If you’re not getting the returns you expected and your nonprofit desperately needs on your fundraising efforts, what one thing needs to change? The answer is so simple, it’s staring you in the face.

One thing. One word. Any guesses?

Before I give my answer, consider this report from Crain’s New York Business — It’s a sunny 2015 for New York nonprofits —  regarding fundraising expectations in New York … the city where (for now) possibly more charity/cause money is raised than any other in the world. [Anybody want to contest that?]

According to the report, 59% of New York fundraisers were optimistic about this year’s fundraising environment, up from 44% with that outlook a year ago. The report looks at giving from foundations, corporations, and individuals.

In considering this report, if you asked … So what changed? What changed to make 2015 look much better than 2014, my guess is most folks would say: Overall improvement in the economy. A rising economic tide is expected to lift most (but not all) boats.

And indeed, noting the recent Giving USA report that giving was up 4.4% in the US in 2014, Crain’s commented: “The fundraising picture in New York seems even brighter, thanks to the region’s wealth of individual and corporate donors in high-paying industries like finance and business services…”

In other words, improvement is attributed to an external factor outside the control of any nonprofit or fundraiser.

I’m sure there’s some truth to that, especially with respect to major gifts and corporate donations. But I’m not sure that’s the real answer.

For improved fundraising returns in most situations, what needs to change is you!

That’s the so very simple — yet so fundamentally critical — point made by Jeff Jowdy writing in NonProfit PRO: If You Don’t Change, the Results Won’t Either.

Jeff describes two client experiences, one a success story, the other a situation of stubborn resistance to all the recommended changes. He quotes the familiar aphorism: “…if you keep doing what you’ve been doing, you’re going to get the same results you’ve been getting.”

Of course organisations don’t resist change (although they can have structures and disincentives that impede change), it’s the individuals within them that choose not to change.

Hopefully most Agitator readers are having a giant ‘DUH!’ moment about now.

But just in case, if you’re not getting the fundraising results you want, before blaming the sluggish economy, misguided donors, your wacky consultants, your pesky competition, look in the mirror.

Are you prepared to change the way you’ve been doing things?

Tom

P.S. If ‘Yes’, in a teeny/tiny way, or in a major way? Perhaps beginning with some testing? Read Roger’s What’s Wrong With Your Testing on that subject (and work your way through the links)!