Fundraising Is Not One Person's Job

A peculiar phenomenon exists in some small nonprofits. Everyone agrees the organization needs money, everyone agrees fundraising is important, and then everyone turns toward the person who writes the grants, chairs the development committee, or somehow became "the fundraising person" and wishes them good luck.

Fundraising doesn't work particularly well that way. That doesn't mean every board member has to become a professional fundraiser, nor does it mean everyone needs to be comfortable sitting across from someone and asking for a significant gift. People bring different skills, personalities, relationships, and comfort levels to nonprofit leadership, and a good fundraising strategy should leverage those differences rather than pretend they don't exist.

One board member might be terrific at introducing people. Another might write personal notes on fundraising letters. Someone else might consistently share campaign posts with their network, while another person may be comfortable calling donors simply to thank them. Someone knows the owner of a local business, someone belongs to a civic organization, someone can invite a prospective supporter to see the program firsthand, and someone can tell a compelling story about why the organization matters.

Board members should also demonstrate their own commitment to the organization when financially possible. The meaningful amount will be different for different people, and board service should never become a competition over who can write the largest check. What matters is that those asking the community to believe in the organization can show they believe in it themselves.

Staff members, volunteers, and program participants can also play a role, even when fundraising isn't part of their job descriptions. Program staff often know the organization's best stories. Volunteers understand why they keep showing up. Participants can sometimes describe the organization's impact more effectively than anyone sitting in an administrative office. None of that means turning every interaction into a solicitation. It means recognizing that the organization's story belongs to more than one person.

Fundraising is not something that happens off to the side while everybody else does the "real work." Fundraising makes the work possible, and for a small organization without a large staff, that distinction matters even more. You don't necessarily need twenty fundraisers. You need twenty people willing to help with fundraising in the ways they do best.

Start This Week

At your next board or committee meeting, don't simply announce that "we're doing a year-end campaign." Give people specific choices. Ask who can identify prospects, make introductions, write notes, make thank-you calls, share posts, tell stories, visit businesses, or participate personally in the campaign. Fundraising becomes much less intimidating when everyone understands that nobody has to do it all.