Is Your Board On Board?

November 15, 2010 Leave a comment

So you’ve decided to fundraise but the Board still aren’t convinced that it’s worth it?  How do you get them behind you? 

Fundraising is a long game.  There aren’t any quick wins but often it’s seen as the way to earn a fast buck.  It isn’t and you need to spell this out to your board.  Fundraising is about relationship building and that doesn’t happen overnight.  Often a board member – or other staff in your organisation – will see you working for months for very little return.  What they don’t see is that with every event, every meeting, every phone call, you’re building relationships and networks, getting your organisation’s name out there and helping to make people understand your organisation when there may have been no awareness before. 

It’s difficult to quantify this and, as a result, board members often feel that it’s not worth the effort.  But you have to speculate to accumulate for most things and fundraising is no different. 

You can’t expect it to be cost free either.  Now I’m not suggesting that you break the bank to try to raise your target but you will need to make some investment in fundraising, even if it’s only the cost of the time of the person doing the fundraising whether that’s an employee, a freelance fundraiser or a fundraising consultancy. 

If you are having trouble convincing your board, set out clear objectives (preferably SMART – specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time bound) which they can see you making tangible progress against.  You should factor in: 

  • How much you need and what it will fund
  • How you will raise the money e.g from trusts, companies, individuals – and how you are going to do this e.g. direct mail,
  • The timeframe you hope to do this in,
  • How many people you expect to meet,
  • How many approaches you intend to make,
  • How many proposals you will submit and so on – and you can’t expect all of them to pay off.  You may need to make approaches to twice as many prospects as those who finally end up becoming donors – and this is a conservative estimate.  It could be many more. 

 However, once you’ve started to grow your fundraising, you will have a base of donors who will not only convince others that you are a worthy cause simply by their association, but who will introduce you to their peers, lend their weight to appeals and, ultimately, continue to support your organisation over the years, provided you continue to deliver the goods and look after your donors.

Are you having difficulty convincing others in your organisation that fundraising is a worthwhile investment?  Or have you managed to overcome their concerns?

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Fundraising – where do I start?

November 12, 2010 Leave a comment

For many organisations, fundraising is an area that they’ve either never exploited or only dabbled in but, particularly with the current squeeze on resources due to the recession, senior managers and trustees are starting to recognise the need to increase their funding from different areas.  However, a mistake that’s often made is simply to look at the shortfall in your income and assume that it can be filled by fundraising.  Sometimes it can but often, you need to think more creatively about your approach. 

Operational or core costs are difficult to raise through fundraising and sponsorship (although not impossible) so how can you incorporate them into an interesting, value adding project?  Or can you divert some project funds into core and raise funds for some of your activity instead?  You may suddenly need to find a £10,000 shortfall but you can’t assume that you can automatically change one type of funding for another. 

  • Look at all your programmes. 
  • Is there something in there that may appeal more to a donor? 
  • Is there an aspect of work that is entrepreneurial, will increase capacity for your organisation or help you to reach more people or meet a problem in a different way?

Perhaps it’s these areas that you should try to find funding for.  

What have you found to be effective when planning your fundraising?

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Different sector experience can help fundraisers see the bigger picture

November 10, 2010 Leave a comment

I often find that there is an assumption that if you’ve worked in one sector, the skills are not transferable to another – and this isn’t necessarily the case.  The principles of major gift, individual or trust fundraising are the same in an environmental charity as they are in an arts organisation.  The organisational structure may be different, the projects will vary and the donors may be different (although not necessarily) but the methods employed to encourage donations tend to be the same. 

You still need to be clear about what you want funding for, how much you need and what it will be used for.  You will need to make a robust case for support that captures the imagination of donors, demonstrates why you are the best organisation to deliver your particular project and helps your project stand out from the rest of the applications. 

Often, it helps if someone does come in from another sector, casting a fresh eye on your approach to fundraising (or marketing or governance) bringing with them new ideas that are equally applicable to your organisation and sector as they have been to another but perhaps have never been tried in your sector before. 

