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Winter 2024 Newsletter - Strategic Fundraising Planning
Dear leaders,
Before I dive in: like many of you, I am finding it hard to focus on my work with the destruction happening in Gaza. I grieve for the Israelis killed on October 7th, feel fear for the hostages still being held by both Israel and Hamas, and am continually horrified by Israel’s genocidal response. I am disgusted with the role the US plays in sanctioning and facilitating the destruction of Gaza and the slaughter of over 23,000 Palestinians, over 70% of whom are women and children. As a Jew, I feel it’s particularly important for me to speak out, since these horrors are being carried out in my name, supposedly for my safety. We will never be safe or whole through the persecution and dehumanization of others. I’m proud to support the work of If Not Now, Jewish Voice for Peace, and the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights. It’s a hard balance to figure out what I can do as an individual, what our organizations can do to address the crisis, and how to continue and strengthen the great work we are already doing. But do we must - it will take all of us doing what we are able to, when we are able to.
Now, let’s talk about fundraising planning - to achieve our goals (including the goal of ceasefire), we need powerful movements. To build winning movements, we need strong organizations, and strong organizations require resources (and excellent fundraising planning). The strongest strategic fundraising plans involve a robust team in assessment and planning to ensure that there are opportunities for feedback and encourage buy-in from the folks who will be doing the work!
My first suggestion is to start by reframing fundraising. Providing people the opportunity to be a part of achieving your great mission by making a donation, or a fundraising ask, is a gift to them - not a burden. When we approach development as joyful work that elevates values, fun, participation, and creativity, we do the work with more motivation, produce less burnout, and achieve more success. Instill and celebrate how making an ask at a membership meeting, setting up a peer to peer fundraising page, calling donors to thank them, and making a donation are all forms of activism, as well as acts of joy.
First: Assess the prior year
What were the strategies you used to bring in new donors, keep the ones you have, and help them understand what their support made possible?
What were the results? For each strategy, what were your initial goals, how much did you raise, who made it happen, and how?
What worked, what didn’t, and why?
Second: Assess the current conditions for fundraising (both internal and external)
What are some opportunities and strengths your organization can utilize? What are the current conditions in the field for funding your kind of work?
What are the resources you can put towards fundraising? How much can you spend and how much time can staff dedicate to fundraising? Who are the board members, members, or volunteers who could also be involved?
Third: Brainstorm!
Brainstorm possible strategies to acquire new donors and keep the ones you have. How can you inspire and motivate your supporters to invest in your work more substantively, both with time and money?
Depending on your organization, this can include email outreach, phonebanks, peer to peer, events, mailings, and more.
Most important - what are some strategies that will help donors know what they help make possible? How can donors feel more connected with your work?
Fourth: Review and cull your strategies list
It goes without saying - you can’t do everything on your great brainstorm list! So for each of your ideas, identify what it will require to be successful. Then, ask yourself: do you have the capacity to make it happen?
For example, if you want to invite the board to participate more in fundraising, what will it take to organize them and provide the support they need to succeed? What is their current capacity and hunger to participate?
Evaluate the ideas based on possible results and outcomes - and not just what it might raise! What other goals might each strategy help meet? What are your staff and most engaged supporters excited to work on? Which strategies are the most values aligned?
Be ambitious and realistic! If you want to run a phone bank, how many people can you reliably recruit? What will it take internally to get folks there? Volunteers often reach 10-20 people an hour, so your 5 volunteers are not going to be able to call 200 donors!
Fifth - Make your plan and calendar!
I love this tool from Klein & Roth** for finalizing each strategy, setting goals, determining who’s going to do the work, and when. (This tool can also be adapted to assess and evaluate prior strategies.)
Run through the plan with those who will need to be involved! No one likes to be voluntold to do something they are resistant to do. Discuss and address their hesitancies, and revise the plan accordingly.
Build out a clear calendar for the year, and make sure it’s in alignment with the calendar for all of your organizational work. Add tasks to work plans or your task management system.
Go forth and fundraise - and good luck meeting all of your goals in 2024 and beyond!
Let’s talk about it!
Finally, if you would like to schedule a 30 minute free consultation, you can do so here. I am happy to be a resource to you and your organization, even if just to act as your sounding board. My areas of work include fundraising, assessment, organizational development, staff and board improvement, and change management.
Ceasefire now! In solidarity,
Nikki
** I have been learning from the brilliant Stephanie Roth and Kim Klein since my first fundraising job in 1998 and they continue to teach me. We are all blessed to have their leadership in the field of grassroots fundraising!
