Fundraising is simple isn’t it. The word says it all. It’s about getting money.
So, it follows that raising funds, or money, is simply a matter of asking for it. Easy, right? Or maybe not?
Of course, there’s much more to it than that. And for anyone who has ever been involved with fundraising that’s well understood. In fact, we often hear the comment that fundraising is hard work. Very hard work at times!
The reality lies somewhere between easy and hard. Inside that reality lies a challenge that shapes what any experience with fundraising ends up being.
That challenge is how we think about fundraising. And includes questions we ask to seek understanding and clarity around what is happening in fundraising, for who, and why.
It may be reasonable to say that thinking about fundraising is a given. After all, it can occupy a lot of organisational time and attention. But does that really suggest the necessary thinking is happening?
Considering some organisational behaviours and experiences observed in market, thinking about fundraising warrants some more – well, thinking!
What might suggest that a deeper dive to explore and understand fundraising would be helpful? Let’s take a closer look.
Let’s take a closer look
A good place to start is budgeting. When fundraising budgets are based solely on what is to be raised, without reference to what is being funded, as well as other shaping factors, it is most likely that expectations won’t be met. And just as likely that the real reasons won’t be understood.
Picking a number as a fundraising goal based on what you want can be little more than guessing. It’s certainly not good business. Cogent and viable budgeting for fundraising should be informed by funding goals as well as the range of internal and external factors that influence activity and outcomes. And they should also be framed over sufficient time to realise return on investment.
Any consideration of budgeting should be framed against strategy, which introduces both a strategic view of fundraising as a long-term process, as well as seeing fundraising as part of an organisation’s overall strategy.
This also highlights the need to recognise fundraising as a system of activities rather than a series of separate functions, while also understanding that fundraising will only be truly effective when it functions within a broader organisational system.
Measurement is another indicator of informed thinking around fundraising. When measurement of fundraising is based around cost, or framed primarily around simple financial data, it provides little actionable, or even accurate, data. It makes it difficult to know what is actually happening which undermines effective decision making.
When the resourcing of fundraising is not fit for purpose, it won’t serve your purpose. Thinking about people, data, systems, and processes are some of the key factors to consider in creating an effective and efficient fundraising program. Achieving efficacy in fundraising requires considered and sustained investment in the resources that drive fundraising outcomes. It won’t happen by osmosis.
And while speaking of resources, people will always be the central factor in managing an effective fundraising program. Beyond donors, supporters, beneficiaries, institutional staff and others central to the continuum of connecting purpose and passion, the role of staff and volunteers in the management of the fundraising process is critical. But it is often overlooked or minimalised.
Staff recruitment, training and retention are all clearly identified as factors that influence fundraising outcomes. Yet, themes such as unrealistic expectations, staff turnover, lack of training and inadequate resourcing perpetuate as factors that impact the experience of fundraising staff. Worse still, these issues impact donors, organisations and purpose.
Asking is central to fundraising. That much is obvious. But how asking is framed, positioned, exercised and supported may not be so obvious, at least if market experience is any guide.
When asking is transactional, ill-considered and self-serving, then we will have a problem with fundraising. And by we, I mean organisations serving purpose as well as current donors and those who could have been. The key will always be to understand and position asking as part of a transformational experience that attends to donor interests.
This places donors at the centre of the fundraising process. Donors and the purpose they choose to serve. Not the organisation seeking funding. Not the fundraising activity. Not the person or people asking for support. While these elements are all essential for serving purpose, the donor is key.
Seeing donors as a partner in purpose who choose to give to an organisation, rather than a source of funding to be shaped to the will of an organisation, is a critical distinction in thinking about fundraising.
The way we think about donors and asking also influences our expectations of fundraising. When expectations of what donors will give exceed the effort committed to engaging with donors, fundraising outcomes will be less than they may otherwise be. But of course, that will be an unknown unless it is tested.
All of this brings us to leadership, and how non-profit organisational leadership, governance and management, think about fundraising. Market experience and research tells us that organisational leadership thinks about fundraising. Some don’t see a need for it, or don’t want to do it, or don’t like to do it. In other organisations, fundraising is seen as important, even vital, but how leaders think about fundraising can still be mixed and raises any number of questions.
Fundraising questions for leaders
How does fundraising serve purpose? And how does fundraising give agency to philanthropy?
Why and how do people give money, in response to being asked, or even spontaneously?
What experience are donors seeking? And what experience is being provided by organisations receiving funding support? What is actually being exchanged?
What shapes an effective fundraising program? How is it developed and sustained? What investment and resources are needed and how is this work managed and measured?
What is my role as an organisational leader? How do I enable, support and sustain fundraising and engage the gifts offered through philanthropy?
What questions am I asking of myself and my colleagues about philanthropy and fundraising practice in serving purpose?
Am I curious enough? Am I thinking enough about fundraising?
So how might we consider fundraising more completely?
Here are some observations on how we can look at fundraising and challenge thinking.
Think about fundraising from the lens of what problem you are trying to solve rather than the lens of how fundraising can help solve your problems
- Think about fundraising as an agent of philanthropy and as a means to serve purpose. This focuses fundraising conversations on outcomes and impact rather than money and process
- Think about fundraising in terms of value creation rather than cost burden. A cost focus will always create limitations and constraints which impedes serving purpose. A value creation focus drives purpose and considers the relativity of investment and return, using financial and non-financial measures.
- When thinking about budgeting in fundraising, understand that the goal you want to achieve is largely irrelevant if that is your only basis for framing your budget. Start with the purpose you are serving and what you need to accomplish to serve that purpose. Then turn to your constituency of support and understand what that support has generated and may yield in the future.
- Consider what you may need to do to galvanize and if need be, enlarge your supporter constituency. And then analyse your fundraising program mix and maturity, as well as your capability and capacity in terms of people and other resources
- Think about why people seek to engage with purpose and specifically the purpose you serve. Seek to understand their motivation to connect and the reasons that a connection continues and deepens.
- Know that organisational leadership influences donor experience, directly and indirectly, a that ultimately, donors give to leaders with a vision.
Yes, how we think about fundraising really does change everything when it comes to serving purpose.
Nigel Harris AM
