Fundraising Basics: 10 - Non Fundraising Fundraising

Non fundraising fundraising
Traditional fundraising - asking for money with no expectation of return - is not the only way to get funding for NGOs or charities.

We should also consider social enterprises, selling their services, contracting etc.

Basically, it is possible to do good in a way that is not entirely through getting donations.

This is not a new concept, but is a big growth area.

Turning Point in the UK have a turnover of over £60m, less than 1% of which is from traditional fundraising.

The Smith Family in Australia has another great example - check out their Enterprises.

Check out this link for more social enterprise information and links.

The bottom line is that fundraising is really hard, and takes a long time to bear fruit. It is almost certainly worth investigating social enterprise too.

Sean Triner

Fundraising Basics: 9 - Major Donors and legacies

Major donors and legacies

These should be separate, but then it would be top 11 tips, which doesn’t have the same ring.

Major donors is the quickest, easiest, cheapest way of increasing income if you have some donors already. Major donor fundraising is all about asking rich people for a lot of money. It really is! The flaw with most major donor campaigns is forgetting to do that.

In my previous blog, Hitch-Hikers Guide to Major Donors I go into a bit more detail about it.

And legacies / bequests are also great for long term growth.

Asking people to put aside a small proportion of their estate when they die works. From the beginning, any individual donor program should include a legacy plan.

Sean Triner

Fundraising Basics: 8 - Regular Giving

Regular giving / monthly giving / direct debit

Call it what you want, but automatic debits from credit cards, bank accounts and phone bills - pre-programmed regular giving has led to the biggest revolution in fundraising history.

For mass donor programs, donors giving through these methods have a much better retention and delivery than anything else.

But it is expensive, you need to pay someone to mail, phone, visit or stop in the street potential donors. It usually takes nine months to three years to break even (!) depending on the market you are in, but it is the single biggest driver for growth since the mid-late 90s, and is still going strong.

For a little bit more information on regular giving check out my earlier blog.

Sean Triner

Fundraising Basics: 7 - Individuals

It is true, The biggest growth is from individuals

After governments, it is people power fuelling charity growth. In USA, Australia, Hong Kong, UK, Canada and more (countries where data is available) individuals account for 60-80% of non-government, fundraised income.

But of the charities that are growing over 10% per annum, it is usually closer to 90%. Examples of charities riding this donor growth are most of the INGOs (WWF, Amnesty International, Greenpeace, Plan, World Vision, World Emergency Relief etc) and many large indigenous charities (Hong Kong Cancer Fund, Heart Foundation Australia, CRY (India)).

Just check the Giving America report or look at the UK’s Charity Trends book.

People are great, and they give - even in tough times like now.

Sean Triner

Fundraising Basics: 6 - Fundraising events

Fundraising events
As an ex events fundraiser, I used to love it - but the bottom line is that for most charities, fundraising events are useful tactical boosters but there are much easier ways to get long term strategic growth.

There are rare, superb examples of events that work, like Australia's Biggest Morning Tea put on by the Cancer Council in Australia, and the Race For Life another big cancer charity event.

Some charities have grown through events and it is interesting to note that the most successful tend to be direct marketed events like the two above.

My company, Pareto Fundraising, is doing a lot to make events work even better and be more effective for our clients, but when you look at where growth is coming from across the sector in every country I have worked in or researched, it ain’t events.

Sean Triner

Fundraising Basics: 5 - Corporate fundraising

Corporate fundraising
Often very tempting, and for those without data seems to be the obvious place to go next. But corporates contribute around 5% of total (non-government) fundraised income in most of the mature fundraising markets and are very, very hard work.

A recession doesn't help, with Australian data showing corporates slashing their charity budgets.

But for small charities, local small and medium sized private businesses can be a saviour.

Overall, generally speaking corporates are NOT a good source for most charities to achieve strategic growth.

For more on this see The Inconvient Truth of Corporate Fundraising.

Sean Triner

Fundraising Basics: 4 - Trusts and Foundations

The 'easiest' source of funding is trusts and foundations.

The economic downturn won't be especially helpful on this front, since many trusts make their money from investments.

There are huge obvious ones like the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation but most are smaller. Although in most countries there is not as much money and less growth than fundraising from individuals, the good thing about trusts and foundations is that they exist to give money to charities.

