The Five Best Ways to Fail at Fundraising

Not everyone loves money. In fact there are hundreds and hundreds of mosdos in Brooklyn alone that hate it and have incorporated many corporate practices to ensure that gelt stays where is belongs - in the donor's pocket.

For those of you that want to escape the inevitable success that responsible fundraising brings, I have compiled this handy list of the five best ways to fail at fundraising.

Get Emotionally Involved:  Blame every setback on your own personal faults. Take every "no" as a personal rejection and an insult to everything you believe in. Start looking shtilerheit in to getting a real estate license.

Let the Donor Read Your Mind: The best kept secret is that donors are telepathic - they can read your mind. Give your donors great service, but never ask them to support your mossad or mention anything about your needs. They can and will read your mind, and one day - one day! - surprise you with an outstanding donation.

Hoht Rachmones!

I make a habit of reading every solicitation letter that I recieve. Everything from the No. 10 envelope to the reply card makes an impact on the reader, and so I find it fascinating to have look at what other mosdos are trying to capture the donors attention and money.

I recently received a beautifully done direct mail appeal from a prominent, local mosad. Everything was al osar - there was definitely a lot of money dropped on making sure that the envelopes, letter and reply card were professionally and beautifully done. I have no way of knowing what the returns were on this particular campaign, but I suspect they'll be mediocre.  

Why? No rachmones on the donor.

The appeal itself was huge blocks of text written in small font. There was some kind of inspirational story in there, together with some jive about guiding the next generation - I don't know... Well written, pretty, but also very hard on the eyes and a burden upon the reader. 

There are many practices and techniques that help to ensure readability in direct mail and other solicitation materials, but that's not what I'm hokking just now. My real point is that quality communication is more essential than ever, while quantity - especially in the Twitter age - is fast becoming harmful. Here's a few points to remember to have rachmones on your donors:

1. Be Concise : Time is valuable. When you communicate with donors about giving, always get to the point promptly. Long hakdomes do nothing for your presentation, and are almost always tiresome. Contrary to our intuition, lengthy presentations are less convincing that those that are concise and focused.

How Disaster Fundraising Confuses Us

This is another winner by Jeff Brooks.

Not always so nogeah to yiddishe mosdos, because we are generally stuck in the Dark Ages when it comes to fundraising. However, there is a valuable mussar haskel here that should not be ignored.
Read it all!

When natural disasters hit, fundraising skyrockets. 

That's a good thing, but it also creates a problem: It makes many fundraisers stupid. Because it leads them to believe that the everyday grind of normal fundraising is way too much work for far too little reward. 

Disaster fundraising is nothing like normal fundraising. It's a matter of speed, simplicity, and just being there. Media coverage takes care of the rest, and people give like crazy. 

During a disaster, you can raise funds through media that don't normally work, like spot radio and newspaper print ads. You can even raise funds on Twitter (well, some do). Heck, you could design a dumb, abstract, unoriginal poster and raise funds.

What's in it for your donors? Pay attention!

Well done article by Jeff Brooks.

WIIFM: What's in it for me?
Commercial marketers are constantly reminded to keep WIIFM top-of-mind, because they're tempted to sell their wares on how great those wares are. Not what's in it for the customer.
We have the same issue in fundraising. Too often, we think the reason people give to us is because we are so excellent.
Nope.
They give because there's something in it for them. (We still have to be excellent; that's the price of admission for them to even consider giving to us.)
Here are some things donors might get from giving to you, the real reasons for giving:

• They're seeking personal significance by helping change the world.
  
• They're finding spiritual strength by following the calls of their spiritual tradition.
• They're assuaging guilt.
• They're comforting fear.
• They're proving to themselves or others that they're good people.
• They know it feels good to give.
• They might even be seeking a tax deduction.

There's always something in it for them.
If you remember that and work with it, you'll go far in the fundraising biz!

Enter the Gvir

During one of my many misadventures, I worked with the rosh of a mid-size mossad in Brooklyn. He was charismatic, intelligent, energetic and good with people - all the maalos. Nonetheless fundraising was anemic and very labored.

I don't suppose that it was any fault of his, he certainly was being as responsible as he could. He did, in fact, manage to pay quite a few bills by hitting the pavement. But it wouldn't last. He was spending too much energy, and neglecting too many responsibilities to be able to continue that path for long.

Enter... the Gvir.

The Gvir begrudgingly agreed to get involved with fundraising on a "my-way-or-the-highway" basis. The Gvir has much on his plate, little time, and zero patience for BS. Because he's a maven in business, he knows the right players.

He doesn't prepare a thing. He has no game plan, finesse, or shame. He calls donors on their cell phones on Sunday night and doesn't apologize. He asks for money after eleven seconds of small talk. If they decline, he gets angry and asks again, only not politely.

No, I wasn't on vacation...

Happy to hit the blogosphere after a little more than a month hiatus from writing. I was so arayngetohn in one campaign that I literally did not have time to THINK about blogging. 

Reviving the public image and esteem of a long-troubled institution is no walk in the park. Ultimately, we are on the cusp of success as long as no one does anything crazy or stupid... 

More reports from the battlefield as I catch my breath and become a real person again. 

Using the Board

Here is an excellent article by Hildy Gottlieb on relying on your board for fundraising.

I'm a little on the ropes about the message: your board doesn't want to fundraise - get over it. She outlines some of the challenges nicely, and gives an alternative - "friend-raising."

Ok. At the end I don't really buy the premise, because there really are ways to use your board for effective fundraising. Don't give them a job they hate. Instead, give them the "mission" that best suits them.

I look for one of the following three roles from a board member: