A plan to get your next long-term partner
The Earth has 196,940,000 square miles of total surface area, and unless you have a teleportation device, your fundraising team can’t cover it all.
The most convenient place to look for new donors is on your street, around the corner, and other places within your city or state.
As with those who desire fresh vegetables, it’s best to stay local to get what you want.
Unlike fresh vegetables, money won’t conveniently spring up from the ground. You need to be proactive to get new donors. Here are five steps to help you locate more money in your area.
Make a list of donation types
*see a good list here to reference
You may have landed in a certain donation model by default. Revisit the list and see if you are heading in the right direction or if you may need to add a bigger mix of income models to grow at the rate you really want to.
Pinpoint your top donors
Take the time to understand where your top donors come from. Many of us in the non-profit world will gain a major gift or partner and not look for the learning:
Who are your top individual donors?
Who are your current partners and organizational sponsors?
What is your top revenue source besides these two?
You can often find patterns in where these top donors come from. Maybe you have a great board that brings in new people regularly. Maybe you have a strong year-end event with an evergreen list of new attendees.
Maybe you’ve run a great PR campaign to recruit people from churches or associations that have a similar heart.
Whatever you are finding, make sure to document it for the next steps.
Think of a new type of ask
Do you only ask for money?
It’s time to change that. There are at least three ways to alter the way you ask for help. See this blog post for more information.
In the meantime, make these two changes right away:
Don’t ask for money; ask for advice
Much like people love to hear their name, they also like to be asked for advice. We find that some of the coolest connections for new partners are made when you go to someone on your list above with a genuine intent to ask for advice.
If you ARE going to ask for money, ask specifically
Don’t just ask for general donations. Ask for a certain amount of money for a certain thing you are going to buy.
For some reason, non-profits only do this for capital campaigns. Why?
People respond to details. When you are vague, it just feels lazy and maybe even shady. So make mini campaigns throughout the year for small financial goals.
A great example is a group that needed to buy 36 backpacks filled with school supplies for students. Instead of asking for $2,412, they asked for $67 to fill up and buy ONE backpack.
Do you know how much money they received in response? $12,348!
As one of our mentors says “Clarity is kindness.”
Get ready to add some events
Do you hold events?
If you do, consider adding some smaller events where you invite people to have fun. Give them an opportunity to hit some golf balls or see a movie in a private theatre. These are relatively cheap and they get you IN FRONT of donors.
Most every person I speak to at non-profits tells me the same thing: “If you can just get me in front of them, I can get money!”
Here is your chance.
Get support
It’s hard to raise money on your own, but you don’t have to do it by yourself. Enlist a partner who can help you get past the hurdle you keep hitting your foot on. Stop falling down and run like a champ!
Here are two ways you can do that:
Schedule a Call and hire us to find your next donor for you.
