Fundraising can feel like you’re on a crazy amusement park ride. One minute you’re soaring high after a killer pitch, the next you’re plummeting into the abyss of rejection. But take a deep breath, friend, because you’re not alone. Every development director knows the ups and downs of this game. The key is to keep your head cool and keep moving forward.

Recently, I participated in a dialogue with fellow fundraisers and many communicated about the biggest frustrations faced in their role and how to overcome them. Here’s the lowdown:

1. Getting leadership on board: Sure, a great plan is important, but it’s nothing without the active support and commitment of your leaders. Just saying they’re good with it isn’t enough. Your administrators and board members need to be truly involved, if you’re going to reach your fundraising goals.
2. Feeling isolated and misunderstood: Sometimes it feels like you’re all alone on this fundraising island. People think you’re just about raking in the dough, but they don’t see the real work it takes. We build relationships, offer spiritual support, and deal with all sorts of emotional stuff with donors. It’s not just a sales job, it’s a life-changing one.
3. Needing board support and engagement: Fundraising isn’t just our responsibility. The board needs to be actively involved too: developing and affirming long-term goals and priorities alongside executive leaders, raising funds, engaging with donors, setting a good example, and providing us with the resources and connections we need.
4. Recognizing the emotional toll: When people see development professionals, they often just see dollar signs. They forget that we’re human too and hearing about people’s struggles day in and day out can be exhausting. We need to be recognized as the empathetic and compassionate beings we are.
5. Prioritizing long-term relationships: Building relationships with donors is like running a marathon, not a sprint. It takes time and dedication. And guess what? The decisions our leadership makes directly affect our ability to build those relationships. So, let’s invest in the long game together!
6. You need to grow with others: Ever felt like you’re alone on an island of development? Don’t worry, you’re not! There’s a whole community of folks who’ve been there and are happy to help. Find your development tribe – those who understand your unique challenges and can offer a healthy dose of encouragement and perspective. It’s like having a crew of fellow adventurers, cheering each other on and making the journey a little less lonely. So, don’t hesitate to reach out and build those connections. You’ll be surprised at how much they can lift you up.

By acknowledging these challenges, you can navigate the complexities of your roles and achieve sustainable fundraising success. Remember, we’re in this together, and we can ride this roller coaster to new heights. It is always more fun to navigate the ups and downs with friends at your side.

About the Author:  Jody Fausnight, CFRE – has worked in the fund development field for more than 25 years serving as a director of advancement, a community/public relations director with four non-profit organizations, and as a consultant. Jody has expertise in Christian school recruiting, public relations, fund development, and major gift cultivation strategies. He has successfully raised many millions on behalf of numerous organizations and has grown ministry development programs from the ground up on more than one occasion.

Building a culture of generosity is crucial for nonprofit organizations as it establishes a strong connection with donors, volunteers, service recipients, and employees. By creating a culture that values generous giving, nonprofits can attract and retain supporters, raise more resources, and ultimately advance their mission and impact in the community they serve. Here are five strategies and target markets to help you put that culture into action.

1. Communicate: Nonprofit organizations have various channels of communication to connect with their supporters and attract new donors. While impersonal means such as mailed appeals and newsletters can be effective in attracting new donors, building a relationship with regular and major donors through personal connection visits is equally important. By doing so, nonprofits can retain their donors and reduce donor turnover rates. For smaller organizations, building a broad communication strategy and targeting major donor prospects with personal approaches can be an effective way to engage donors and retain their support.
2. Cultivate: It’s important to have a balanced communication calendar that includes regular newsletters, social media posts, annual report summaries, fundraising appeals, and other events. However, don’t overlook the importance of face-to-face interactions with donors, especially those who have consistently given for several years. Personalized phone or email connections with mid-level donor prospects and personal visits for coffee or a kitchen table visit with major donor prospects can go a long way in building a lasting relationship with donors.
3. Ask: Identifying the right prospects is key. Board members, volunteers, service recipients and their families, and current and former employees are all potential donors who can help advance your organization’s mission. Board members should be men and women of character who believe in your organization’s mission and lead by example. Volunteers have firsthand experience working with your organization and are more likely to donate. Service recipients and their families are grateful for the impact your organization has had on their lives and may be willing to give back. Current and former employees have a deep understanding of your organization’s mission and can help spread the word about your work.
4. Thank: Showing gratitude to donors is essential. Thanking donors for their support, no matter how small, is important in building a lasting relationship. Personal touches like happy birthday calls to donors or personalized thank-you notes can make a big difference in retaining their support.
5. Repeat: Finally, it’s important to repeat these steps consistently to build a strong culture of generosity within your organization. Regular communication with donors, cultivating lasting relationships, targeting the right prospects, showing gratitude, and repeating these steps consistently will help ensure your organization’s long-term success.

