Nonprofit Fundraising Approaches that Work – Key Takeaways

Last week three nonprofit leaders participated in our “Fundraising Approaches that Work” event – sharing their stories, offering their take on the current fundraising climate, and giving their best tips and advice to improve nonprofit fundraising efforts.
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Our speakers included Liz Jarrard from Jubilee Women’s Center, Dominique Cantwell from Bainbridge Performing Arts, and Marcia Wright-Soika from FamilyWorks. Each brought their own unique perspective on fundraising in today’s climate.

Today we’re going to recap their advice and ideas so that you can benefit from their wisdom whether you attended or not.

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Focus on Hope
Liz Jarrard encourages us to, “Keep an eye on hope.” To overcome staff and donor fatigue, she advises focusing your messaging on hope and positivity to improve fundraising outcomes. Her approach is to let one donor lead to the next donor and so on. Understanding different donor types and matching her message to their style has increased her success using this method.

Internal teams can also improve fundraising outcomes. By improving relationships between program staff and fundraisers trust is built. This increased trust leads to increased collaborations, which in turn leads to more authentic messages to donors and investors.
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At Jubilee additional ways to serve clients have been developed. By adding a free community boutique for low-income women, a unique group of donors have been empowered to be passionate about success their contributions create for clients. 

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Make It Joyful
Dominique Cantwell offers several key pieces of fundraising wisdom. To start, she suggests that “Focusing on the mission and those you are serving makes [fundraising] more joyful.” She goes on to say that understanding how you will build capacity and outcomes for your organization can help fundraising efforts to become a message of “join us” rather than “save us.” This is important because donors and investors will respond more favorably to that type of positive messaging.
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She also acknowledges that many board members are not comfortable with fundraising, so Dominique offers several ideas on how to turn those that hate fundraising into good fundraisers:

• Set clear expectations upfront.
• Refine how they talk about the organization using a “join us” approach.
• Encourage them to take someone with them when they are fundraising instead of going at it alone.
• Dive into the friction by talking about the things you are passionate about.

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​Shift The Story
Marcia Wright-Soika talks about how to reinvest in your team to increase fundraising results by “Shifting the story in how donors engage with you.” She explains that finding new ways to deliver services improves client results, enabling fundraisers to tell more inspiring mission success stories. Marcia advises that donors respond positively to these inspiring stories of improved client success.

Given the current climate, staying motivated to do fundraising can feel like a heavy lift. For Marcia, the best way to stay motived is to build personal relationships with clients. Her passion for their success enables her to tell their organization’s story in a more personal way – one that resonates better with donors.

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Our panel of nonprofit leaders encourages you to let your passion for your organization’s mission show. If you need to rebuild your passion, connect with those your organization serves. Find ways to tell personalized, inspiring stories to donors about the impact the organization makes, and fundraising success will surely follow.
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Valtas Group holds Nonprofit Community Events three times each year bringing together nonprofit leaders and board members to share, network, and learn from each other. If you’d like to be included in a future event as either a speaker or attendee, please contact us!