You have a great fundraising idea, but can’t get buy in from your boss or the board. Instead of excitement over your well constructed plan, they begin to brainstorm new ideas. Use bright pink paper for your appeal letter to grab people’s attention, they suggest.

            In Part 1, we discussed some ways to get buy in from your board. Here we’ll take a look at training your board.

            Board members generally aren’t fundraising experts. They want to help, but without guidance, their efforts may be counterproductive—hence the suggestions for bright pink paper. They need to be guided in order to understand their role in fundraising.

            If you are the person in charge of fundraising, it falls to you to provide that guidance to the board, and perhaps even to the executive director. You could give them a primer in fundraising best practices, but it’s awkward. When you do the training, you are, in effect, delicately trying to tell your boss (or other person in a leadership position) how to do his or her job.

            The solution is to engage an outside expert for a brief, effective workshop for your leaders. That can help in two ways.

            First, the consultant may bring in fresh ideas for you.

            The second, and even more  important reason, is that the consultant can do what you are not in a position to do: train the leaders of your organization.

            It has nothing to do with how much you know. You’re simply not in a position to provide the training your board and executive staff needs.

            Working with a nonprofit consultant can make positive changes that can improve your fundraising efforts for years to come. A short on-line webinar can transform the leaders of your organization into  helpful allies instead of well-meaning obstacles.

Tom Harter, Partner

Not only can working with a consultant streamline your operations and maximize your fundraising efforts, it costs less than you may think. To find out more, contact Tom Harter, partner, at 1 (888) 244‑4013 or tharter@fundraisingassets.com.

Fundraising Assets helps busy fundraising professionals raise more money, save valuable time and reduce costs. We offer consulting, writing, design and production services for direct mail and e-mail fundraising, social networking and more.

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Have you ever been frustrated because you have a great fundraising idea, but you can’t get buy in from your boss, board, development committee or other leader in your organization?

            You have carefully mapped out a fundraising strategy that will bring in much needed funding. You explain it in detail to your boss and other leaders.

            Instead of the excitement you expected (and the praise for your insight and hard work that you hoped for), they say the organization can’t afford it.

            As if that wasn’t bad enough, they start brainstorming ideas for you. Use bright pink paper for your appeal letter to grab people’s attention, they suggest. Or have the staff assemble the 20,000 piece mailing in their spare time.

            Aargh!

            Here we’ll discuss some suggestions on getting buy in from your board, and in Part 2 we’ll discuss training your board.

            Basics—is fundraising important? Many board members look at fundraising with distaste. They don’t want to have to personally ask people for money, so they distance themselves from fundraising discussions altogether. But if you don’t have funds, you don’t have a program. Make sure everyone understands that without fundraising, your organization’s mission would screech to a halt.

            Involve them from the beginning. Create a planning committee or development committee and invite key board members to join. If it’s handled right, the people who had been obstacles to your plans will become valuable partners.

            Include an outside fundaising expert in the planning process.

            There are two reasons for this:

            1. The fundraising expert can bring in valuable ideas, of course.

            2. You need allies.

            There’s a saying that a prophet isn’t valued in his own country. I know how that feels.

            At one point in my career, I was the fundraising director on the staff of a nonprofit organization. One time, I had just finished explaining a new strategy to the executive director. He looked at me and said, “I wonder how a professional fundraiser would advise us.”

            Wait a minute! I am a professional fundraiser, and I am advising you, I thought. The exchange was unfair. It was galling.

            But I learned something important that day: if I wanted to get the powers-that-be to adopt my ideas, one way I could do that was by bringing in an expert to work with me and advocate for me.

            Paying a consultant for just a few hours work can benefit you in two ways: you receive help with your strategy, and you receive help getting your strategy approved!

            Direct the planning process. When your committee convenes, start with a review of your organization’s goals. Explain how the planning process will work. People who aren’t familiar with fundraising will be tempted to stray away from the effective, but boring, methods. They may try to get “creative.” If you start getting suggestions on how all you have to do to raise more money is to use bright pink paper for your appeal letter, you know you’ll have to lead your committee members back to the basics.

            Again, it’s helpful to have a fundraising consultant at the table. A board member may think you don’t know how to do fundraising if you can’t see the sheer brilliance of his pink paper idea. But when the consultant also thinks it’s time to move away from discussing pink paper, the board member is more ready to concede that it might not be a good idea after all.

