Comments on: What stops fundraising success? Enter the contest and find out!

By: admin

admin — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 16:45:55 +0000

Gianni,

Yep, you’re right that you’re a little off topic. Sounds like you’re trying to pay for improvements to the house and also pay off the mortgage. Without a 501(c)3, many of the ideas on this blog may not be helpful to you. You might think about asking a local church to help out – maybe a large spaghetti dinner or a yard sale would generate some money. Unless you find an angel who will give you that much money, I don’t know of a way to generate that much money in a short period of time. Good luck with whatever you decide to do!

Sandy

By: Gianni Capp

Gianni Capp — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 04:59:01 +0000

I need help, and I need it rather expeditiously. I have been trying to fund a project myself, and it is not having the charitable affect I had planned. Briefly, my mom past several months ago and I am her only son. I am therefore in charge of her small estate. The most significant is a one-family home that has a very small mortgage left. I was originally going to sell; however, while having some friends help me clean out the house a rather melancholy topic arose. Some of my friends asked if they could stay in the house. I knew the reason why. They were both out of work, and were unable to sell their home because of the economy.
I was rather excited to do this for my friends and his family. A week later, another request came along. Again, I had no problem with the request, and this time, tears actually flowed. Tears knowing how many of my friends were losing everything, while I also out of work did not have the overwhelming concerns of a family. Anyway, while sharing our nightly dinner, I had the idea to lightly fix the house and continue supporting these families.
I started with the small and obvious first. I wanted the families that stayed to feel secure and safe, and I wanted them to have a sense of space. Of course with any kind of home improvement, it does not stay small for long. Granted the labor is not a problem as everyone at the house is more than willing to do a full days work. The problem I am foreseeing is financial.
I know this is probably way off topic for this blog, but I figured with the information on fund raising, I felt assured someone would be able steer me in the proper direction. My two key variables are time; I am leaving the state in June for employment reasons and a total of one hundred and sixty thousand dollars. For that amount, I will be able to complete the plans suggested by the families and put loosely planned by the engineer.
In short, I apologize for the long-winded introduction. I however, cannot discuss this topic without excess enthusiasm and child like eagerness. Regardless, I am open to any suggestions, comments, and criticism, but please, keep the latter to a minimum. I don’t care if I fail. I have done so many times in my life., but failing on this project means families, and now friends will have to worry about something no one should have to—that is, how to tell their kids that they do not have a place to sleep.
A brief note: I have already tried the loan route. Apparently banks, even ones that are failing themselves, do not like to lend money to people who are not working. Hmm. Go figure! Thank to all.

By: Sarah E.

Sarah E. — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 15:39:37 +0000

I have to repeat what my sisters and brothers have said: not enough time! I am excited to say we have just hired a half-time business manager at my organization and I have high hopes that I can do a job I’m proud of when I don’t have to do the books as well.

By: Barbara Kruze

Barbara Kruze — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 14:15:14 +0000

I started in January and before me there was no development department to speak of, whatever came in came in. Now I need to start a program that will fund a new Urban Education Center. Grants seem to be the popular idea of the committee and we will try that avenue, but individual and corporate donors will need to be found and I am development. Sometimes I feel I am going in circles, researching, creating plans, attending programs to learn more ideas on how to be successful. I need to touch base with the current donor base, but I will need more than that. I am hoping what I read, people are more apt to continue to help organizations that help marginalized children, which this will do by instilling a desire to learn and to show families how to succeed. There are days . . .

By: Marte Cliff

Marte Cliff — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 18:26:45 +0000

As a formerly active participant in a local non-profit and a presently active fundraising copywriter trying to help small non-profits, I definitely agree that most groups don’t have the manpower they need to really get things done.

They have plenty of members who want to dictate how things are done – but not enough members willing to actually do the work. This appears to be a universal problem.

I also agree that all non-profits need a website – one that’s easy to navigate, clearly shows how the group spends money to make something better, and has donate buttons on every page. That is so easy with pay pal that there’s no reason not to have it.

