GiveForward - Fundraising Made Simple

Patrick Sallee, a fundraising professional from Kansas City with a blog full of killer posts on fundraising and nonprofits, generously offered to write a guest post for us this week! Patrick says “I believe in hard work mixed with a little luck. I think things happen for a reason and timing is everything. My experience tells me a couple of things about fundraising. One, its not that complicated. Two, experience doesn’t always pay. My blog is to share some of those thoughts.”

You can e-mail him at patrick@patricksallee.com. Thanks again, Patrick!

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Last year, Bank of America and the Center on Philanthropy released a study of high net worth donors from across the country.  It is a lengthy and in-depth look at where donors give, why they give, what they expect from the nonprofit organization and what influences their giving.  Personally, there were a few facts that stood out to me that nonprofits should take into account as we work with volunteers that are out raising funds on our behalf.

1. This shouldn’t come as a surprise, but donors that volunteer give almost 4 times as much as those that don’t.  Also, those that volunteer give to more organizations, 7, than those that don’t, 5.  For me, this reinforces a couple of thoughts.  First, it is important to continue cultivation of those closest to you, your board, your committee members, your long time friends. Second, it means that as a fundraiser I should continue to learn what agencies my future prospects are currently involved with.  If they are currently on a board they likely are more generous with their support.  Finally, it could simply mean that those high net worth families who serve on boards, etc. are more likely to be seen by other agencies and solicited more often.

2. One of the statistics that came out in this research bothered me as a fundraiser.  When asked about the motivation behind their giving, high net worth households identified the expected reasons: giving back, support the same causes annually, social beliefs, etc.  The fourth one on the list at 67% was that they were “moved at how the gift can make a difference.” This fact I was excited about.  From a volunteer, peer to peer fundraising effort, continue to stress that the story attached to the campaign is the crucial piece.  People are giving to change lives.

The downside though, just under 20% said they feel the donations they are making have a major impact on the nonprofit recipient.  How is this possible?  If we are sharing the possible impact when asking, this says to me we need to improve at sharing the impact we are seeing. Even thought your volunteers are doing the asking, don’t forget it is our jobs to share the impact.

As I mentioned before, most major donors are giving on average to 7 organizations annually.  Nearly 40% stopped giving to at least one organization in 2007 and their reasoning was, “No longer felt personally connected.”

Our major donors aren’t feeling the impact of their giving because we aren’t showing them! and this is why they leave.

3. Online giving continues to rise (up 15% from 10% three years before). Yes, this is a statement I’m sure we are all aware of, but when you factor in other statistics, like donors giving 19% more to a charity when asked by someone they know.  How does that change your online approach?  At Big Brothers Big Sisters in KC, people aren’t finding our website and donating because it looks great and tells a great story.  People are donating to us online because a mutual friend asked them to.  We raise over $300,000 a year through an event that involved peer to peer fundraising, primarily online. This accounts for over 90% of our online gifts.  The absolute best people all of us can use our volunteers that already care about us and have a story of their own experience to tell.

This week’s post is from Morrie Warshawski, author of The Fundraising Houseparty: How to Party with a Purpose and Raise Money for Your Cause – 2nd Edition.

PARTY PARTY PARTY!

Forward thinking GiveForward members realize that online fundraising is just one part of a comprehensive fundraising effort. One other very flexible and powerful tool for soliciting support from individuals is the increasingly popular fundraising houseparty. Houseparties are a perfect way to get people excited and energized around your project/cause, and often form the beginning of relationships with individuals who you hope will become major donors online and/or offline.

Politicians like Barak Obama and Howard Dean used houseparties to raise millions of dollars for their campaigns. Filmmaker Robert Greenwald harnessed the power of houseparties to have his supporters host thousands of them across the US to fund his social issue documentaries on Wal-Mart, Iraq, and Afghanistan.

You can organize a houseparty with just six weeks of lead time, and you can have them take place in your neighborhood, or in communities anywhere around the globe where someone believes in you and your cause. Begin by finding a host who is willing to provide her house for the party, and will open up her address book to invite her friends. Encourage the host to put together a host committee. This spreads out the work load and adds a few more address books to your resources.

Have fun with the process. Design invitations that can be sent by regular mail and/or as e-vites. On all the invitations, give people the option of donating to your project on your GiveForward page if they can’t come. You’ll make some money before the event even happens!

After people have arrived and had a chance to mingle and eat some finger food for a while, gather everyone into a room and make a formal presentation:

• The host welcomes everyone and talks about why she is committed to your project.
• You get up and talk about your cause. Ideally you show a DVD clip, or some photos – anything that will get participants emotionally engaged with your cause. Take a little time to answer any questions people have and engage in a dialogue.
• Someone – the host or a peer of people in the room – then stands up and makes a very direct, and heartfelt ask for support.

Be sure to have pledge cards ready for everyone to fill out. By all means have a computer or two available with your GiveForward page displayed so that people can make credit card donations right on the spot. You’ll find that having a face-to-face contact with donors is a satisfying, powerful, and effective way to solicit new support and deepen commitment to your cause.

MORRIE WARSHAWSKI is a consultant specializing in working with nonprofits on strategic planning. He is the author of THE FUNDRAISING HOUSEPARTY: HOW TO PARTY WITH A PURPOSE AND RAISE MONEY FOR YOUR CAUSE – 2^nd edition, available at his website: www.warshawski.com. SPECIAL OFFER: Readers who mention GiveForward can receive a $5 discount off the cover price of the book for as many copies as they like until July 31^st.

Every day at GiveForward we come up with new ways that we can help our users. We love bake sales, raffles, and car washes and consider them a right of passage. In addition to these tried and true fundraising methods, GiveForward can be a great tool for parents and students especially when it comes to raising larger amounts of money.

Through Give Forward, parents and students can use their online network of family, friends and colleagues to raise awareness and money for a particular cause. We make it easy for you to provide donors with plenty of information, photos, videos, and links. Generally, the more information a potential donor has about a cause, the greater the amount of money they are willing to give.

In addition, unlike many of the traditional fundraising methods, GiveForward makes it easy for donors to use their credit card, often the preferred method of payment for larger amounts of money. By posting your fundraiser on GiveForward, you open yourself up to receiving funds from strangers, which happens more often than you’d expect!

So next time you buy a cookie at a bake sale, remember check out the latest projects at GiveForward and give a small amount of yourself to a worthy cause.