Fundraising 101: The right idea at the right time
Does this sound familiar? Your board chair comes up with an idea: We should have a raffle to raise money. And even though you’ve never approached a business for contributions before, and you don’t really have an audience to purchase raffle tickets, you go ahead with the idea anyway. They’re the board chair, gotta do it…
How have your results been with that kind of thing? Let me guess, it doesn’t go well at first (because of course it doesn’t, you don’t have the audience), and then you hustle really hard because if you’re going to do the work you need to see results. Then you hit the end, you’ve barely raised enough to be worth it, and you’re tired and decide—once again—that you hate fundraising.
No, I’m not a mind-reader. I’ve just seen this scenario more times than I can count. This is what I hear from people who come to me, finally ready to invest in learning how to fundraise because they can’t go through this exact scenario yet again!
And then I hear this: “So, raffles are just a bad idea, right? They don’t work?”
Well, no. Raffles can be great. They just weren’t great for you.
“Oh, so I’m a failure.”
Nope, not that either. A raffle just wasn’t right for you at that time.
The right idea…
At the right time…
For the right audience.
In fundraising, the magic is in finding the right idea at the right time for the right audience. But it’s not completely magic—there’s both an art and a science to finding the right idea at the right time for the right audience.
If you have paid attention to my last two blog posts, you’ve got the first two elements of the formula to finding this right idea. First, you have to have identified the right audience for your organization. Second, you have to have cultivated the audience so they are engaged and excited about your organization.
At this point, then, you should have a sense of your audience. Who they are. What gets them excited. What part of your mission is most compelling. How engaged they are. And what kind of fundraising tactic would work. So now you can pick a solicitation method that will work well.
Think about it this way: it’s a planned, staged way of engaging your audience. This is the dog wagging it’s tail.
And it’s more effective than picking a method and trying to make it work. That’s letting the tail wag the dog. (And other than in an episode of Bluey, I’ve never seen a dog that’s physically capable of that. For those of you not in the know, Bluey is a cartoon.)
How to Choose:
Pros & Cons of Different Solicitation Methods
When it comes to nonprofit fundraising, there's no "one-size-fits-all" recipe for success. Each fundraising method brings its own flavor to the table, and it's up to you to mix and match the right ingredients for your organization's needs and the audience involved. From social media campaigns to major gifts, let's take a quick look at the pros and cons of popular fundraising approaches—so you can figure out the right idea for your audience.
1. Social Media Campaigns
“Mix it fast and spread it out.”
Pros:
Quick and wide reach: Social media allows nonprofits to engage with large audiences quickly, spreading your message like butter on warm toast.
Low cost: Compared to other methods, social media is affordable, with many tools and platforms available at little to no cost.
Engagement: Social media encourages interaction, making it easy to stir up conversation, get feedback, and build community.
Cons:
Short shelf life: Posts can be like soufflés—great when they rise, but they can fall flat quickly. You may need constant attention to keep the momentum going.
Algorithm issues: Visibility is often at the mercy of social media algorithms, meaning your posts might not reach as many people as you'd like without paid promotion.
You need a pre-existing audience: Social media campaigns only really work if you have an audience already following you and engaged on social media.
2. Peer-to-Peer Campaigns
“Rising together like dough.”
Pros:
Leverages relationships: Peer-to-peer fundraising gets your supporters to raise dough for you, tapping into their personal networks for a larger reach.
Authenticity: These campaigns have a personal touch, adding an extra pinch of sincerity to your message when shared by friends or family.
Cons:
Volunteer reliance: Just like baking with a novice chef, relying on volunteers to fundraise can be unpredictable. Not everyone will rise to the challenge with the same enthusiasm.
Hard to manage: Coordinating a successful peer-to-peer campaign can be time-intensive, requiring a lot of oversight and support.
3. Direct Mail Campaigns
“The traditional recipe—sometimes it’s a hit, sometimes it’s overcooked.”
Pros:
Tangible and personal: Direct mail gives your donors something they can physically hold, often helping your message stick like frosting to a cupcake.
Targeted: You can carefully curate your mailing list to target the right audience, ensuring your materials reach the people most likely to give.
Cons:
Expensive: Between printing, postage, and design, direct mail can be costly—so you’ll need to bake in some extra dough to cover expenses.
Slower response time: It’s not as immediate as online methods, so expect a slower rise in donations compared to faster approaches like social media.
Again with the needing audience: Purchasing mailing lists rarely works and has very low yield. So you have to be mailing an audience you’ve already built and engaged.
4. Fundraising Events
“A big bake-off!”
Pros:
High engagement: Events bring your supporters together in one place, creating a sense of community and excitement, like baking a cake together in the kitchen.
Opportunities for major gifts: Events can offer the perfect setting for cultivating relationships with high-level donors and corporate sponsors, adding diversity to your revenue streams.
Cons:
Labor-intensive: Planning a fundraising event is like preparing an elaborate feast. It can take months of prep work and is often costly to execute.
Uncertain ROI: You might whip up something wonderful, but there’s always the risk that the funds raised won’t cover your expenses, leaving you with crumbs.
5. Major Gifts
“The icing on the cake.”
Pros:
High impact: Major gifts can significantly boost your nonprofit’s capacity in one big slice.
Relationship building: Major gift fundraising fosters deep connections with donors, creating long-term partnerships that can sustain your organization.
Cons:
Time-consuming: Cultivating major gifts is a slow process, often taking months or even years before donors are ready to commit.
Limited audience: Not every donor has the capacity to give a major gift, so it’s important to target the right prospects.
How to choose…
Whether you’re whipping up a quick social media blitz or slow-baking a major gifts program, each fundraising method brings its own unique advantages and challenges. Just like in baking, finding the perfect fundraising strategy often involves testing different ingredients and adjusting the mix as you go. You’ll notice that many of these require a pre-existing audience to be successful (sometimes a fairly large pre-existing audience), so you absolutely can’t skip the audience building step. But if you’ve started building an engaged audience, many of these methods will work for you, and you need to pick the right one based on your experience and knowledge of your audience.
Need some help?
Join me this Friday, September 20 at 2 pm ET for a Fridays 4 Fundraising Focus Session: Individual Giving 101. You can grab your spot here. (Just a note: Focus Sessions are anti-webinars. You’ll come and learn something, but you’ll be workshopping to, and it’s not effective if you don’t attend live. So we don’t record these. You come live, or you wait until next time.)
You can also consider my Sustain & Thrive Group Learning Program where you get heaping helpings of support from me and your fellow program participants. It’s the most comprehensive, most supportive, most affordable fundraising program I know of…because I looked high and low for one, and when I didn’t find one, I built it.
