A challenge in fundraising

I have caught myself saying many times that if fundraising at my current organization was easy, then I would be bored at not happy. I have always loved the challenge that come with fundraising, whether the economy is tough or I fundraise for a cause that is not well known, I love the challenge.

There is a difference between challenge and desperation.

I can be as successful as the next person with creative fundraising campaigns, energetic meetings with donors, constantly in communication with everyone who supports the organization and bringing in new corporate and individual partners.

Yet the first question I have to ask is whether or not my organization is viable. Is it financially sustainable? Standing alone, a sole fundraiser cannot change the financial direction of an organization. That takes a team which includes a strong development team, an out of the box thinking Executive Director, a staff that gets it and a board that is 100% committed not solely to the mission but to the viability of the organization.

And just to be clear, if you do not have all of that in your current organization is doesn't mean you are doomed to fail. It simply means that the challenge you were hoping for is full throttle and one that cannot be met with your fundraising skills alone.

What I have found that is so important in viability is having honest conversations with the most generous donors of an organization. Long term donors want to keep giving and in many cases want to give more. Yet they need to know that their money is not being wasted. That the organization is going to be around in the next five to ten years (and more!).

I have also found that it is important from a fundraising perspective that long term donors see new donors coming in, that all of any challenges are not only being met by the same people who have always been there. I would say that this means not only individual donors but includes major donors and new corporate partners.

Show me the money before I show you the money, in other words.

I totally get this. It makes complete sense.

I am going to continue writing on this topic for a while and would love your feedback. And ideas. And experiences. Feel free to leave a comment or email me directly at dhanley@operacolorado.org

Thank you very much for reading!

Be yourself!

Those of you who have been reading for a few months know that in April I started a new fundraising job. After 2 1/2 years at my last agency I decided to take a move and after one month there I am beyond ecstatic with this new opportunity.

Fundraising for Free! has been a great opportunity for me to share about my experiences with fundraising and share ideas that don't cost anything (or very little). My hope is to build a community of fundraisers who learn from each other and who change the world as we raise money for groups near and dear to our hearts.

I write often about the importance of face-to-face meetings with donors, as well as the importance of always working to build an even stronger relationship with your donors. One thing that I have recently learned with my new job (and have tried to do in my fundraising life) is to be myself when speaking with donors or supporters.

The photo here is one of my husband and I (I'm on the left. I know, my husband is handsome. :) ). We were married on April 30, 2005. I wanted to write this post about being yourself because in the last month I have had conversations with people I have just met and have spoken about my marriage. Regardless of the opinion around gay marriage of the donor/supporter, in each instance I have walked away having a better relationship with that donor. Some have even written a note and some Twitter followers have told me "good job" for being out about my marriage on Twitter.

This post is not about promoting gay marriage. It is everything about bringing the 100% you to the table when meeting with donors.

Another example is that when having a meal with a donor they inevitably discover that I am vegan. Questions are asked and through that process we get to know each other even better.

The other night I discovered that the donor I was dining with was a Civil War buff. Me too! What a great way to get closer to a donor.

Let your passion and yourself out and you will thrive!

From HIV and AIDS to the Opera

I have fallen behind in my goal to post one blog a week.

This blog is pretty much only about me moving from one fundraising position to another. Oh, and a brief note about donors!

Since my last blog I have accepted a position with Opera Colorado as their new Associate Director of Development. Completely different world than where I am at now, and I am super excited.

I don't know who actually said this or studied the data, but I have heard that the average length of time at an agency for Development Directors is 1 1/2 years. I have been at Boulder County AIDS Project for 2 1/2. I am definitely preparing to leave with hardcore emotion. I have been privileged to fundraise for an agency that supports those living with HIV or AIDS and to support amazing HIV prevention work.

Now I'll be in the arts. Many new adventures to come. Many new experiences to come. And I will share it all here.

While I prepare to leave BCAP, I am grateful to have formed so many wonderful relationships with donors. I realize that I write about donors a lot, and will most likely continue doing that as I am one who believes that your agency's donors are your agency's lifeblood.

Get to know them. Thank them. Tell them how you are spending their money. Have a board member drop them a note.

Off to meet with a donor! Until next time!

The all-important donor

An old remit envelope arrived the other day. I’m always excited to receive these. Not only do we mail them out with our two annual mailings and our Annual Report, but I also pass them out everywhere I go. At our Dining Out Days (see previous posts) every table gets one. So when one arrives back it brings a smile to my face knowing that yet another person wants to invest in our vital mission.

Donors are not cash cows, are not some unknown person far, far away, nor someone who wishes to support your organization and not be informed. Informed as to whether or not you received their donation and how your organization plans on spending their money. An active donor is (or can be) the lifeblood of your organization. In most cases, they want to invest in the work you do.

Before I proceed, my definition of a donor is one who has made two or more gifts to your organization. The first gift is a donation by someone who, for some reason, has decided to support your work. It is our job as a fundraiser to make sure that person goes from someone who has made a donation to a donor.

I open the remit envelope and it is a generous gift of $100 from a current donor. I know that once the check is entered into our database the kind person will receive our official thank you letter including tax information. Yet it is still important to me that I personally thank them. So I pick up the phone and give them a ring. Thanking a donor is key. And a timely thank you is equally important. I’m sure you here this all the time. That’s great, as long as you and your organization take action on thanking people.

In the future: A few months down the road I will make another connection with this donor. For this particular donor it will be a phone call but it doesn’t really matter how. I’ll call them to let them know how we spent their money. Imagine not only being thanked for your gift but being told how the organization spent your money!

