Fundraising Tip: Fundraising is About Relationships

Be sure to make time for building relationships with your donors.

Those of us in nonprofit fundraising and working on our year-end fundraising campaigns are filled with, well, I’m not sure! We are all in different spaces as we enter the final week of the year. This mostly depends on what we have done, the impact of our campaigns, and what we plan on doing in the last three days of the year.

Regardless of what the rest of the year looks like for you, and how you feel (emotionally and physically) right now, January 1st will arrive, and we get to start all over, even if your budget year is not the calendar year.

I am one in nonprofit fundraising who believes that our individual donors are our biggest assets when it comes to fundraising. Not the government, not foundations.

People. Families.

And because of this, my biggest focus is always on building and growing relationships with donors.

In 2026, don’t let anything get in your way of doing what you can to grow these critical relationships. It’s easy to let a hundred other things take priority over building donor relationships. Don’t let them.

—

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