infrastructure with a range of tools to track donors and gauge progress. You’ll learn how to use tools and technology to identify donor prospects and research their interests, hear about how a constituent relationship management platform can serve as a powerful donor database and coordinate all your communication and contacts, and finally how to collect the right data and personal stories to be able to gauge your efforts and convey impact to donors. All of this rolls up into a powerful organizational dashboard that your staff and board can use to quickly tell whether your nonprofit or program is on track, or if there are red flags that need to be addressed.
Then you’ll dive into the meat of the book: actual fundraising strategies. Part 3 focuses on all aspects of individual donors, which represent the lion’s share of nonprofit support, at least in the United States. We interviewed some of the sector’s best and brightest to ensure this book shares concrete tips and tools for a wide range of disciplines related to cultivating, soliciting, and stewarding supporters at all levels of your donor pyramid, ranging from grassroots supporters to major donors. Part 3 is also where you’ll find the specific channels for doing that, including direct mail, annual appeals, membership campaigns, and events, as well as learn about how to raise money from people both young and old.
Part 4 explores the exciting world of online giving, starting with tips for optimizing your website and email, which is where the majority of technology-based fundraising currently occurs, and then looking at social media and crowdfunding’s ability to turn your donors into fundraisers, and finally, what can be argued is the future of giving: mobile. Here our experts will share tips for doubling your online giving in just thirty days. And if you’re hoping to create the next ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, this is the section where you’ll hear from the folks who orchestrated that campaign via a detailed case study, as well as learning from a wide range of experts with decades of experience under their belts – and literally more than a billion dollars raised online between them. With their help, you can take your nonprofit into the future, today.
Parts 5 and 6 share a range of tips and tools for institutional giving. Learn how to identify the most likely prospects, secure the all-too-elusive call or meeting, and not only be invited to apply for foundation, corporate, or government support, but how to secure crucial pieces of information that will catapult your odds of success from 5 percent to 50 percent. The interviewees follow that with tips for writing a great proposal and how to monitor your progress and report back in a language that funders appreciate and expect. And beyond straight cash support, we’ve devoted a chapter to in-kind and media sponsors, as we’ve witnessed firsthand the transformative impact those partnerships can have on both a fledgling nonprofit and a well-established organization, even though they’re infinitely easier to secure.
Finally, the book ends with Part 7, where guest contributor Rick Aubry shares and explores the ins and outs of earned income for nonprofits. If you’re considering launching a social enterprise in an effort to diversity your revenue base, don’t miss this chapter. And as long as we’re in the world of social enterprise, what better way to wrap things up than with an inspiring Afterword by Kiva.org founder Premal Shah.
Again, this book is a reference guide, so feel free to skip around. Pick the chapters that you find most compelling and useful today, and don’t be surprised when other topics pop up on your radar as times goes by. After all, change is the very essence of life, and it’s ultimately the goal of all nonprofits, isn’t it?
We’d be remiss if we neglected to introduce this book without a quick note on fundraising ethics and, most notably, commission-based fundraising. As you implement the best practices shared in the coming pages, always remember that the public expects you to be honest, accountable, and transparent. The Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP) Code of Ethical Standards (www.afpnet.org/files/ContentDocuments/CodeofEthics.pdf) provides a comprehensive overview of ethical aspirations and boundaries for fundraisers. An ethical fundraiser applies the Code of Ethics and all relevant laws and regulation to their work.
In particular, unlike the corporate world, in the nonprofit sector, donors and funders can mandate exactly how their gifts are to be used. You are ethically and legally bound to use funds as directed by the donor. If someone states he wants his donation or grant to be used exclusively for a specific program, or even a particular line item in your budget, then you need to take all proper measures – especially bookkeeping, accounting, and measuring program expenditures – to ensure those funds are used as directed.
Whether you’re a consultant or a paid staff member, remember that in the nonprofit sector, commission-based fundraising is considered unethical. Standard 21 in the AFP Code of Ethical Standards addresses this principle. Deviating from this simple guideline can have devastating implications for your nonprofit and on donor relationships. Supporters want to know their gifts go to the mission-based work of your organization, not to a glorified salesperson. This, too, is very different from the corporate world, where performance-based compensation is common. In short, in the nonprofit or social sector, every fundraiser is expected to do his or her best to represent the organization or client, and to be paid fairly for work out of the organization’s budget.
As you begin, or continue, your journey doing your best to represent a cause you care deeply about, may this book serve as a useful guide – to you, to your cause, to the people whose lives you make better every day you go about your work, and ultimately to the public trust we serve as fundraisers.
Acknowledgments
First and foremost, I offer thanks and congratulations to Laila Brenner, without whose contribution this book never would have been possible. Laila, you are a joy to work with, and I admire your great writing and unwavering commitment, even while expecting your second child. I look forward to working with you again.
Thanks also to John Wiley & Sons for graciously offering to publish my second book and for being an understanding and flexible partner. I offer a deep bow of humble appreciation to the 121 interviewees and partners who shared their time, insights, and resources, ensuring this book offered truly useful tips and tools for nonprofits and fundraisers, and providing invaluable marketing support around its release. Thanks to my colleagues at Sparrow for their support of this project and for their work helping nonprofits employ the power of mobile technology to better serve the poor. I also want to thank the two other sponsors of this book, Eventbrite and CommitChange, for their invaluable support as well as the Association of Fundraising Professionals for their incredible endorsement, and Social Media for Nonprofits’ Ritu Sharma, for being the catalyst for this project.
I thank my family in Argentina for showing me firsthand how challenging yet rewarding philanthropy can be on a personal level. To the Heyman family, my mishpocheh, thanks for providing me with the support and love I needed to experiment and discover my path. In particular, I’d like to thank my brother for being the best thought partner I could ever ask for and for always being in my corner, even when things get hard. Paulo, you can never lose me. And most of all, I offer gratitude to my mother, Annette. Mom, you taught me how to love and helped me see that, no matter how much I work to change the world, ultimately what really matters is helping one person at a time.
Foreword Discovering What It Means to Be a Fundraiser
Lynne Twist
“You will find as you look back upon your life, that the moments you have really lived are the moments when you have done things in the spirit of love.”
I discovered my passion for fundraising when I was in kindergarten in Evanston, Illinois. My oldest sister had just gotten the lead role in the school play, but there wasn’t enough money to buy costumes or sets because of a budget crisis. I saw how heartbroken
