Help for Community Groups - 1. Getting started in fundraising
Most groups have to fundraise for some or all of the money they need. This means persuading individuals or organisations voluntarily to give you donations or grants.
There are basically three forms of funding payments from organisations (like your local authority or local NHS trust) to something that they want done;
- grants from organisations such as grant-making trusts to do what you want done;
- a regular programme of raising donations from individuals.
(For more information on the different sources of money, please see section 3 - Sources of money).
Getting money from these different kinds of donors is called fundraising, and fundraising is a challenge. Sometimes it is frustrating, sometimes it is immensely enjoyable; sometimes you win, sometimes you don't. It is often rewarding; it is always hard work. Like any game, fundraising has its own rules, although the basic rules for success are pretty much the same for most funding sources. So what's involved? Well, firstly a bit of myth busting...
You have to be big to raise money successfully.
There is a tendency to assume that the best fundraisers are those in the big national charities with huge budgets at their disposal, and that local organisations have no chance when up against them. Not true! Many donors like their money to stay local, and want to support organisations and people that are part of their community. Local organisations are ideally placed to build personal relations with local people, the local press and local funders. These personal relationships are at the heart of successful fundraising. Who better to form them than local charities and voluntary organisations?
You have to write long and complicated fundraising letters.
With so many different things going on in your organisation and your community, how can you tell everybody everything? The answer is, you can't. Nor do you need to. You should always aim to tell potential donors what most interests them. So, a letter to you members will be different from a letter to a local company, which will be different from a letter to a grant-making trust. Also, you don't need to be a world-famous author or a PR specialist to write a good fundraising letter. People who believe in the importance of what they are doing write the best letters in straightforward, plain English. Section 4 Applying - will help you with this.
So how do you become a successful fundraiser? This section looks at two broad areas:
- the qualities of a good fundraiser
- some golden rules of fundraising.
1. THE FUNDRAISER
In theory, anyone can be a fundraiser. You don't have to belong to a particular professional body; you don't have to take exams; you don't even have to have done it before. However, it is important that you get the right person to do it. The fundraiser will be saying all kinds of things about your organisation and making all kinds of promises on your behalf; if he or she says or does the wrong thing, it will reflect badly on you. So what do you need to be a good fundraiser?
Time
It is often said that fundraising is simple, but not easy. It is not rocket science (although sometimes people try to make out that it is!) but there are few quick fundraising fixes. The biggest factor is time. It takes time to organise fundraising events; it takes time to make applications to major funders. Fundraising that is rushed or done at the last minute rarely succeeds. A key question for any fundraiser is 'Have I got the time to do it?'
Knowledge
When talking to potential donors, you must be able to answer their questions - and there can be lots of questions! These can range from the very general - such as 'what exactly will my money achieve?' - to the very specific - such as 'how many wheelchair users attend the lunch club? Although you can't be expected to know everything, the fundraiser who keeps on promising 'to get back to you over that one' will find the going gets pretty tough. However, this is not knowledge about fundraising, but rather about the organisation's on-going work. In fact, the best fundraisers are often people close to the work of the charity who can speak with knowledge and commitment about the importance of the work.
Planning
Eisenhower once said: 'Plans are nothing; planning is everything'. In other words, a beautifully written fundraising plan that just sits on your top shelf gathering dust doesn't get any money raised. However, it is absolutely vital that your fundraising is planned and thought through. For example, it may take a year to organise a good fundraising event properly; it certainly takes over six months to apply for a large grant from the Community Fund, not least because it will take them about five months to assess your application and decide whether to give you a grant. But if you need the money in three months' time, then neither of these options is much good. Section 2 - Planning your fundraising - will help you with your planning.
Commitment and confidence
This is one of the most important qualities in any fundraiser. It soon becomes clear to the outsider if people are just going through the motions because they have been landed with the job, or that they don't think it will work. The good fundraiser creates a sense of real enthusiasm in all those involved - volunteers, donors, event organisers and so on. Some people can raise fortunes through sheer force of personality, even if they break all the fundraising rules.
