Back in June, I wrote a short post titled, Is Your Fundraising Stuck? It was a bit of a challenge to fundraisers.

If your fundraising is lagging, is that really because of factors you can’t control, and so can conveniently blame, or do you need to look afresh at yourself and your commitment to innovation, better analysis, risk taking, professional development and/or stronger internal advocacy?

One of our readers, wishing anonymity, wrote a very thoughtful response that raises another ‘external’ factor. He talks about the proliferation of fundraising demands — from new nonprofits to your favorite granddaughter’s friend! Let me quote him at length …

“According to the National Center for Charitable Statistics, there are more than 1.5M non profit orgs registered in the U.S.

The number of charities has been steady for a while, so we have always had a crowded marketplace. I heard a little while back that a survey of Baby Boomers found that 1M of them wanted to START a non profit when they (IF they) retired. More crowding. I think we would be better served to get those people involved in our organizations, but Baby Boomers are Leaders, not Followers, so trying to deal with a million people who all think they should be in charge could be challenging.

… so, how many people are out there competing with us for donations? The non-profits I mentioned above are a drop in the bucket when you think about ALL of the gazillion things coming your way as a potential donor, from Kickstarters to Go-Fund-Me’s to any number of people making a case for a donation—and none of them have to be registered as a 501(c)3.

How much does the typical person have to give? I mean, if you have a letter from Greenpeace on your table and you are ready to send in $100, what happens if your granddaughter’s friend’s Kickstarter project on Knitting Beanies for Baby Goats is shared with you on Facebook, and you say, “Hey, I love baby goats!” … and then you weigh the true importance of those two efforts and divide your $100 between them?

It says it right on Kickstarter’s site: 3 million people pledged $480M for Kickstarter projects in 2013 (not all fulfilled, of course, but $480M diverted elsewhere—I would have liked some of that action).  And that is just Kickstarter. It took public radio 40 years to get to 3 million members. Damn.

When you think about it, everybody is on the same playing field nowadays—a viral video recorded on a cell phone, done by people who are really trying hard to raise money for a serious concern (think of women being stoned for trying to practice their religion) is in direct competition with Freedom House for donations.

I know we have to be better at competing in a crowded marketplace, which is the point of your post, but the market for our discretionary dollars has ballooned, and direct-to-project crowdfunding must be stealing off our plates.

Lastly, when it comes to the donor herself, I think she is having a difficult time filtering all the asks.”

No doubt about it, increasing competition is real and something no fundraiser can control. But at the same time, that reality is all the more reason for each ‘professional’ fundraiser to up your game … significantly.

Or somebody’s grandaughter’s friend is going to eat your lunch!

Tom