Fundraising vs. Begging

I had a job once as a canvass director.  Which means it was my job to co-run an office of (mostly) young people who went out door to door asking for money.

A guy I worked with told me that every day when he went to work, his roommate would say: "Good luck with the begging today."

Sometimes, in our darkest hours, we fundraisers do feel like impoverished mendicants.

But that feeling should be a warning system: if it feels like begging, we're doing something wrong.

Fundraising is most successful, and fun and satisfying, when we feel that we're providing something valuable in exchange for our donors' dollars.

Sometimes the "something valuable" is a good or a service.  Like great theater tickets or curator-led private viewings or opportunities to meet brilliant leaders in a field of interest.  The big players in the nonprofit cultural world provide those privileges in abundance, and it plays a big part in their fundraising strategy.  We smaller guys need to figure out how to replicate that formula in a manageable but meaningful way.

For non-arts organizations, the "something valuable" might just be the opportunity to be involved in something important and exciting.  The opportunity to make a real and significant difference in the lives of people who need help, or to get a school built, or to provide potable water to a village that needs it desperately.

Or perhaps there are opportunities to partner with organizations that will enable you to provide special benefits for your donors.

My point is: innovation and bold creativity can go a long way in terms of transforming our asks from unpleasant obligations to stimulating opportunities in the minds of our prospects.

Fundraising is dreary and difficult when we're doing nothing particularly exciting or important and providing our donors with uninspired gratitude in return.

The first step, I remind myself continuously, is figuring out how to make ourselves, and then our donors, excited about the project and the ask.  Sometimes that means expanding the project and increasing the goal.  I tend to think that it's easier to raise a million dollars for a fabulous project than a half million for a mediocre one.

With the right "something valuable" in hand, the fundraising challenge may not be easy, but it won't feel like begging either.