I worked with a marketing consultant on a fundraising and marketing strategy for an arts client.  The marketing consultant had never worked with a not-for-profit or in the arts before so the client initially started out with concerns that he would not be able to understand their marketing needs. However, the result was a marketing strategy that got them thinking differently, encouraged their creativity and saw them employing new ideas to engage with audiences. 

At the end of the day, employing a fundraiser or bringing in a consultant is the decision of the organisation but don’t narrow your field of choices simply because they haven’t gained their experience in your particular field.  Chances are if they’ve been successful in one sector, they’re likely to be successful in yours.

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The Kitchen Table Entrepreneur

November 8, 2010 Leave a comment

I’ve just realised that I am officially (and literally) a kitchen table entrepreneur – mainly because, after working for a few months in the home office, I began to slowly migrate to the kitchen one book at a time.  First of all, I’d use the kitchen table when I needed more space, using it to spread out books when I was writing or review reports, proposals and strategy documents I’d prepared by laying them out across the table, red pen at the ready. 

Before I knew it, my laptop, books, phone and stationery had all set up permanent residence at one end of the table.  My takeover was complete when I bought a shelving unit for the kitchen which has storage for all my work things. 

However, fed up with shuffling things away at the end of every working day, I’ve finally bitten the bullet and ordered a fold-away desk from IKEA that will fit into the kitchen-diner so my laptop can stay there for good. 

I’m still not sure that I will completely manage to wrestle myself away from the large, solid, kitchen table though.  We’ve become rather attached over the past two years.  It’s large enough to spread out all of my work things and has a view of the garden – which is perfect when I need space to think. 

Perhaps the new desk can wait a bit longer…

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Fundraising as a Career

November 5, 2010 Leave a comment

Out of all the careers you could choose, why would you choose fundraising?  The hours can be long; donors can be demanding; targets can be tough to reach; and potential donors can often say no.

On the other hand, you will have the opportunity to work with people from across your organisation to develop and deliver projects; you can use your creativity to solve problems, craft proposals and ‘make the ask’; you will gain a vast amount of skills – from event management to proposal writing, negotiating to data management – and everything in between.  No two days are ever the same and you have the chance to meet some truly fascinating people – from those who work in different areas of your particular organisation, to your volunteers and donors who come from a range of backgrounds and experiences.

I originally set out to work in arts administration (after finally admitting to myself that I was never going to be an actress!).  My first ever experience of fundraising was being asked to write an application to the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation (or Charitable Trust as it was then) to help the touring theatre company I worked for equip their new accommodation.  It was 1994 and when they sent the cheque for £12,000 it was my first taste of fundraising success! 

I then had various arts administration jobs, where I also dealt with trust applications and sponsorship alongside everything else.  It wasn’t until 1996, when I landed a job in a post-1992 university Development Office, that fundraising became the main element of my work. 

It was a very different landscape to now.  While most of the older, more established universities had been fundraising for some time, the post ‘92’s were playing catch up.  And internally, we were very much seen as a novelty by many of our academic colleagues.  One of the offices I worked in was funded by top slicing all of the departmental budgets to be able to afford to set up our department.  Needless to say, we  had to work hard to get our colleagues on board and it wouldn’t be a lie to say that was a difficult task – although we did achieve it in the end (due in no small part to raising our campaign target two years ahead of schedule). 

Fast forward 14 years and it’s a very different situation with universities young and old having Development Offices focused on proactively engaging with a range of high net worth individuals, trusts and the corporate sector. 

On a personal level, I’ve moved from fundraising being one of a number of tasks, to it being the main focus of my career, as I now work as a fundraising consultant.  But I’m glad that I made the move into fundraising and that I followed my particular career path.  Working a variety of organisations, large and small, has meant that I understand where many clients, particularly those without fundraising staff, are coming from and how best they can resource their fundraising to sustain their future income generation.

