FUNDRAISING EFFORTS TO
BUILD AND MEASURE
CAPACITY AND INFRASTRUCTURE
2013
Ernest Lewis III, Fundraising Professional
ARE WE THERE YET?
Ice Breaker
Which picture best describes your agency’s progress
on building capacity and infrastructure through
fundraising?
Understanding Capacity Building and
Infrastructure
According to the California Wellness Foundation,
capacity building is the development of an
organization’s core skills and capabilities, in order to
build effectiveness and sustainability (www.tcwf.org)
According to Merriam – Webster, infrastructure is
the underlying foundation or basic framework for a
system or organization (www.merriam-webster.com)
Framework Assessment (Devita & Fleming, 2001)
Framework in Action (Devita & Fleming, 2001)
Organizational assessment
Strategic planning, business plan, fundraising, financial planning and governance
i. Change Management
Champions – hiring consultants or experts in the field
Resource matching or leveraging
Establish evaluation metrics illustrating impact and effectiveness
Understanding the three levels of outcomes–
i. Program/funding outputs
ii. Organizational outcomes
iii. Mission Impact
The Challenge (Hubbard & Light, Unknown)
STARVATION CYCLE occurs:
i. When nonprofit leaders and fundraisers understand the need for strong organizational capacity and are challenged with securing adequate funding
ii. Possible Risk: Reallocation of direct assistance funds to cover overhead or capacity needs
The Challenge (continued) (Hubbard & Light, Unknown)
Resources for capacity building and infrastructure (i.e. general operating, support, personnel, consulting fees and databases) are fewer.
The available resources have strict requirements often leading organizations to overpromise or underperform.
Key Strategies (Silloway, 2010)
Strategy One: Build Accurate Overhead Rates into Contracts and Grants
i. Develop updated costs allocation
ii. Report fundraising and other overhead costs accurately
iii. Communicate needs with funders
Strategy Two: Access Funding to Directly Support Capacity Building
i. Contingency Planning (earmarking memorials or bequests for capacity building efforts)
ii. Accessing Federal, State, and Local Funds
iii. Secure grants for general operating support
iv. Launch social enterprise or revamp operations
Key Strategies (continued) (Silloway, 2010)
Strategy Three:
i. Access technical assistance to support or improve organizational capacity and infrastructure
ii. Examples are data management/ reporting, board development and volunteer recruitment
What Funders are Looking for (Silloway, 2010)
Funders support successful and healthy organizations because it is a good return on their investment
A recent study offered the following criteria funders use to determine if organizations are in the position to take advantage of capacity and infrastructure building grants:
i. Board of Directors and staff leadership understand and support change management and will remain engaged in process
ii. Organization is not in crisis and has stable funding and staffing to implement capacity and infrastructure building resources
iii. Organizational leadership has a clear understanding of the organization’s needs and future priorities, a plan to strengthen capacity and infrastructure and a strong and effective action plan for change management
Assessing Fundraising Capacity and Infrastructure (Silloway, 2010)
According to Shirley Trauger, Vice President
of Schultz & Williams Consulting, key
elements to assess include:
Personnel
i. Having fulltime development staff
“who makes fundraising happen”
ii. Fundraising goals and staff levels
must be aligned to reach goals
iii. Are jobs and roles clearly defined?
iv. Are the right people in the right
roles? A new trend is recruiting
candidates with sales experience
v. Are staff equipped and trained to
achieve the fund development
targets outlined in plan
Communication/Collaboration/Trends
i. Ongoing communication with development staff and departments; CEO and Development VP or Director
i. Development and accounting departments work closely together
ii. Adequate donor software to store, manage and produce data reports
iii. Ability to use data analysis for trends to make decisions and planning purposes
iv. Ability to adapt to emerging needs, trends, and requirements
Building Capacity and Infrastructure for Growth (Tweeten, 2010)
Explore opportunities that
will increase organizational
sustainability
Leverage capacity and
make changes when
necessary
Leadership and
stakeholders should
consider the following
assessment questions:
i. Does our current
capacity match our
strategic or business
plan expectations?
ii. What steps are
needed to determine
our capacity and
infrastructure?
iii. What steps would we
take to build capacity
and infrastructure?
THANK YOU
Please share your thoughts.
References
Devita, C. J. & Fleming, C.
(2001). Building Nonprofit
Capacity. The Urban
Institute, Pg.17
Hubbard, T. E. & Light, C.
P. (Unknown). The Capacity
Building Challenge. Practice
Matters : The Improving
Philanthropy Project, Pgs.
6-8
Silloway, T. (2010). Building
Capacity for Better Results:
Strategies for Financing
and Sustaining the
Organizational Capacity of
Youth-Serving Programs.
The Finance Project
Tweeten, B. (2010).
Capacity Building for
Growth. Growth Design
Corporation