Ask yourself 'Am I really committed to the work I am being asked to raise money for, and do I think the fundraising plans are good ones?'. If you answer 'no' to either of these questions, don't do the fundraising. You will be setting yourself - and your organisation - up to fail.
Stamina and persistence
Fundraising can be a hard and dispiriting business. More people will say 'no' than 'yes'. People who agree to do things will suddenly drop out, or do them badly, leaving you completely in the lurch. Fundraisers who quit easily will not succeed, but those who keep their eyes on the prize usually succeed.
Truthfulness and realism
When money is tight it is very easy to become 'funder-led'. This is where you devise a piece of work just to try and get money rather than because you actually want to do the work. Or that you promise the earth in order to get money, or say what you know the donor wants to hear even though it's not really true. All this is a recipe for fundraising disaster. Nothing alienates a donor more than a feeling that their money has been wasted or misspent, or that they were misled.
Raise money for what you want to do and for what you know you can achieve, and afterwards tell the donor how successful you were in doing all of this. And if you can't do what that donor wants you to do, say so. There are plenty of other donors to go at.
Equipment
You will need at least a telephone (ideally with an answering machine) and a word processor and printer. You don't necessarily have to buy them; you may well be able to borrow or scrounge them from members, supporters, local companies or whoever.
Willingness to ask
One of the greatest current problems with charity fundraising is that it is all about sending letters to people who may or may not know you. The better the fundraiser and potential donor know, like and trust each other, the more likely the appeal is to be successful (see The Golden Rules below). Even so, the most important attribute for the fundraiser is the confidence or determination to ask personally for money. This may seem a statement of the obvious. However, so many fundraisers seem desperate to avoid having to ask for money directly; instead they write endless letters and produce strategy reports on how they will raise funds. But you feel like shouting at them, 'JUST ASK FOR THE MONEY!' In fact, a major charity commissioned a piece of research about why people were not supporting them. Was it the charity's image? Was it the cause? Was it donor fatigue? No, it was simply that the people had never been asked. We often assume that just because people know we are there and that we need the money then they will dig into their pockets. They may well, but only if we ask them to.
Opportunism
The good fundraiser makes things happen. For example, the difference between an OK event and a successful one could be the fact that a celebrity turns up. This always gives an event profile and prestige. Often such people come because somebody knows somebody who knows them. The alert fundraiser breaks into these networks, not because they are star struck but because they know the charity will benefit. Or a local company is having a really good (or really bad) time, so is ripe to sponsor an event to celebrate their success (or restore their image and profile). The opportunist gets in there, and first.
Luck
You may just happen to say the right thing at the right time, or bump into someone who could be a useful contact. A colleague was recently doing a radio interview about a new community sports project. After the broadcast a major funder who happened to be listening rang the radio station to find out more and the funder and project were put into contact with each other. You cannot plan for this, but you must be ready to make the most of opportunities.
To say thank you
Remember, getting money is only the start of the process. Once people have given, they are more likely to give again, but only if you treat them properly. At the very least say thank you - so many people fail to do so. Also, try to keep them informed of what is going on.
SOME GOLDEN RULES OF FUNDRAISING
Fundraising is not just about getting the right person to do it. He or she needs to operate in a certain kind of way. Here are some pointers:
Fundraising is a people business.
People do not give to organisations; they do not give to abstract concepts. They give to help people or to do something to create a better world. The fundraiser is the person who shows them how they can achieve this. Always stress the human aspect of your work - how you give people a new chance in life, or enable them to experience things they otherwise wouldn't, or whatever.
Fundraising is about projects, not organisations
A lot of fundraising tends to be about individual pieces of work (often called projects) rather than the organisation as a whole. For example, an overseas aid charity will place an advert of a starving child in a newspaper and say, effectively, 'help us work with people like this'. This is a much more effective fundraising proposition than simply saying 'please support Save the Children'. Or a hospital will have a scanner appeal rather than a general contribution to hospital funds.
