Funding Friday: It Takes an Organization to Raise a Dollar

 

When we talk about fundraising, we tend to talk about the people whose names appear next to words like development, advancement, grants, or donor relations.

They write proposals, prepare sponsorship packages, research prospects, send appeals, meet with donors, and eventually make the ask.

But they aren't fundraising alone.

In fact, some of the most important things that determine whether a nonprofit can successfully raise money happen long before anyone asks for a dollar.

Fundraising isn't something an organization does. It's something an organization makes possible through everything it does.

Everyone Doesn't Have to Ask

You've probably heard some version of the phrase "everyone is a fundraiser."

I understand the sentiment, but I don't agree.

Not everyone is comfortable asking for money. Not everyone has the skills or experience to cultivate a donor relationship. And putting someone in that position simply because they're a board member, employee, or volunteer won't necessarily produce good results.

But I do believe everyone connected to an organization has a role in fundraising.

That role starts with helping create an organization people want to support.

Think about fundraising in terms of three things: what you do, how you do it, and how people experience you.

What You Do

This is the obvious one.

Do your programs accomplish what you say they accomplish? Are you meeting a real community need? Can you demonstrate impact? Do you know who you're serving and whether you're serving them effectively?

A development professional can tell your story, but there has to be a story worth telling.

Funders and donors increasingly want more than anecdotes. They want to understand what their investment makes possible. That means program staff, volunteers, leadership, and development need to communicate so impact isn't simply happening. It's also being documented and understood.

How You Do It

This part receives considerably less attention.

Good programs matter, but so does the organization behind them.

Is your board engaged? Are your finances handled responsibly? Do you communicate clearly? Do you treat employees and volunteers well? Are your programs accessible? Do you follow through on commitments? Are you a good community partner? When something goes wrong, how do you respond?

All of these things contribute to whether people trust your organization.

And trust is the currency on which fundraising ultimately depends.

A grant writer can produce an excellent proposal. A development director can make a compelling case for support. Neither can compensate indefinitely for organizational practices that undermine credibility.

How People Experience You

This may be the piece nonprofits underestimate most.

Your organization is constantly presenting itself to the public, whether you're intentionally fundraising at that moment or not. Someone visits your website. Someone sees a Facebook post. Someone calls your office. Someone attends one of your events. Someone meets a board member at a community gathering. Someone volunteers for an afternoon. Someone sends an email and notices whether anyone responds. Someone drives past your building. Someone asks a community partner what it's like to work with you. 

Any one of those people could eventually become a donor, sponsor, volunteer, advocate, board member, partner, or funder, and you don't get to decide which interaction becomes their first impression. 

That's why seemingly small things matter. An outdated website matters. An unanswered email matters. An event where people don't feel welcome matters. An inaccessible program matters. A board member behaving unprofessionally in public matters. Inconsistent messaging matters. So does the employee who takes an extra five minutes to help someone, the volunteer who enthusiastically explains why they give their time, and the organization that follows up when it says it will.

Every interaction either adds to your organization's reputation or takes from it.

Development Connects the Pieces

None of this diminishes the importance of professional fundraising. Quite the opposite.

Good development work requires someone who can see all of these pieces and connect them.

Development professionals build relationships. They identify opportunities. They translate programs and outcomes into compelling cases for support. They help leadership understand what funders want. They recognize when a community relationship might become a partnership and when a longtime supporter might be ready for a deeper conversation.

They also notice the obstacles.

Sometimes an organization thinks it has a fundraising problem when what it actually has is a communications problem, a relationship problem, a planning problem, a board-engagement problem, a data problem, or a public-perception problem.

You cannot fix every one of those things with a better grant proposal.

And you certainly can't fix them by simply asking more people for money.

Give Them Something Worth Investing In

The strongest development professionals aren't magicians, and organizations shouldn't expect them to be.

Their job isn't to manufacture generosity out of thin air. Their job is to connect the mission with people who care about it and create meaningful, sustainable opportunities for those people to invest in the work.

But the entire organization helps determine what they have to work with. The program director documenting outcomes is contributing to fundraising, the board member introducing the organization to a community leader is contributing to fundraising, the employee who makes someone feel welcome is contributing to fundraising, the communications volunteer making sure the website is accurate is contributing to fundraising, the person answering the phone professionally is contributing to fundraising, and the leadership team making responsible decisions is contributing to fundraising.

And yes, eventually someone has to ask for the gift.

Not everyone connected to a nonprofit is responsible for asking for money, but everyone is responsible for helping create an organization worth investing in.

So for this Funding Friday, don't just ask, "How can we raise more money?"

Take a look around your organization and ask a different question:

What are we doing, every day and in every interaction, that makes someone want to be part of what we're building?

The answer may tell you more about your fundraising potential than your latest campaign ever could.