Do you think you would like to become a fundraiser?  What’s stopping you?  Or have you been a fundraiser and decided to move into a different field?  If so, how has your experience helped you to do that?

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Think Big, Be Ambitious with your fundraising

November 3, 2010 Leave a comment

The best fundraising projects are often those that are viewed as the most challenging.  Perhaps they have an ambitious target or maybe they’re complicated in terms of delivery or diversity?  Whatever the reasons, I’ve found that it is usually the most ambitious projects that are the best – and most successful – to fundraise for. 

Often, people are scared to be too ambitious when developing their projects, worrying that they won’t be able to raise the income target, so they scale it down to the point where it has a small reach, no future sustainability and is unlikely to make much impact.  Rather than making it easier to fundraise for, by reducing the scope and scale of a project you can hamstring your fundraising efforts. 

The project that started off as a request for a new museum grade bookcase to house manuscripts had limited donor appeal but, by working with the archivist, we developed the project into an exhibition.  It was five times more expensive but had a far broader reach in terms of visitors, especially as it included a spin off education pack and a dedicated website, as well as an interactive exhibition.  This more ambitious and more costly project was far easier to fundraise for as donors could clearly see the benefits of bringing the exhibition to a broader audience, as opposed to simply storing the books and manuscripts more effectively.

Similarly, there was the exhibition sponsorship deal that included: a complementary fashion exhibition, a demonstration of ancient tapestry techniques and grand opening featuring Jodie Marsh, designer Scott Henshall and a few hundred thousand pounds worth of diamonds.  All of these aspects were added by the sponsor and, while they meant extra work to deliver the sponsorship, the added value led to a higher cash contribution by the sponsor, excellent press coverage and box office breaking attendance figures. 

I’m not suggesting that you run wild with your fundraising and grow your projects so large that you are unable to manage or sustain them but try taking an entrepreneurial approach – think more creatively and look at the many different aspects of your project and what they could bring in terms of new audiences, potential funding and new partnerships.  Doing this can help increase your appeal to donors and ultimately, raise the income you need to be successful.

If you need more advice on fundraising, please get in touch for an informal discussion.  Download my Top 10 Fundraising Tips to help kick start your fundraising.

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How Can You Fundraise with Limited Resources?

October 27, 2010 Leave a comment

Well, my first piece of advice would be to download my free Top 10 Tips on Fundraising!

The limited resources in the title of this post refer to staff and time as opposed to money, as fundraising on a small scale shouldn’t cost you a huge amount of money.  It will, however, cost something, even if it’s only factoring in the time of the person delivering your fundraising needs, postage and stationery.  However, if you are intending to raise a large portion of your annual income, you really need to consider making a proper investment in fundraising by either recruiting a fundraiser or paying a freelancer to fundraise for you.  Either way, if no-one has any experience of fundraising in your organisation and you want to make this a regular aspect of your income, you should consider getting professional advice to help with your planning and organisation.

However, many small organisations need to raise money to deliver a few key projects and need to use the resources available to them to achieve this.  Perhaps you have some resources to invest in a freelance fundraiser?  Or maybe recruit a part-time member of staff?  But what if neither option applies?  In that case, you need to consider who in your organisation has the skills and time to fundraise for you.  And fundraising for your organisation will include researching potential donors; identifying key projects that you need and, as important, that will appeal to potential donors; developing a case for support for your organisation – why should a donor give funding to you, what will you use it for, how much do you need and when do you need it by; writing fundraising bids and meeting with potential donors – and of course, writing thank you letters and follow up reports.  You may have a member of staff who can take on this role – or a few who can split the workload between them.  Or perhaps you have a volunteer or board member with experience (or the willingness and necessary skills) to develop this for you? 

Where do you go from there?

My top 3 tips would be:

  1. Decide who is responsible for fundraising in your organisation – and make sure they have the time available to achieve your fundraising aims
  2. Get Organised – look at your systems and determine how they will support your fundraising (and develop some new ones for fundraising, such as looking after your donors)
  3. Make sure your messages are clear and consistent – your fundraising should sit well with your overall vision and objectives or donors won’t understand who you are and what you are aiming to achieve.

