Five Essentials for a Robust Fundraising Program

Five essentials to building a robust fundraising program

April 16, 2014

April 16, 2014 Created by Kimberley MacKenzie, CFRE

You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself, any direction you choose.

– Dr. Seuss


• Good hygiene• Be specific• Get over yourself• Play nice• Shit or get off the pot

THE Essentials



• Take great care with donor information

• Make sure all staff know what to do if someone wants to donate

• Make internal controls and policies a priority– Audited financial statements– Gift acceptance policies– Donor Bill of Rights on Website

Good Hygiene


• Don’t mail dead people!

• Don’t waste postage on people who don’t live there anymore

• Get their names correct!

• Collect their email address

Data Hygiene


• Important– Gets message delivered– Gets the piece opened– Gets a response

• Make sharing info easy– What does your donation form look like?

Data Hygiene




Is your road blocked?


What will you do?


Play Nice


• Service• Facilitation• Leadership• Creating and managing change• Influence• Staying positive

Our profession is about


• We don’t arrive with buckets of cash

• We are often misunderstood

• Used as excuses for other departments

And yet…


Success depends on integration and collaboration.


• Everyone in an organization has a role to play

• What are some ways for you to lead the way?

Build a culture of philanthropy


• Every new staff person or board member is educated on the role the donor plays in the organization

• All staff meetings have discussions about donors

• Program folks understand they will work with development to meet, interact with and ask donors for gifts

• Development staff will work in the program to understand exactly what it is they do — This means getting your hands dirty

• Over half of the President’s or CEO’s time is devoted to cultivating donors, either onsite or wherever the donor is

• All board members are required to spend time working with program and development staff (board menu?)

• The organization creates multiple opportunities for staff, board and donors to engage together during the

• Development staff is constantly communicating to the rest of the organization about how they are engaging donors

Courtesy of the Veritusgroup.com

Ways to build a culture of philanthropy




What will you do?


Be Specific


• What are you raising money for?

• How much do you need?

Be Specific


• Story about a specific solicitation that is presented in real life. (It is awesome! Invite me to share it with your group)




What will you do?


Get Over Yourself


Where I’m from


Where my house is.


My house


The Kitchen


The Living room



The ViewWhereDavid lived


Everything I did was for David


Everything we do, we do for our donorsWe must:Be obsessive

Put their interests first

Constantly think from their perspective

Advocate for them daily

Serve them in all we do

Love them


Donors want to know 3 things

What does your organization do?

Have you changed lives? How?

What will my money achieve?



• Best presented in person.

Two donor stories




What will you do?




There are 9 ways that people say NO and only one of them means go away.

What are they?


9 No’s 1. No, not for this2. No, not you3. No, not me4. No, not unless5. No, not in this way6. No, not now7. No, too much8. No, too little9. No, go away

Reference: B. Ross. www.managementcentre.co.uk – search for The 9 fundraising Nos


ASK!




What will you do?



You are not your resume, you are your work. – Seth Godin


Kimberley MacKenzie, CFRE

[email protected]

www.kimberleymackenzie.ca

289-231-1339

Thank you

mailto:[email protected]

http://www.kimberleymackenzie.ca/

Date post:	07-Nov-2014
Category:	Travel
Upload:	kimberley-mackenzie
View:	195 times
Download:	3 times

Five Essentials for a Robust Fundraising Program

Travel