They are only there to give you money - if you meet their criteria and they have enough. There are lots of resources to find out where they are for example, The Directory of Social Change in the UK. If you know of any foreign trust directories, please post a comment below for other people.

Thanks

Sean Triner

Fundraising Basics: 3 - Government

Government

In most countries, the biggest 'donor' worldwide is government. Local, Federal/National, International, EU, UN etc.

Whatever you are doing, research whether you want, and whether you can get, government money. Here are some development examples.

USA.
UK DFID.
Europ-aid.
Canadian International Development Agency
The Swedish International Development Corporation Agency's (SIDA)
Norad (Norway)
Finland's Ministry for Foreign Affairs Development Cooperation
Irish Aid
Ausaid (Australia)
UN Development Program

There are very likely to be local funding opportunities from your own Government too - but try and use your imagination to go beyond the obvious.

Sean Triner

Fundraising Basics: 2 - Board Commitment

Board commitment / understanding

A board that doesn't understand fundraising will cripple you.

There is no point embarking on a fundraising strategy without some fundamental basics.

1. Fundraising is expensive. The the most important variable for how much a charity raises is how much it spends.
2. Most fundraised income in most countries comes from donations from individuals.
3. It can take well over a year to generate net contribution - ie income you spend on services - from most fundraising programs.
4. Fundraising works best when there is a clear need, and your organisation is good at addressing that need.
5. Fundraising works best when you are able to demonstrate that need and ASK the prospect to help. Hinting, or implying they should help does not work as well as asking. "Please, send $50 to reach me by 20 January so that I can..." is a proper ask.
6. There is no room for hope or luck in fundraising. Plan and make things happen - including making sure the ask happens.
7. Skimping on expenditure usually holds things back - just like anything in life, you get what you pay for. It is more expensive to get an experienced fundraiser than an enthusiastic new graduate, but the time taken training the new person will cost you more in lost opportunity than paying for a more expensive person. The same goes for volunteers. Asking volunteers to be in charge of your fundraising, is like asking a volunteer to be a pilot. It is cheaper but I wouldn't want to be on that plane.
8. The board should set key measures and delegate authority to the fundraiser. They should not interfere in day to day decisions, writing copy, discussing design etc, this is not the job of the board.
9. If board members are not prepared to ask people for money, they have to let their staff do it without interference.
10. Net income is more important than cost of fundraising.
11. There is no magic pill. It is not easy!

Even though it was produced in response to fundraising in difficult economic times, my whitepaper illustrating the top tips for fundraising in a recession is a useful paper to give boards as a bit of a reality check for fundraising in general. It can be requested by signing up on our website here.

Sean Triner

My definitive tips for any fundraiser

I often get asked '...please can you help my fundraising' from very small, brilliant organisations who simply haven't got a clue where to start.

It is really hard to know where to start, so I am posting the top ten tips for any organisation considering whether to fundraise, based on an answer I gave on the Resource Alliance's Ask the Guru section.

There is a lot of information, so I am going to blog ten short blogs on each of these points:

1. Mission Clarity has already been posted


2. Board commitment / understanding


3. Government


4. Trusts and Foundations


5. Corporate Fundraising


6. Fundraising Events


7. The biggest growth is from individuals


8. Regular giving / monthly giving / direct debit


9. Major donors and legacies


10. Non fundraising fundraising

It would be really good to get lots of comments on them as we go.

In the meantime, visit Resource Alliance's Ask the Guru section where US fundraiser Jennie Thompson is guru for November - post a question to her now!


Sean Triner

Fundraising Basics: 1 - Clarity of Mission

First part of a series for small organisations, and those new to fundraising.

Mission Clarity

You really need to understand your work. Why you are doing what you are doing, prove you are best placed, why are you not collaborating with others? What is your IMPACT or what are your OUTCOMES. Most charities measure outputs, but you really need to understand the actual difference your charity makes.

Outputs are the result the actions you are able to do, for example – distribute 500 mosquito nets. The outcome of your actions is about why. In this case, following distribution of the 500 nets, malaria was reduced in the village from 193 cases per annum to 27.

Before you do anything in terms of fundraising - before you work on a strategy, hire a fundraiser or spend a dollar make sure you take time to have your mission written and understood clearly.


Sean Triner