Do you have any other tips – or questions – for organisations who really are starting from scratch with no previous experience in this area?

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Planning Your Fundraising Campaign

October 22, 2010 Leave a comment

Campaigns vary in scale and aims.  A campaign is for a specific need – be it capital or revenue – and it will have a specific target and deadline.  Depending on the size of your organisation, it may mean that your fundraising campaign takes over all of your fundraising activity and, even if you are large enough to continue with other fundraising activity, a campaign will certainly provide the main focus.  Key aspects to consider are:

1. Before even going into campaign mode, test your campaign – does it fit with your overall vision and strategy.  If not, why not?  It may be that you are changing the culture of the organisation in general but this should first be reflected by a change in your organisational aims, rather than by a fundraising campaign.

 2. Test your target.  Have you any experience of fundraising?  Do you have the resources to raise this amount of money in terms of staff and board time, office systems and experience within your organisation?  Have other organisations run similar projects or tried to raise similar amounts?  Were they successful?  If not, why not?  Is there something you could do better?

 3. Review previous and current fundraising.  Look at where money has come in from the past – that may be a good starting point for future gifts.  What are you currently doing that may need to be dropped to focus on the campaign.  How will that affect the running of your organisation?

4. Review your systems and networks.  Make sure you have the capacity within your office systems and resources to devote time and energy to fundraising which is well managed and structured.  A good database; proper systems for research; good internal channels of communication – to ensure staff are informed and board members are networking effectively on your behalf; gift stewardship – i.e. what will happen when a gift is received or pledged in terms of thanking and looking after the donor; gift policy – are there particular types of donor that you are unwilling to accept donations from/if you receive shares, how will you manage them?

5. Write a plan.  Use all of the above to compose a fundraising plan for your campaign, which clearly makes the case for your campaign and outlines the structures to support it – including prospect research and information on where gifts will come from.

There are of course, many other aspects to consider when planning a fundraising campaign but these are the top priority in my mind. 

Would you add any others?  Or perhaps there are aspects you think are less important?

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Fundraising – why bother?

October 20, 2010 4 Comments

by James Cridland james.cridland.net under Creative Commons Licence

The other day, a friend told me that her organisation wasn’t going to bother fundraising.  They are a small organisation, which has had some success with trusts in the past but they don’t see the point in investing more time and resources into building their fundraising programme as they receive enough income from other sources. 

Often organisations are put off fundraising because they don’t have a fundraiser, they can get by with the other funding they have, they have a board that doesn’t want to invest in fundraising, or they simply don’t know where to start and feel it will be too much effort.

Of course, if you are in the fortunate position of having enough funding to cover your core activity through public funds and earned income, you may consider that fundraising is an additional activity that you don’t have the time or resources to invest in.  But what if your funding situation changes?  What if you need more income this year for a special project that you want to deliver?  If you have no relationships with other potential supporters – be they trusts, individuals or sponsors – it will make the task of finding additional funding infinitely more difficult.

Fundraising does require investment – time, resources and money – and it requires planning to establish how your organisation should manage and target fundraising to best suit your particular needs.  But organisations spend so much time trying to get their message out to new people all the time – be they audiences, volunteers or service users – why would they not want to use that message differently to reach people and organisations that could inevitably invest in them?

The very act of communicating with and to potential supporters will also help you to use more and different channels to get your message out.  Can this necessarily be a bad thing?  It may not only introduce you to potential donors but could result in more volunteers, more customers, service users or audiences, depending on your type of organisation – all helping you to meet your aims and objectives and potentially grow your earned income, as well as your philanthropic and sponsorship income.