CLIENT PROFILE - HOOSIER ACTION
I’ve been supporting the remarkable organization Hoosier Action for the last year in fundraising planning and support. HA is a grassroots, statewide organization doing deep organizing particularly in rural working class communities in Indiana to fight for real change on the ground to improve people’s lives, and instill a belief in the power of organizing.
Like many organizations, Hoosier Action is disproportionately funded by grants, and wanted to diversify their funding and build an individual donor base. As a membership organization, setting up a strong dues paying model is not *just* an excellent way to raise money: it also helps to build power and ensure their work is accountable to the base. I worked with them to develop this model, and trained and supported the board to engage in fundraising. Now we are working on fundraising planning, following the model above!
Fall 2023 Newsletter - Love & Rigor
Dear Movers and Shakers,
L’shana tova - wishes for a sweet and powerful New Year for us all.
Social justice organizations are the lifeblood of winning movements for change. Yet, we often hear of organizations that have toxic cultures that demoralize staff and members and get in the way of winning. Values in theory aren’t enough - we need to concretize them in our personal and organizational practices to make them matter. I think of these patterns as a lack of clarity and intentionality about values, strategy, practices, structure, roles, and/or working conditions. What we need is some framing to build both philosophical and practical change to make strong organizational cultures.
In your organization that can look like many things.
Your organization might have mission drift - working on projects that are funder driven, or taking on work outside of your capacity or theory of change. Your dreams and plans may be fundamentally mismatched to the current capacity of the organization.
There might be clear values that drive your external work that aren’t practiced internally. Working conditions might need improvements to ensure that staff can bring their whole selves to the work and be a place where they are valued for their contributions.
Or, staff might not always receive (or collaboratively build) clear plans and methods of transparency and accountability. Lack of clarity on role definition may leave staff confused about the scope, direction, or decision making approaches of their work.
Rest assured, these patterns are not your, or any individual’s, “fault.” Our organizations exist in the crucible of systematic oppression, white supremacy, violence, and climate disaster. We might see the problems, but not know how to address them - which can lead to more hopelessness and burn out.
Here’s the good news - there are incredibly smart and visionary leaders that are providing both hope and solutions. If you haven’t read it yet, check out this incredible piece by Maurice Mitchell, the Executive Director of the Working Families Party, on building resilient organizations. At JFREJ, we were rooted in the principles of “Love and Rigor” (h/t to the brilliant Dove Kent for this framing). What this means is building organizations that are rooted in love first and foremost - for each other, our communities, and the preciousness of our work. And - the rigor that is needed in our internal practices and quality of our work to truly build organizations and movements that win.
And, not being able to see solutions yet doesn’t mean they aren’t there. Even in that crucible of oppression and suffering, we have the skills and knowledge to take a step back, analyze the problems, and generate creative solutions. Social change organizations are rooted in bringing people together to invoke our collective genius - this principle and skill is what will make internal change collective and possible.
And, I’m here to help! In my consulting work on organizational dynamics and change management, I have supported my clients to build safe, loving, and forward-thinking containers in which to build on their strengths and successes to establish clear goals on clarifying roles and values, and change practices and structures. I provide organizational assessment, facilitation, and board and staff development from which your organization will emerge stronger and with more clarity. I lift up a mirror to where you are bravely working* and the reasons behind your challenges, and lead you to co-create and believe in potential solutions. I also provide grassroots fundraising support so you can build the resources that build capacity and ease the stress of how to find and secure funds to keep the doors open.
My work is always rooted in joy, belief in change, and the deepest love and respect for what you are trying to accomplish.
I would love to talk with you about the ways we might be able to work together! If you would like to schedule a (free) consultation, please use my calendly to schedule a 30 minute intro call that works with your schedule.
*This phrase is taken from my favorite poem - Birdwings by Rumi.
CLIENT PROFILE - ALIGN NY
Over the last year, I have had the distinct pleasure of working with ALIGN NY, an amazing organization bringing together unions and community organizations to fight for city and state policy change to address climate disaster and worker justice. (Come to their Movement Builder Awards on October 11th to see their work in action and celebrate WGA and SAG-AFTRA, among other fantastic honorees!) They went through a leadership transition as well as a period of instability with limited capacity. As they righted the ship, I supported them through facilitation and improvement of internal processes - now they are emerging stronger than ever!
From the Winter 2023 Quarterly Newsletter - Building a Hiring Pool
For this quarter’s newsletter, I want to share some thoughts and ideas about building a candidate pool for new hires. In addition to being involved with many hires as a staff person, I recently helped Rethinking Schools hire their first Executive Director (see below to meet Dr. Cierra Kaler-Jones!).
In my fundraising work, I bring an organizing mentality and approach, which involves the full staff, board, and membership in engaging donors. Similarly, what I have found to be most important to successful hires is the involvement of those same leaders in actively spreading the word about open positions and doing everything they can to get the info out far and wide. Staff, board, and member leaders should be encouraged to share job announcements with anyone and everyone, starting with their contacts who are most likely to know candidates and be willing to spread the word themselves. Since you never know who knows where a great candidate might come from, your outreach should also go beyond those already in your own group’s orbit (this is helpful for diversity and inclusion factors in outreach as well). Hey, I just shared those ALIGN jobs with my baseball fantasy league! You can make it as easy as possible for people to participate by providing social media links and images, as well as writing sample text for them to use in their emails and other outreach - I’ve provided my basic version here for you to copy and edit for yourself.
Both job searching and hiring is hard, and it’s only gotten harder during the pandemic. I’d encourage us all to have an approach that centers the candidates and recognizes the effort it takes to apply for jobs, and also roots in an abundance mindset from the organization’s perspective. We want jobseekers and organizations to find the best fits. I know it can feel like we are in competition with each other, but we should see hiring for our organizations as part of hiring for the movement. We want other like-minded organizations to succeed as well in furtherance of our shared goals. To this point, hat tip to Linda Nguyen of Movement Talent for her great piece in the Chronicle of Philanthropy on reshaping nonprofit hiring, including the encouragement to share candidate pools. Keep a list of organizations hiring for similar positions - you can suggest those openings to candidates who don’t make it through in your process and vice versa. The good news is, doing great networking for your open jobs helps your organization in other ways. It’s a great way to build awareness about your work, strengthen and create new relationships, boost your social media presence, and connect with donors and funders.
Since job boards, listservs, facebook groups etc. are still important and a good way to get the word out beyond those currently in your network (which is important for diversity and inclusion), I’ve compiled a list of job boards and listservs here that you are also welcome to use. If you have ideas for what should be added, let me know!
A few other notes on hiring not related to outreach:
Once you get to the interviewing stage, share your questions with jobseekers as part of an equity framework and reducing biases in hiring.
If you ask candidates to submit an exercise or new content, make sure it’s not something you’ll be able to use without them, and pay them a stipend for their time.
I like to keep a list of folks who are currently looking for work so I can pass on leads that have been shared with me. If you are currently looking for work, let me know so that I can keep you in mind!
And finally, if you’re in the hiring process often because of high job turnover, it’s time to look at your retention practices! Hiring is VERY expensive, and that should be factored in when considering pay and benefit levels. Looking at organizational culture, decision making, and other factors related to job satisfaction is crucial to retention.
Meet Dr. Cierra Kaler-Jones
I have been fortunate enough to do several fundraising and organizational development projects with Rethinking Schools over the last few years, including helping them hire their first ever Executive Director. Rethinking Schools is a nonprofit publisher and advocacy organization dedicated to sustaining and strengthening public education through social justice teaching and education activism. Cierra has long been in the education justice space, working with the Zinn Education Project and the Communities for Just Schools Fund. She is also a teacher, a dancer, a writer, and a researcher. I’m so thrilled that she is in the role!
Fall 2022 Newsletter -
How To Be a Good Donor
First of all - yes, this applies to you. 70% of Americans make charitable donations, including many who don’t consider themselves to have disposable income. However much you give, where you put your charitable donations does matter. My first giving plan was for $200 for the year; the person next to me was making a plan for $50,000 a year. That $200 mattered to me, it mattered to the organizations who received it, and I wanted to be as thoughtful and intentional as the donor next to me about where to put it.
These reflections stem from my 20+ years in fundraising. When I was a staff fundraiser, it often felt too risky to ask people to be better donors - now that I am a consultant, I don’t need to fear offending a donor. And, these are the principles that shape my own giving.
1. Give What you Can, and Stretch When you Can.
For those of us that can’t make “major” gifts, it can often feel like our donations don’t matter - trust me, they do! Organizations need a wide donor base with people giving at all levels, and every bit counts. Each person that gives any amount is also a vote of confidence in the work that they do, and feels amazing to the staff, volunteers, and other donors that make that work happen.
