Understanding Total Organization Fundraising™
Which quote best describes your organization?
“People should support us because of what we do. Dealing with donors is the fundraiser’s job.”
“Everyone in my organization understands what it takes to appeal to donors and what they can do to make us a donor-attractive organization.”
My first fundraising experience was when I was ten years old. I planted, watered, weeded, cut, and sold flowers to our friends and neighbors. I learned that a fresh, colorful bouquet would earn more money. I learned that a smile and on-time delivery made my clients happy and want to buy more flowers. I learned that offering a standard weekly order worked well. I learned that nothing happened without a good team (my mom drove me to deliver the flowers every Friday).
In this very early fundraising experience, I had stumbled on the four fundamental principles of fundraising from my own little business:
Excellent quality of the product you deliver (your program)
Excellent “customer satisfaction” with my buyers (your donors)
Smart offer for continuity in sales (your fundraising)
Excellent teamwork with my mom (your colleagues)
Since the age of ten, all of my professional and volunteer activities have revolved around fundraising. The business approach to sales and marketing provides valuable information for fundraising. I learned much from graduate school courses, professional marketing conferences, and personal advisers from the business world, but I also understood the vast differences between a business and a nonprofit.
The Differences Between Business and Nonprofit Models
Business Model: The classic sales model for a business is that you produce a product or provide a service to a customer who pays you for that product or service. The customer knows exactly what they get in terms of quality, cost, appeal, and service. The ultimate purpose is to make a profit or the company will go out of business.
Nonprofit Model: The classic fundraising model for nonprofit organizations is providing a service to one group (program beneficiaries or society in general) and getting an entirely different group (donors) to pay for this service. The donors typically don’t know what you have done with their money unless you go back later and tell them. The ultimate purpose is to make a better world or the organization should go out of business.
Fundraising for a nonprofit organization is much like sales and marketing for a company, but with two different sets of customers – one that pays and one that benefits. It is far more complicated and much more challenging. Fundraisers and others working for nonprofits deserve the highest respect and support for what they do! They are working to make this a better world.
Working Together for Total Organization Fundraising™
Just as it “takes a village to raise a child,” it takes an organization to succeed in fundraising. I have heard so many stories from nonprofit executives who said, “We hired a fundraiser and told her what had to be done. But by the end of the year, she had not raised enough to pay her own salary, so we fired her.” I cringe when I hear this, and I always ask the executive what he or she did to help. I often hear, “Nothing. It was her job.” My response is always, “No, it’s your job, and your board’s job, too!” No fundraiser could succeed without committed and active support from the rest of the organization.
In my Total Organization Fundraising approach, everyone in the nonprofit organization has some responsibility to help in fundraising however they can. Everyone believes fundraising is a priority, a top organizational goal, almost a sacred task. The executive director, board members, and other directors are especially responsible to be actively engaged in raising funds or generating other forms of support.
The Concept of Total Organization Fundraising™
Total Organization Fundraising consists of ten steps that, together, will assure fundraising success. If your organization has excellent plans, but the culture does not support them, you will fail. If your organization fully understands the principles of fundraising, but does not get the strategy right, you will fail. If your organization does not behave honestly or is not accountable to donors, you will fail. If your organization does not learn from mistakes, you will fail. If your organization does not have effective individual performance, teamwork, and governance, you will fail. If your organization does not actively support the strengthening of civil society and the culture of philanthropy in your country, you will limit your success. If your organization does not have a commitment to leadership – a commitment to Total Organization Fundraising – you simply will not succeed.
If everyone is not making sure your organization is attractive to donors, how could a fundraiser possibly succeed to raise funds for an unattractive organization? Commitment to Total Organization Fundraising helps ensure success.
Nonprofit organizations, especially small and medium-size ones, and certainly most community associations often find themselves in a crisis resulting from financial shortfalls. As a fundraiser, you can have a significant impact on whether your organization thrives.
The Ten Steps to Total Organization Fundraising™
The following ten steps make up the overall approach to Total Organization Fundraising, which I have been articulating for decades since my first presentation about this concept in Geneva in 1996. It was based on all my experience with AIESEC, the Institute of International Education, Save the Children, Foster Parents Plan, and several years of consulting with organizations in the United States and Eastern Europe. Since 1996, I have shared these steps in numerous strategic planning consultancies, training workshops, professional conferences, and university lectures reaching people in 50 or more countries. Through this empirical research including thousands of interviews about how organizations develop, I have tested and refined the approach based on continuous feedback.
To have your organization succeed, thrive, and grow, as a fundraiser you should:
Accept your ability and responsibility to lead broadly in your organization in ways to assure fundraising success.
Understand and promote the fundamental principles of fundraising, so others have clear understanding and commitment.
Develop and implement good strategic and operational plans grounded in reality that guide everything you do.
Assure core values and organizational culture to support strategic and operational plans for program, administration, and fundraising.
Put in place highly effective strategies for fundraising that facilitate and accelerate growth in income.
Craft and follow a strong code of ethics and accountability to be trustworthy in what you say and do.
Use your monitoring and evaluation reports to learn and build capacity to be a better organization.
Develop individual, team, and volunteer effectiveness with a focus on day-by-day progress.
Strengthen governance and management to support fundraising, manage change, and get results.
Actively work to strengthen civil society and the culture of philanthropy in your country to make it a more caring and more helping world.
Conclusion
It was a major revolution in my thinking as I was writing this book about fundraising that my real theme was how to make this a better world – and that fundraising is an essential step to do that. Then all the other steps fell into place – I knew I needed to offer guidance to help fundraisers and others in nonprofit organizations and community groups achieve greater fundraising success by stepping up to lead. I decided to offer a practical guide for fundraisers – this book – to help them develop their personal leadership capabilities, experience more fundraising success, and raise more money so their organization would have a greater impact. In doing so, fundraisers make this a better world.
As one of my colleagues said to me, “Ken, this is what you have always been doing – working to make this a better world – and fundraising is just a part of your approach to make our world a better place.” She added, “In your courses, you transform individuals to transform their organizations to transform society.”
What about you? Are you ready to embrace Total Organization Fundraising in your nonprofit or group? Are you ready to step up, to do what it takes, and to work together to get better results from your fundraising efforts, so you can make this a better world?
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