I developed this list over the years as I’ve worked with hundreds of organizations to increase their individual fundraising dollars. These 9 elements for success are critical to have in place if you want to raise more money from individuals. Focusing on all of these areas will provide your organization with a framework that will create an environment that allows you to retain your current donors while also bringing in new donors each year.  

Answer true or false to each and tally your results:

Successful individual donor campaigns…

____ 1. Are led and supported by key volunteer and/or staff leadership. 
            (Board Chair, CEO, Executive Director, Pastor, Rabbi)

____ 2. Are supported and managed by at least one staff. 
            (Development Director, Dev. Associate)

____ 3. Have ALL board members participate in some capacity.

____ 4. Have a well defined goal, with a clear message of need, and a
             specific timeline that creates a sense of urgency.

____ 5. Create an emotional connection – making it personal for people
             to participate.

____ 6. Keep donors and interested parties informed and engaged with
             follow-up emails, calls, meetings or letters.

____ 7. Keep the goal visible in print all year, on website & via multiple
             forms of communication to encourage widespread participation.

____ 8. Communicate &  invites participants to do very specific things 
             with a deadline for doing them.

____ 9. Utilize a web-based donor data management system to allow 
             others to assist with tracking donor contacts and gifts.

9  TRUE answers = You’ve done it! You’ve mastered the communication and team member management to create a solid & effective individual fundraising program.  Keep it up and keep your communication clear and bold!

7 or 8  TRUE answers = A good individual fundraising program that needs some attention to make it solid and effective. Don’t let up now.

6 or less TRUE answers = You’ve got some work to do, especially if you don’t have board or staff support of your individual fundraising efforts. Focusing on communication about what you need the money and inspiring giving is critical. It will also make a huge difference to get key board and staff leadership on board and supporting your development efforts.   

Let me know how your organization measures up!

Tip 2: Successful individual donor campaigns are supported and managed by at least one staff.

For a smaller organization, the staff person supporting development might be the executive director. The truth is, in the early stages of developing an individual fundraising program, effective executive directors enlist and encourage board members, new donors, and community volunteers to help until they can hire someone.

Having a paid fund development staff member is one of the first things I recommend for organizations wanting to increase their individual fundraising. Just as clients must have someone managing and delivering the programs that make an organization so amazing, so must donors  have a person designated to keep them informed, engaged and clear about what is needed. 

Whether you are a small shop or a fully staffed development team, figuring out what to say in communication with donors is often a challenge. But when an organization shares only messages about the good they are doing there is no reason for others to get involved or help in anyway.  

I often see organizations who have an amazing, passionate leader, but they are limited in their fundraising skills. And so they focus their energy, time and financial resources on program development. The leader feels as though they can “handle it all” themselves or doesn’t want anyone to know they don’t know HOW to go about getting more donors involved. So what suffers is the relationship with donors is not tended as carefully as the relationships being tended with clients.  The problem with that is clear: 

No funds coming in = no new programs going out.

It’s tempting during economic downtimes to reduce or cut funding staff altogether. I say just don’t do it.

I worked with a small choral group with amazing musical programming that helped children with autism. The organization was run and founded by Martin, one of those, “I can do it all” kind of people.

With a budget of less than $50,000 a year that barely covered expenses and no salaries, Martin continued to get by with small grants from a few foundations and a handful of contributions from less than 50 individuals.

I was brought in to develop a system that would generate funds for a salary for Martin and funds to hire a part-time staff person to help with communication and fundraising. We also worked on shifting the communication to share specifics about the tiny budget and per performance costs.

Martin who had “done it all” before began, slowly, to understand what things cost and started to share that with others. He didn’t say yes to every request and began to ask for help from the board and others in the community. Not surprisingly he found people really were willing to do specific things: draft and send out messages in print and via email, help with budgeting and submitting grant proposals. People began to learn more about the true financial needs of this small but mighty organization.

Success:

Over the last three years the annual budget has increased from less than $50,000 to nearly $250,000 from individual donors. The organization now has more than 300 new donors & over 100 volunteers

The difference:

      1.  Hiring someone with the skills to manage the communication
           and fundraising.
      2. Talking about finances and money in a clear way.

People now see ways to help, a place to make a difference, and Martin doesn’t have to “do it all.” Hmmmm. Is there any of your organization in this story?   

(Except from 9 Tips for Successful Individual Donor Campaigns)