This month I’m going to cater to my non-profit crowd, and all of you pure business types pay attention. While many non-profits would love to have a more solid business sense, there is also much that business can learn from the world of non-profits.
I’ve recently been helping different non-profits around fundraising, and I’ve heard this kind of phrase repeated a lot: “Yes, and they are very wealthy, and we want to ask them to support us.”
Now, I want to say at the outset that there is nothing wrong with approaching wealthy people for donations. In fact, you should approach them. However, it is useful to ask whether you are focusing solely on the “big miracle,” especially if you are in the process of dropping a grant-dependent mind set to include more direct donor solicitation.
Don’t forget your bread and butter! I’ll tell you, there are lots of people out there who are willing and able to write those $15, $25, $35 checks every month, and end up donating hundreds of dollars a year each, which can translate to very significant money. People that could never write a $500 check all at once. Make sure you are spending time looking at different levels of your donor program, and not ignoring anyone.
Not only is this wise and well-rounded, but if you combine it with my previous suggestion that marketing is to be a giving, not a taking (oops, did I say marketing? fundraising? SAME THING! The art of building relationships), you will go a long way towards treating donors (and customers!) like people, and not money faucets.
You will also stay truer to your mission and vision when dealing with larger numbers of different levels of giving, rather than just chasing after a few well-heeled donors/ foundations/ accounts. Diversify! You and your organization has enough love to give and receive from them all.
