Posts Tagged ‘planning’

So, you want new donors?  You want to make sure that you keep getting funds from the donors you currently have?  What are you doing to make sure that both of these things are happening?  If you lack a strategy and purposeful intent to cultivate and maintain a donor base, you will certainly have money troubles.  “Form it and they will give” doesn’t work well for many nonprofits.  Here are three things to consider to cultivate and maintain an active donor base:

1)  A Compelling Purpose.

You need a compelling purpose.  Are you doing anything that a donor might want to support financially?  Are you providing your community with services that are indeed needed?  If a donor can relate to, or is interested in, the services your nonprofit provides, the donor is more likely to be happy giving to that cause.  If there are many other nonprofits in your community that are providing the same services, you will have to try harder to differentiate your organization from the other nonprofits.

Maybe your purpose IS compelling…to you.   You understand things about the need for your program that the public doesn’t easily grasp.  For example, the need being met by a homeless shelter is pretty obvious.  If, on the other hand, your organization’s purpose is to research treatments for dry-eye syndrome, you are going to be challenged trying to garner wide monetary support for your efforts.  Those with the problem will jump on board, but your work is cut out for you with everyone else.  You need to understand #3 below:  communication.  But don’t skip #2.  It’s big.

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You’ve seen the news.  You know it’s tough out there.  Just this morning I saw the following headlines on my Chronicle of Philanthropy RSS feed:  “Charitable Donations Fell by Nearly 6% in 2008″, “Ford Foundation Offers Buyouts to One-Third of Employees”, and “Robert Wood Johnson (Foundation) Offers Buyout to 40% of its Employees”.  Tough stuff indeed.  I’m sure that you have your own stories about what the current economic situation has meant to your family and friends.  So, the question is this:  Is there any way to survive, maybe even thrive, in such circumstances?  We resoundingly say, “Yes!”  Consider this your 2009 Nonprofit Survival Guide.

First off, stop listening to the news.  I mean it…turn it off.  I’m not advocating locking yourself into a cave and shutting out the world.  But, the constant drumbeat of negativity takes its toll on you after a while.  I saw a great sign on a realty office near my home the other day.  It said, “We have decided not to participate in this recession.”  What a great message!  The half-empty folks driving by no doubt scoff at such a sign and call it denial.  I call it taking responsibility for your own success.  The facts around them may not have changed, but at least for this one realty office in Mt. Juliet, Tennessee, they aren’t making excuses.  So what about you?  Yes, it’s harder to win than to lose.  But you have people (or animals or something) that need what your organization brings.  Determine to make it.

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