While Roger and I like to believe we sit at the right hand of Zeus, bestowing unsurpassable fundraising wisdom on mere humans from on high, the truth is, there’s plenty of sound advice around if you but seek it out.

Here’s an example that came to me by way of one of my many fundraising/nonprofit news feeds.

If you live in Florida, perhaps you’ve heard of Alyce Lee Stansbury. She heads a fundraising consultancy in Tallahassee bearing her name. And she writes a regular column for nonprofits in the Tallahassee Democrat newspaper. Her latest column, Six main reasons fundraising fails, is what popped up in my feed.

Alyce Lee is a 25 year fundraising veteran, and her firm has served a wide variety of mostly Florida organisations in health, education, the arts, human services, environment … you name it.

I was curious; where would Alyce Lee point the finger? Here’s where …

First, fundraising fails when there’s no comprehensive fundraising plan. A series of events is not a plan.

A second reason fundraising fails is when the board has no ownership of the fundraising plan. She notes that the plan must include “a robust stewardship and donor retention program in addition to asking for new gifts”. Hmmm … is she channeling Roger, I mused.

A third reason fundraising fails is because the fundraising goals are unrealistic from the start. Here she observes: “Too often, fundraising goals are set based on the gap between existing funding and what still needs to be raised to meet the budget.” (Confess, does this sound like your organization?) And continues: “This goal setting method has little or no connection to the number of existing donors, their giving capacity, the number of staff dedicated to fundraising, the size of the organization, the number of years in existence, public awareness of the organization, and visibility of and respect for staff and board leaders.”

The fourth reason fundraising fails is simply because no one is asking. Says Alyce Lee: “The ability to meet and exceed fundraising goals year after year is directly related to the ability of the nonprofit to ask for money. One thing I know for sure: if you’re not asking, someone else is.” I hear Roger saying, “Amen!”

The fifth reason fundraising fails is because the organization is not telling its best story. And what’s the best story? “Too often, fundraising appeals are all about the organization, it’s needs, recent budget cuts, program statistics, staff, etc. The best story a nonprofit can tell is always how donors are changing or saving lives as a result of their gift. To be successful in fundraising, always make the donor the hero of the story.” Now she’s channeling Jeff Brooks!

The sixth and last reason I believe fundraising fails is lack of CEO involvement. Noting: “Even at modest levels, donors want to know and trust the person responsible for spending their gift in accordance with their wishes and the nonprofit’s mission.” She’s right, despite Roger’s generally dubious regard for nonprofit CEOs when it comes to fundraising savvy.

All of this adds up to super advice.

And provides ample evidence that — as much as Roger and I prod and complain and lament — there’s great counsel, depth and experience throughout the fundraising community. Based on what I read in this article, and see on her website, the dozens of organisations taking advice from Alyce Lee Stansbury are lucky indeed.

If you need help, it’s out there.

Tom