Fundraising Tip: Four Fundraising Actions That Have Worked For Me This Year

Each week in June, I’m going to share one. This is week four.

Hi everyone!

I’ve really enjoyed committing to a fundraising action each week this month, and here is the fourth and final action.

Ask.

I know, if you’re in nonprofit fundraising, it’s something we do all of the time. Or do we?

Or rather, do we ask enough? This is where it can get tricky for some. Leadership says to not send another e-appeal, sharing their opinion that your organization asks too much. Although some in leadership, primarily the executive leadership and the board of directors, may have some experience with fundraising, they have hired you and/or your team to do the fundraising. That means you are accountable for raising funds, and at the end of the fiscal year, you and your team are accountable for having raised more than what is in the annual budget.

For me, that means that, while others will have opinions on how we fundraise, since I’m accountable for our success in fundraising, I need to make decisions that I believe will allow us to exceed budgeted fundraising expectations.

So we ask. We ask the right people for the right impact point. And typically, this means we need to ask more: more e-appeals, more direct mail, more meetings with donors.

I’ve been fundraising for a good chunk of my life, and I have met many other fundraisers who are not very comfortable making an ask. We have to be comfortable asking donors to donate, especially when we’re a member of a fundraising team.

We have to let go of any fear.

We have to build relationships with donors so that they know the difference their donation makes, their impact.

We need to ask the right people.

And we can’t stop asking.

So the fourth and final action for this series of the month is to make an ask. This can be a phone call, an in-person meeting, or creating an e-appeal or direct mail piece. The main thing is to take the action.

I hope these actions in June have been helpful!

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Take a risk. Be of service. Support your friends and colleagues. Be kind.