            Framing the finances. When money is tight, some see only the initial cost of a new fundraising project, and that expenditure stops them in their tracks.

            Instead, you and your consultant can reframe the conversation: How much does your organization have to spend to raise the money it needs?

            If you have business people on your board, you can enlist their help to explain ROI, or return on investment. Make sure when you report to the board, you emphasize how much money a fundraising project netted so that they don’t get distracted by what it cost.

            What techniques have you found helpful in getting approval for fundraising projects? Please share them in the comments section!

Tom Harter, Partner

Not only can working with a consultant streamline your operations and maximize your fundraising efforts, it costs less than you may think. To find out more, contact Tom Harter, partner, at 1 (888) 244‑4013 or tharter@fundraisingassets.com.

Fundraising Assets helps busy fundraising professionals raise more money, save valuable time and reduce costs. We offer consulting, writing, design and production services for direct mail and e-mail fundraising, social networking and more.

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Please check out my guest article for thedatabank, a company that offers Web-based nonprofit software. thedatabank’s mission is to create positive social change through technology. Read “Four ways to raise more money with your newsletter” at http://www.thedatabank.com/connie_stofko_article.aspx

Connie Oswald Stofko
Partner, Fundraising Assets

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Even if you know how to use InDesign and Photoshop, do you really have the time it takes to do a professional job laying out your fundraising appeal letter or newsletter or brochure?

                One strategy is to outsource that work to a graphic designer who can not only do a terrific job, but get it done faster than you could. Many nonprofits, including small nonprofits, actually find it very cost effective to use a graphic designer.

                However, you have to know how to work with a designer to make the process successful.

                First, know what your goals are. Who is your audience? What action do you want your audience to take?

                For example, your goal might be to enroll teens in your organization’s program. But who is your audience—the teens or their parents? An edgy design might draw in the teens that your nonprofit serves, but actually turn off their parents.

                Also let the designer know if there is a mood you are trying to convey. Do you want to make the reader feel happy? Eager? Concerned? Generous?

                How do you want your organization to be perceived? As helpful? Cutting edge? Traditional?

                If you have decided on the specifications of your project, share them with your designer. The design she creates will be very different if it’s produced in black only, or in two colors, or in four (full) colors. The size, color and type of paper are also critical. The colors that your organization uses will need to be taken into account. Give her the PMS numbers if you have them, or give her samples that show your colors. You also need to let your designer know whether you have artwork in hand, whether photos need to be shot, or whether you want the designer to use stock photos or artwork. If you haven’t planned the specs yet, your designer can help you.

                Notice that we started by talking about the goals of the project, and we’re just now starting to talk about how the piece will look.

                Many people get it backwards. They get a picture in their head of how something should look, then hire a designer. I promise you, that is an exercise in frustration for all parties concerned. Few people are articulate enough to describe how the finished product should look, and no designers I know can read minds. At the end of the day, everyone is disappointed.

                Instead, guide the designer.

                Find examples of pieces that you like. If you’re doing a newsletter, it would be great to find examples of newsletters by other organizations similar to yours. But don’t limit yourself. Also gather magazines, brochures, ads, even cereal boxes—anything that has the look you’re going for.

                The next step is important: Try to analyze your collection and see what it is about the pieces that seems to work. Is it the amount of white space? The type face? The use of color? If you can’t quite put your finger on what exactly is appealing, describe it as best you can. Perhaps what you like is that your examples seem light and airy. That steers him in one direction. If you just hand him a pile of samples, he may interpret them as being modern or as being pastel, and go off in a direction that wasn’t what you wanted.

                When your designer delivers a proof, think back to the beginning of your process. Does this piece appeal to your audience? Does it make the reader feel the emotions you want them to feel? Does it portray your organization in the way you want your audience to perceive it? Is the piece easy to read? Does the design amplify the message of the text? Will it make your audience take action?

                In short—Does it work?

                As the piece goes to other people in your organization for your approval process, make it clear to each person that you’re asking them to check whether the piece works, not whether they “like” it. Ask them for “corrections” rather than for “changes.” That will elicit the kind of feedback that is helpful to the designer and make your design successful.  

To learn more about how cost effective it can be to use a professional designer for your next project, contact us at  at 1 (888) 244‑4013 or tharter@fundraisingassets.com.

Fundraising Assets helps busy fundraising professionals raise more money, save valuable time and reduce costs. We offer consulting, writing, design and production services for direct mail and e-mail fundraising, social networking and more.

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