Whew! So much more to write about regarding donors. This is a good start.

The next donation you receive pick up the phone and call them. Thank them. You will not only make their day but you will build (or reinforce) a great relationship.

One last thing. At our monthly board meeting my ED passes out recent donation information so that board members can make a call or send a note to make a thank you for the gift. This not only engages the board, it also adds a special touch for the person who made the donation.

Have a Book Sale

I love books. Love them. I have always had more books than I know what to do with. At any given time I am reading two or three, and then looking at buying another one!

This past February we decided to help donors and supporters who have too many books by asking them to donate their books to us for our first ever Humongous Book Sale. What a success!

The whole idea started when one of our local business partners, Joyful Furniture, asked us if we would like to do a fundraising event during the winter. The great folks at Joyful host our annual Humongous Yard Sale, and we decided to try something new with a book sale.

The basic premise is to gather books, CDs, DVDs and vinyls and plan a sale. We called ours the Humongous Book & Media Sale. This is a great way to engage your donors and supporters as well as raise a little cash.

Before you begin to ask people for donations for the sale, find a location for the sale and try to find a location where books and other items can be dropped off. If you can collect all of the sale items at the same place where the sale will be, you will save a lot of time.

Through an email blast, Facebook, Twitter, and a simple postcard announcing the sale, we invited people to donate books and media items. Our donor and supporter base is incredibly diverse, and you could see that in the selection of items donated. We were thrilled as boxes and boxes of books were brought in. As the items began to take over space, it was time to start organizing books into categories, an organization that continued while new books arrived and made the setup for the sale much simpler.

This type of sale can be labor intensive. The less you move around the books the better.

Our volunteers were crucial to the success of this event.

The day of the sale I was blown away by the roughly 3,000 books that had been donated. In hind sight, I realize that a book sale is a bit different in a yard sale in that people take much more time looking at books. In the future I would plan an event that was longer and that stretched over two days.

I'll create a check list for your book sale in the next post.

Start thinking about whether or not this idea would work for you and your organization or cause!

A voice for the voiceless

I love being a fundraiser. If you have met me personally or have read any of my previous blog posts you probably already know this. I feel incredibly privileged to be able to fundraise for an HIV/AIDS group, more specifically, for the HIV/AIDS group I fundraise for, Boulder County AIDS Project.

BCAP, like many non-profits, support many individuals who have no voice. I call these folks "the voiceless".

The voiceless includes almost an unending list. In our case it is people with HIV of AIDS who live in poverty and people who are at risk of becoming HIV positive. It can be animals, prisoners of conscience, women, trans people, people of faith in different countries, the marginalized in this country, etc, etc.

As fundraisers, we have the amazing opportunity to help those who help give support to the voiceless. The attached photo is of a young, Iranian woman protesting last year in Baghdad. I would like to add brave and courageous to my description of her. Her hand-made sign carries a simple message. If we thought she was voiceless, she might disagree. Yet although she had a voice on this day, she most likely has not protested since the Iranian government violently crushed the protests last year.

Where does this fit in with Fundraising for Free? I'm glad you asked.

No matter the cause, no matter the location, no matter the definition of "voiceless", fundraisers have the power to help make this world a better place for all by assisting those who make the actual change. The more tools we have to fundraise, the more relevant and successful our work is. And that is where I hope my blog can help.

An example of this is a Fundraising for Free! workshop I did this past weekend at the Colorado Queer Youth Summit in Denver. A couple hundred queer youth (mainly high school students) from around the state met for speakers, workshops, and other fun activities. I was thrilled to be able to present my fundraising workshop, and to work with you on creative ideas of fundraising for causes they are passionate about, mainly for the Gay-Straight Alliances in their high schools.

These youth are ready to make change. Now they have some tools to financially support making that change.

Here's to all of you out there raising money to help make this world a better place! I am completely honored to be your peer.

Can you fundraise for free?

This is my first official blog and I am stoked to be part of this world. Of course I'm not sure if anyone will even read this, yet will be thrilled if someone does, and actually is able to raise money for their passion, without having to spend money.

I work as the Director of Development for a small HIV/AIDS agency in Boulder, CO. Our budget is under $1 million. I am always chatting with my staff about ways we can fundraise with little or no cost. Many will read this and immediately think "well, I have wanted to do the same thing with no luck". My experience is one that includes raising money without having to spend money. Not always. Of course if you do direct mail that will cost you. If you have an annual gala event, you will most likely spend money.

In the bigger picture of spending I began looking at all agency expenditures that related to development. If you are like me and come from grassroots fundraising, please know that fund-raising and development are one in the same. I don't say this to sound pious or even arrogant, but say it as to this day I am asked what I develop when I tell people that I am the Director of Development.

So here we go!

Working for a small non-profit I am always trying to increase our donor list and decrease the amount of lapsed donors. A lapsed donor is one that gave a couple of times or more, yet in the last year or so has not given. Different agencies probably have different amounts of time that put a donor in the lapsed category. For me, if a donor gave up until 2008 and did not give in 2009, they are a lapsed donor.

A great idea to make a little money, add donors, and work at decreasing lapsed donors is to have a Dining Out Night. Most likely you have been to one of these: a non-profit you support invites you to dine at a local restaurant and a portion of your meal ticket goes directly to the non-profit.

Can I really do this for free?

Tune in next time!

Thank you so much for reading this. I look forward to getting to know many new people as I commence my journey into the world of blogging.