper work, and go home at 5 o’clock. Since development is about relationships, pick someone who is comfortable working with people, and who makes people comfortable working with him/her.

And, since s/he is going to get lots of grief trying to move board and staff to “do it differently,” it’ll have to be a strong person.

Of course it has to be someone who is (or can become) committed to the NPO’s mission, and can be creative about figuring out how to “sell” what the NPO is and does.

Smarts wouldn’t hurt. S/he must be able to step back and see the organization from the perspective of the donor. S/he must be objective, able to see the NPO’s weaknesses as well as its strengths, and must (often) be able to show the donor how his/her support can convert the former to the latter.

A college degree doesn’t make a director of development, but s/he has to be a self-starter and must have an (almost a compulsive) need to see a project through to completion.

And, from personal experience, the one criterion I put at the top of the list when screening DOD candidates, does s/he like puzzles/games?

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Have a question about starting or expanding your fundraising? Email me at AskDCA@Major-Capital-Giving.com. With over 30 years of counselling in major gifts, capital campaigns, bequest programs and the planning studies to precede these three, we’ll work to answer your question.