Decide how much you are able to give at the start of the year and work that into your budget throughout the year. Becoming a monthly donor is a great way to do that - giving $240 at once is much more of a financial hit than automatically giving $20 a month. And, it’s great for the organizations to have that steady stream of income every month.
Many religious traditions have the concept of “tithing,” giving up to 10% of their take-home income. If that’s out of reach, can you do 5% or even 2%? Whatever you can give, whether it’s a percentage of your income or a total amount, it makes a huge difference to the people and causes that matter to you. Stretch when you can, and be proud of the role you are playing in the work. It takes all of us.
2. Decide your Principles and Priorities for Giving.
What are the communities you feel connected to, and what are the causes you most care about? What work do you believe really makes a difference? There’s no right or wrong answer here; but being clear about this means that you’ll feel better about your giving, and whatever you give will go exactly where you intended.
For me, I think about all of the organizations whose work I support, and I consider which ones are going to have the hardest time raising money from other donors. Which organizations have more radical politics that are more critical of the status quo, or fewer resources to put to fundraising? I prioritize funding for local organizing led by directly impacted communities and work rooted in BIPOC communities. And yes, these priorities sometimes change - when the Dobbs decision came down, I gave to abortion funding. As someone who has had an abortion, the decision felt personal, and I was terrified for all of the pregnant people who would be prevented from controlling their reproductive destiny because of a lack of access to funds.
But that’s just me - others prioritize giving in the global south or in geographic areas of the US with fewer resources. I know folks who prioritize direct electoral work, or culture change, or work led by young people, or coalitions that bring multiple organizations together, or issues that matter to them that they aren’t able to volunteer in. There are as many ways to articulate priorities as there are donors - so decide yours and give accordingly.
3. Give More, to Fewer Organizations.
Fundraising takes overhead and effort - spreading out your gifts means that the total amount spent on fundraising and keeping in contact with you is higher. In general, in order to reduce the total of money that is spent maintaining your support, it is ideal to give larger sums to fewer organizations. That said, I also set aside a small amount of my giving for asks outside of my core priorities - to support the efforts of my loved ones to raise money for their core priorities.
For organizations that do membership fundraising that is connected to power-building, there can be value in smaller donations so that they can count you in their ranks. (By power-building, I am referring to the organizations that need donors not just for the funding they receive, but for the number of people they can count as dues-paying members when they lobby elected officials for policy change.)
4. Just Say No.
If someone contacts you directly (via phone, text, or email) and requests a donation, and you aren’t going to give, please just say no directly! It may seem kinder not to “reject” them. But without a direct no, it makes sense for them to follow up with you and ask again. I often received enthusiastic donations after following up with a donor, so from a fundraising perspective, it always makes sense to continue contacting you if you do not give a clear no. Save that staff person or volunteer their time - a clear no is always better than radio silence. There’s no shame in saying no - “Thank you so much for asking! I’d love to support you, but unfortunately, I’m not in a position to donate right now. I wish you the best.” And if you want to be taken off their list and not be asked again, say that as well - “my giving priorities have changed - I still support your work, but I won’t be able to support it financially.”
5. Do What You Say You’re Going to Do.
If you commit over the phone or email to making a donation, signing up to become a monthly donor, or help them by sharing their work with others, do it without needing to a reminder. I’ve often needed to spend valuable time following up with donors to remind them of their commitments, or received a “yes” that never came through - do it right away if you can, or set up your own reminder if you need to. And if you said yes because you felt bad saying no - see #4 above!
6. Give with No Strings Attached, and Make Multi-Year Commitments Where Possible.
This particularly applies to those who can make larger donations that represent a larger percentage of the budget of the organization - please don’t hold your support over them! It’s fine to express your opinions about their work, but your support shouldn’t be contingent on their following your opinions. Organizations should be able to decide on their work depending on the needs of their communities and their strategic priorities, not the wishes of their donors. Be conscious of the power and access that people with resources have traditionally held in nonprofit spaces to dictate agendas, and celebrate that this is and should be shifting. Try to be gracious if they make a mistake (like listing your name incorrectly) - nonprofit work is hard, and mistakes are going to happen. Don’t punish them if they do.
Multi-year commitments also make a huge difference. From year to year, organizations don’t know what they can count on towards their overall budget - if you can commit a certain amount for each of 3 years, let them know, and follow through.
7. Give Joyfully.
Finally - be proud of the role you play as a donor. In order to win, movements need strong organizations, and to be strong, organizations need funding. You are not doing them a favor - you are taking the wonderful opportunity to make a difference, to do something with other people to fight for the better world we all need and deserve.