Non-profit fundraising strategy: Deciding where your organisation ‘fits’

A lot of non-profit charitable organisations I’ve worked with take a scatter-gun approach to fundraising: Anything that has worked for another non-profit seems like a good new tactic to pursue.

The result can be a fundraising program that lacks goals and lacks focus, and a fundraising staff that doesn’t know what to do next. Not a good situation to be in!

A non-profit that is results-oriented in its projects AND its fundraising stems from clear-headed leadership and a willingness to make decisions that, to the inexperienced, may look ‘limiting’.

I don’t mean to say that any charity should turn down donations from almost any source! I do think, however, that investing staff and resources in logically-chosen fundraising areas makes good, simple sense. Spending time and money on every fundraising idea that comes along, regardless of its relevance to your organisation and your cause, shows a lack of discipline and a lack of confidence.

One example: The large number of charities that have hopped onto the Facebook and Twitter bandwagons - expecting donation revenue, but having no clue what they will do next. Do they have something interesting to say to a social network? Will they have anything new to say next week? Do they have people who are able (and internally permitted) to represent the organisation online? Are they comfortable with people commenting about the organisation, outside their control? Are online networkers interested in their cause?

I know of several charities who can only answer ‘no’ to all of these questions, yet their budget-worried managers have heard about “that online fundraising thing” and can’t help themselves. 

The result? An online presence that conveys poor planning, poor communications and no followers. Oh - and of course - no donations. So these ‘online fundraising projects’ are regarded as failures, all the while distracting staff from areas of proven fundraising success.

Stop the insanity!

This blog post at The Foundation Center links a great article from the Stanford Social Innovation review.  The article outlines a list of fundraising strategic models derived from examinging America’s bigger charities. The list is a bit too narrow and short to include something relevant for every small- to mid-sized NGO, but the underlying ideas are thought-provoking and important.

Kiva: making microfinance personal

Everyone has seen charity advertising that uses images of unfortunate people in difficult situations. Sometimes we react to these images by donating, yet often we react by shutting the images out, thinking “these people are fake examples, and my money will be wasted by the organisation before it gets to a needy person.”

If the last quote sounds like you, check out Kiva.

Kiva is a brilliant concept: Connect people who are trying to escape poverty directly with people who care - and who can afford small donations or investments to help others. This is ‘microfinance’ or ‘micro-lending’ - arranging tiny loans to real people who can’t get finance or credit from any traditional source.

At Kiva you can see a list of people and groups, located in countries around the world. Each one has a story and is asking for a specific amount of money to help complete a project or goal.

You can simply register at Kiva, then start contributing to small loans for the people whose stories, locations, ambitions or situations are interesting to you. Later you can see the difference that your involvement makes, via updates from the recipient.

If you are not one to give hand-outs to people in need (for whatever bizarre reason), note that Kiva is not about pure charity: the transactions are loans. When the loan is repayed, you can reinvest - possibly with the same borrower who has already proved that your investment and their efforts were not fruitless.