About the Author:  Jody Fausnight, CFRE – has worked in the fund development field for more than 25 years serving as a director of advancement, a community/public relations director with four non-profit organizations, and as a consultant. Jody has expertise in Christian school recruiting, public relations, fund development, and major gift cultivation strategies. He has successfully raised many millions on behalf of numerous organizations and has grown ministry development programs from the ground up on more than one occasion.

Do these thoughts describe your ministry?

• “We do events to raise money and awareness but don’t seem to have many big donors.”
• “Our organization is small, and people are not accustomed to giving much outside of normal fees for services.”

How can you encourage a culture of generosity among those who know, volunteer, or benefit from what you do in your community?

Understand Giving Motivations
What motivates your donors to give to your ministry? For many, there is a spiritual component rooted in one or more of the following scriptural principles:

“The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and the one who is wise saves lives” (Proverbs 11:30).

“Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age” (Matthew 16:19-20).

“The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me’” (Matthew 25:40).

You must answer four key donor questions to start a culture of generosity:

1. What is your funding model?

Yes, you are doing good work in your community, lifesaving, life-changing work. Do your donors realize that sustaining your work requires money? What does a dollar do to advance your ministry’s mission? Present an overview of your budget and how much you need to deliver what you provide to those you serve. Use graphs and charts to communicate your annual revenue vs. expenses. Help your donors understand your complete financial picture.

2. What needs you are trying to solve?

Express what you do in meaningful and tangible numbers such as “X dollars…

• “…educates a child (for a day, month, year)”
• “…nourishes a homeless person today”
• “…covers an ultrasound test or counseling session for a pregnant mom”
• “…provides a scholarship for Y days/months/years.”

3. Are you regularly communicating what you accomplish with the people and resources God provides?

Have you shared a compelling vision for serving more people? How will your donors know that advancing beyond the status quo requires more money? Donors won’t give to something they don’t understand. Clearly communicate your vision through appeals, newsletters, events, annual report, and social media posts. Show them how they can change lives by partnering with you. If don’t have one or more of these communication tools working for you, consider adding them to your communication strategy. Before you know it, momentum in your communications and growth in your number of donors will provide more opportunities and enthusiasm for others to get involved.

4. What is the return on investment and the spiritual return on investment?

Tell your story in different ways and tell it often. Share data to prove your solutions are working. Fundraising involves telling stories about your impact. Paint a picture of a life changed and do it often through reporting back results to those who care about your ministry – in newsletters, appeals, social media, etc.

To start a culture of giving, you need to invite your prospective donors to participate. Engage them for the first time through events. Ask them to take the next step and become a monthly partner. Show them how their gifts tangibly change the lives of those you serve. Don’t worry about where to start. The only mistake is not starting a culture of generosity for your organization, your stakeholders, and your community.

About the Author:  Jody Fausnight, CFRE – has worked in the fund development field for more than 25 years serving as a director of advancement, a community/public relations director with four non-profit organizations, and as a consultant. Jody has expertise in Christian school recruiting, public relations, fund development, and major gift cultivation strategies. He has successfully raised many millions on behalf of numerous organizations and has grown ministry development programs from the ground up on more than one occasion.