That said, I see the biggest problems as: 1) Fundraising letters that focus on the group and “I need” rather than on the donor and what they’ll get out of it when they contribute. Not inviting donors to feel like a part of something.

2) Not mailing often enough, not sharing enough success stories, and not actually ASKING for the money, help, etc.

3) Not keeping an up to date database of donors, past and present.

4) Not getting behind members who want to try a new fundraising event – or worse, squashing their ideas before they’ve been fully considered.

5) The REALLY BIG one – not sending Thank You notes immediately after a donation. This one oversight can put a group in the continual loop of trying to find new donors to replace the old ones. If you don’t say thank you, why should they give again? They shouldn’t, and most won’t.

By the way, those thank you’s should also go out to people who donate time and energy – or space for your event – not just those who donate money.

One last thing – I have observed our local group now for 7 years, and I see a continual turnover of volunteers. They start out enthused and ambitious, but soon the negative influence of a few board members, a few back-biting gossips, and a few critics, cools the enthusiasm. And then they’re gone.

Volunteers need to be trained (to avoid all that criticism they get because they didn’t know what they were doing) and then they need to be appreciated – even if they make a mistake or two.

By: Mary Ellen Snyder

Mary Ellen Snyder — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 17:40:28 +0000

More than anything else I believe the answer is ADVERTISING….or actually the lack of it. We’ve had some great ideas and actually some great fundraisers, but I don’t believe we’re good at getting the word out. Newspaper ads are too expensive and have to be run more than once to be effective, making and printing flyers is expensive but more doable, but just getting flyers out is where we drop the ball. I can’t run all over the county posting flyers and just don’t seem to have enough help to do it. I’m away for the winter right now, but have an idea I’d like to try when I get home. I’d like to have an advertising plan where we have one volunteer assigned to a certain town in our rural county. It would be their job to post 10-20 flyers for every event we want advertised. Getting better coverage and getting it out early should help make our fundraisers more successful. If we can get flyers out into locations where sooner or later almost everyone in that town will see them, I think we have a good shot at increasing our participation.

By: Cause Blogger Questions of the Week

Cause Blogger Questions of the Week — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 16:15:27 +0000

[...] Sandy Rees asks: What stops fundraising success? [...]

By: Dana Camacho

Dana Camacho — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 15:48:59 +0000

The thing is, I feel like I’ve been in the fundraising biz long enough to know the basics and to execute them well. We have a carefully crafted message, we communicate effectively, we acknowledge promptly and often, and we strive to build real relationships with our donors. All of the gloom and doom about the economy is really bringing us down. Since the corporate sector was hit hard, the 50% of our funding that we get from corporations was hit hard too. The individual donors we have – all periodontists – are having to lay off office staff they’ve had for 20 years because they can’t book their appointments to fill the week. People are hurting financially, and I feel like the best thing we can do at this point is continue to build on those relationships. I’m focusing on more donor intimacy, more personal thank-yous to those who are able to give, and walking a fine line between empathizing with peoples’ situations and dwelling on the sorry state of things. And reminding people that bequests are an easy way to help without any immediate financial outlay!

Finally, since we’re all stuck in this pessimistic rut, our volunteers don’t want to ask anyone for money, because they’re all convinced this is such a bad time to ask. Motivating those volunteers to action is a big hurdle for us.

By: Vikki Baptiste

Vikki Baptiste — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 14:16:10 +0000

While I feel I have all the training and expertise needed to bring in the donations and grants, I just don’t have the time to cover everything that I need to cover!

As the sole being in the development “department”, I can’t believe how much time is spent reporting to my supervisor and following up on requests for input/information from program staff. I think the reason for the constant reporting is that I don’t have any buy-in with the Board and do not attend management meetings. Those two things alone could increase my productivity.

I don’t get any sympathy, just “it’s part of your evaluation, so you need to get it done”.

By: Tamra Taylor

Tamra Taylor — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 18:47:45 +0000

The lack of a “donate now” button on our website hinders our fundraising abilities. We have to make it easy/convenient for our donors and keep up with technology.