ignite your fundraising

Although I love nonprofit leadership and being able to dive into program work, at heart I am a fundraising nerd. I’m writing this post while embracing my nerdiness.

If you would like to ignite your fundraising, here are a few ideas:

Revisit your passion for the cause and for the agency you’re working for. Remember why you do what you do and what you are doing that is making the world a better place. This could mean talking with your program team or visiting with someone your agency serves. Get back into that passion.

Share your passion. Share stories of the difference your agency makes. Hop onto social media and tell a story. Create an email blast about anything you learned today that your agency had something to do with. The other day I was sitting in one of our empty meeting rooms and was inspired to write an email about what would it be like if this same meeting room, about to be filled with volunteers, stayed empty. A couple of hours later that email was being read by donors and potential donors.

Spend time in your data base. This could be an entirely separate blog post. Who has been donating forever? Who hasn’t donated in a while. You get the idea.

Call a donor. Then call another donor.

Invite a donor for a tour. If you don’t do tours, invite them to coffee.

Ask your program team for stories, good and not so good ones.

Now you’ve started. Thanks for reading!