You may well need to break your organisation's work up into individual chunks and raise money for each, whether this is for a new roof on the village hall or for a drug awareness programme in schools. This approach applies much less to fundraising events where people come along because they want a good time or because they are existing supporters of the charity. In these cases, you can get away with the idea that all money will help the charity, although even then it is better to try and show some of the key and exciting things currently going on.
Fundraising is about personal relationships.
It is impossible to overestimate the power and importance of personal contacts within the fundraising process. As it says above, the more the donor and person asking for money know, like and trust each other the more likely the donor will be to give. This is particularly the case at the local level where a lot of fundraising is based on personal contacts.
However, two issues often arise at this point:
- You feel that you may not currently know the right people.
- You may not always be the best person to do the actual asking.
If you don't know the right people try to recruit into the organisation someone who does. So, if you are targeting local businesses, maybe you could get a prominent local businessperson on your fundraising or some other committee, and use his or her personal contacts to get a foot through the door. Even then you may not be the best person to ask for the money. An approach from your business person saying 'we have supported this excellent local charity, I think you [the managing director of another company) should do the same' may well work even better.
Fundraising is about the donor.
Too many fundraisers concentrate on what they want to tell the donor ('we do this' or 'we need that'). However, you need to scratch each donor where he or she itches. Ask yourself: 'Why would this donor want to support us? What is their particular concerns and interests?' For example, a parent who simply wants their child to have a fun time at youth club will give on a totally different basis to a company trying to attract the youth group members as its future workforce. Someone who has just lost a close relative to cancer will look on a scanner appeal very differently to someone with no direct experience - and they will both have very different concerns to the local health authority.
Fundraising must be relevant.
Just because people or institutions have money doesn't mean that they will be interested in you. In fact, one of the major complaints from grant-making trusts and companies is the number of applications they receive that are way outside their policy guidelines or areas of interest. Try and get into the minds of the different donors and show that you understand their specific interests and concerns and are doing something about them. Always make sure that there is a good reason for talking to each person you contact. If there isn't, don't bother; concentrate your energies on more fruitful sources.
The more personal the better.
Donors like to be treated and appreciated as individuals, even those who are representing an organisation (e.g. a grant-making trust, company or the local authority). So the more personal you can make your approach the better. A face to face meeting is better than a telephone call which is better than a personalised letter which is far better than a circular letter which is better than a poster.
Fundraising is selling.
Fundraising is a two-stage process. The first thing you have to do is show people there is an important need and that you can do something useful about it. If the potential donor agrees, that the need is important, that something should be done and that your organisation is doing something significant to make a difference, you can show them how some extra support will help you do something even better - then the second stage of asking for money becomes easy.
Fundraising is as much about selling an idea that the donor can make a difference as it is about asking for money. In an important sense, fundraising is about change rather than money. Once people have been sold the idea that they can help change things for the better, they will normally want to give.
Giving is a matter of trust.
People give money to you on the understanding that you will do certain good things. You need to show that you are capable of doing the work, that the money will actually achieve something, that they can trust you to use their money well. This generally boils down to your reputation and credibility. In other words, when trying to persuade the donor to give, can you show that you have done things like this really successfully before; that you have really good people to do the work; that you are well-liked and respected throughout the community; that lots of other people trust you to do this work? Donors take a lot of comfort and reassurance from the fact that other people are giving, that you are clearly a good, reliable and well-liked organisation.
It's not all about cash now.
Donors tend to give money to organisations and causes they have heard of, so it is not always a case of trying to raise money now. You may need to spend time building relationships, becoming better known, getting on local radio or in the press, obtaining endorsements about the quality of your work from community members, leaders, experts or prominent people. All this will help strengthen any fundraising case that you eventually make. Fundraising is friend-raising. Try to build and keep your fundraising relationships with the same care as your friendships. Get to know your donors personally; make them feel a valuable part of things; and try to show that you are as keen to listen to what they have to say as to tell them what you want from them.
Page 2 - Planning...
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