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How to End Fundraising Worries Forever

Development, mostly in the guise of fundraising, ends up consuming lots of staff time and money. Fundraisers often come up short on donations, grants, and in-kind contributions. Often the shortfall is minor, but sometimes the deficits are serious enough to reduce the organization's effectiveness. Some lateral thinking might be the key to avoiding those chronic funding challenges.

What can be done? Plenty of options exist. Hiring fundraising consultants or recruiting more volunteer fundraisers constitute two popular options. This post is simply a call for more flexibility in thinking about what your organization needs and how to get it.

When it comes to ending fundraising worries forever, there are three basic approaches:

1. Develop a reliable system for generating more donations.
2. Cut costs.
3. Find new ways to secure resources.

Option #3 offers the most room for innovation, so that will be the focus here. (I'll come back to 1 and 2 in future posts, as lateral thinking can help there as well.)

New resources can be secured in several ways:

1. Look for a new category of potential donors.
2. Find new sources of in-kind contributions.
3. Create a new way to generate revenue (business ventures, levels of membership, et cetera)
4. Leverage strategic partnerships to get more advertising or more work space.
5. Establish cause marketing partnerships.

All five of those strategies can be used to leverage the organization's people, money, and credit to get better results. So, how exactly can each of those strategies be put into use? A little brainstorming will reveal some possibilities. Here are some specific ideas:

1. Spend five minutes writing down specific types of people the organization has never deliberately engaged with before, then pick one.
2. Spend five minutes writing down everything the organization needs to be most effective, including professional services and equipment. Then, spend a few minutes writing down area businesses that might be approached to provide that need in exchange for some free advertising.
3. Brainstorm ways to generate revenue by selling a product or service. Do not restrict yourself to realistic things at this point. You can tone things down later.
4. Take a few minutes to list area nonprofits that you might be able to cooperate AND projects or programs on which it might make sense to collaborate. You don't need to match partners and projects now, but it would be helpful if you can do so.
5. What businesses might be encouraged to cooperate with your nonprofit on a fundraising effort or advocacy campaign? Spend a few minutes listing the possibilities, with a focus on area businesses that might have a logical connection to your organization's goals. Are you running a homeless shelter and food bank? The local Trader Joe's might make a good partner for a holiday advertising campaign.
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