For those of us who lived through the 1980s and even those who have just learned about them from famous cultural expositions like ABC’s “The Goldbergs,” greed and materialistic capitalism became hallmarks of that era. In fact, corporate icons like Peters and Waterman coined the term “Management by Walking Around (MBWA)” and Peter Drucker, the father of the modern management concept “Management by Objectives (MBO)” left indelible marks impacting us today. 

Drucker’s book espousing management theory centered around key goals dates to 1954 and has been increasingly applied in successive decades along with Hewlett-Packard’s success from 1973 onward in use of MBWA strategies have enshrined both into the lexicon of Fortune 500 and small business organizations.  Mainstream in the 1980s and beyond, they have inspired productivity and efficiencies as well as employee satisfaction, growth, and retention.

Actually, it should be no surprise that employees in organizations would be inspired and satisfied helping to achieve organizational objectives that advance common purposes. As stakeholders see a connection between personal ownership of goals and results combine with rewards for achieving personal and departmental goals that further the broader mission of the organization, natural enthusiasm and satisfaction are byproducts. More than 50 years later, these two prevailing theories for stakeholder satisfaction and effectiveness have impact on non-profit ministries.

·         Most who advocate for, serve, or support you want to be a part of effectively helping the hurting and lost.
·         They long to shape the future through education and life improvement.
·         Each one rightly desires to honor God as a steward meeting the most basic needs of the head, body, heart, and soul.

God has called your employees to work alongside you to pursue a mission for change that lasts! Your donors want to fund success for people now, in future generations, and for eternity. Community leaders and Christian men and women want to see real material, educational, and mental health needs met for this generation and the ones that follow. Your most committed Christian supporters and volunteers desire God’s best for those you serve here on earth but also His best for them into eternity.

How you plan for next week, next month, and next year determines how you execute a plan impacting those benchmarks in time. See a problem? Absent a plan with clearly defined objectives, you won’t know whether you met your goals. Your employees, volunteers, donors, and foundation or corporate partners won’t be able to latch onto a big vision or celebrate success of benchmarks met if you don’t have a plan with measurable objectives.

Planning is hard work, but worth the outcomes it can provide. Consider the following key elements:

·         Focus – What comprises your mission, vision, core values, and unique identity as a ministry?
·         Strategy – Do you have a strategic plan for advancing the whole organization, its operations, its growth, maintenance, and change? Does it contain no more than three or four organization-wide objectives for each plan year? Have you developed a program strategy for each of your ministry’s programs and services focused on delivery of your mission?  Have you incorporated solid plan objectives with essential fundraising and marketing strategies that strengthen current funding sources, develop new ones, and engage current and future stakeholders in securing success for your plan objectives and the larger organizational outcomes sought?
·         People – Do you have adequate support for plan objectives in the areas of leadership, program, operational, fundraising, and marketing/communications staff? Is your board invested in the plan? Have you recruited the right board members, trained them how to govern well and fundraise plus given them tools to meaningfully engage our stakeholders in achieving strategic planning goals?
·         Progress – Have you established a structure for quarterly goal and priority setting along with interactive engagement on goals progress with leaders, board, and staff which provides for ongoing measurement and adjustment? What annual objective and key results planning review points have you put on your calendar along with all-staff update meetings, methods, and deadlines to disseminate annual impact reporting to all stakeholders regarding objectives met and in progress?

Take a look at our Timothy Toons, Peter Drucker’s 5 Questions to learn what questions you should be asking. Give us a call if we can help you clarify your strategic plans.

About the Author:  Jody Fausnight, CFRE – has worked in the fund development field for more than 25 years serving as a director of advancement, a community/public relations director with four non-profit organizations, and as a consultant. Jody has expertise in Christian school recruiting, public relations, fund development, and major gift cultivation strategies. He has successfully raised many millions on behalf of numerous organizations and has grown ministry development programs from the ground up on more than one occasion.