Fundraising, particularly when you have no dedicated resources in terms of staff or time, may seem like an impossible task but with careful planning – planning and systems are key to ensuring fundraising sustainability – it can be achieved and ultimately, worth more to your organisation that it costs.  Of course, there will be some initial effort required – there always is with any new activity – but surely, it is worth it, particularly in current times when no funding is assured?  Look at your resources and consider using them effectively to deliver some key fundraising goals. 

  • Put systems in place to allow you to have a rolling programme of fundraising – a database, donor communications programme, applications cycle, research activity – all carefully planned
  • Start off small – no one expects you to deliver £1m in your first year with no history of fundraising. 
  • Network – expand and broaden the groups of people aware of your organisation, the projects you deliver and your vision for the future.  Encourage your board to help you network. 

Ultimately, introducing philanthropic income and sponsorship will enable you to diversify your income and, more importantly, increase the sustainability of your organisation in the future. 

Perhaps you don’t agree?  Or maybe you have other suggestions as to why an organisation should consider fundraising?

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The Future for Arts Funding

October 18, 2010 1 Comment

Photo by Jean-Pierre Dalbéra, used under Creative Commons Licence

Two recent studies have highlighted the current funding situation for the arts which, like many other areas, is suffering as a result of the recession, while the campaign, I Value the Arts, aims to raise awareness of the added value the arts bring to the economy through a publicity campaign supported by well-known artists, such as Tracy Emin and David Shrigley.

A recent survey found that overall, more arts organisations where experiencing increased revenues than those experiencing shortfalls of income.  However, rates of improvement were slight and rates of fundraising have been far lower than had been anticipated for this post-recession period. (source: Economic Impact Survey, Arts Quarter).  This has to be a concern, particularly given upcoming government spending review which is anticipated to impact negatively on the arts.

A recent report on philanthropy trends by Arts & Business also clearly states that philanthropy is unlikely to fill the gap left by these inevitable cuts, although, it also suggests that there is still capacity to increase philanthropy in the arts – even if it won’t fill the gap entirely.  At the moment, 15% of the income received by arts organisations comes from private investment with over half of this coming from individuals.  A&B recommend that arts organisations need to build networks and to look at fundraising to contribute towards the sustainability of the sector – rather than simply to fill a gap or as a quick fix.

What is clear is that the sector needs to immobilise itself now, as the I Value the Arts campaign illustrates.  It is also important that arts organisations work locally, collaborating with others in their area.  Fundraising is a long term activity – any relationship takes time to build and develop and fundraising is no different. 

Arts organisations should use existing networks and contacts to build support – it is most likely that those who already know you and are familiar with your work will consider giving you support.  Look at best practice and emulate – look to those in your sector (and other sectors) to find out what is doing well and what isn’t in terms of raising income and try to think of ways you could adapt these to fit with your fundraising.  Engage with your audiences in new ways – perhaps you could use social media?

I did, however, wonder at the suggestion by A&B that fundraising can’t just fill a gap created by a lack of public funding.  It is a view that I completely agree with but I suspect a few arts organisations read this and thought:  ‘But that’s precisely what we need it for!’ 

It is highly unlikely that you can simply switch like for like.  There will be a need to scrutinise resources and make cuts but, in a sector that is already fairly lean, that might not result in much in the way of savings.  Perhaps viewing your core costs differently could help – could essential maintenance could be used to train artisans or does it have an environmental or community engagement aspect that might appeal to donors?  Perhaps you could assign an element of core costs as part of a project you are fundraising for? You will need to think about your entire programme of activity.  What could be of potential interest to a donor or sponsor?  Are there any areas which are only likely to be met through public funds?  Can you adjust your income streams accordingly? 

There needs to be a move away from knee-jerk fundraising.  There will always be times when there is an urgent need for funds but that shouldn’t be the main pattern for your fundraising.  The arts are by their very nature creative and they need to adopt this approach in their fundraising in order to ensure future sustainability and growth.

What do you think?  Are you dismayed to read that fundraising is unlikely to meet the funding gap?  Or have you already adjusted your programmes in anticipation of the funding cuts?

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