Is Your Fundraising Stuck?
Or is it just you?
Yes, your fundraising could be flatlining because the economy is still struggling. Or those dullards over on the program side simply aren’t doing anything exciting enough to energize donors. Or your CEO was just charged with embezzlement. Or some other ‘exogenous’ factor over which you have no control.
Or it could be that the problem is you.
How often lately have you said things like …
“We tried that.”
“I don’t have the time.”
“It’s too risky.”
“I can’t sell that to the corner office.”
“I can live with a flat year.”
“I’m waiting on our consultants to fix it.”
“But this is the way we always do it.”
“Everybody’s numbers are down.”
“No one has a better idea.”
“Maybe next year.”
These are signs — just potential signs, mind you — that you might be settling into complacency, becoming too risk adverse, not making the internal case effectively, not attacking the points of maximum leverage in your fundraising program, not exposing yourself to or encouraging fresh thinking (either from within or without). Or not eating enough breakfast.
So, if your fundraising results are flatlining, is the issue somewhere ‘out there’, or is it you?
Tom
P.S. This post was inspired by Sandy Rees’ 3 Indicators That Your Fundraising Is Stuck.
5 responses to “Is Your Fundraising Stuck?”
Behavioral Science Q & A
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I’m not an expert in this but a quick search surfaced this article on the effect of tax reforms on 2019’s charitable giving. The researchers didn’t find a reduction. Actually, they observed an “increase in charitable contributions in 2019, even with the lower tax rates and the dramatically smaller number of taxpayers who itemize their […]
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Just returned from Albuquerque, speaking before the NM AFP. It was a popping crowd. There were a hundred questions. And after we’d indulged (suitably) in some board bashing and Dark Overlord scorning, one fundraiser had the guts to propose to his fellows, “Shouldn’t we own this, too?” He was talking about all the dismal indicators: falling response rates, abysmal retention rates, donor ennui. He said, in essence, we’re not doing a GREAT job in donor communications. We’re doing an OK job … and that’s not good enough. Bravo!
my first real mentor used to say ‘if it is to be it’s down to me’. I grant you it’s cheesy but it’s true – we whine too much about things beyond our control and use them as an excuse not to change the things we can.
great post again, thank you!! Well, one of the areas where it’s truly important to make it happen, it’s in monthly giving.
I see huge organizations who are literally sitting on a gold mine and they’re not able to convince their finance department that they should offer Electronic Funds Transfer or that it’s totally fine to have someone sign up online for monthly giving, absolutely mind boggling to me…
and yet they mail millions of pieces and are wondering why they’re struggling in keeping sustainable income… sigh..
Just taught several webinars http://www.charityhowto.com/index.php and http://www1.networkforgood.org/for-nonprofits/webinars and it’s exciting to see that many small to mid-size organizations get it and are willing to embark on this. One of the first things I say though is that they must be accountable and commit, so they can truly make this program grow to what it can be!
I recommend: share your (even little) successes on an ongoing basis with everybody in the organization and you can bring those ‘stragglers’ and ‘unbelievers’ along…
if you keep doing what you’re doing, you keep getting what you’re getting.
cheers, Erica
Ah yes… Perhaps we can call this the “look-in-the-mirror syndrome.” Whining is okay – as long we move forward. Bashing of others is okay as long as it is somewhat limited and leads to … Mirror gazing.
As I look in the mirror, I ask myself: To what degree do I know the body of knowledge? Do I keep up sufficiently well? How good am I at enabling others to understand and own and act? And so many more questions.
So much more is within our control (or at least within our ability to have input) than we choose to own.
The stuff that flits across our minds or pops out of our mouths indicates where our mindset is, and we have to be vigilant that it doesn’t go into the tank. Negative mindset kills good fundraising and sucks your energy.
So glad I could inspire this post!
Sandy