Jump-Starting the Stalled Fundraising Campaign E-Book

Julia I. Walker

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Serie: The AFP/Wiley Fund Development Series
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 299

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2009

Beschreibung

Take your fundraising campaign from stuck to sensational Things have suddenly gotten a lot tougher in the fundraisingbusiness. Nonprofits have begun searching for new ways to makebudgets stretch further, to do more with less, and to maximizetheir return on investment. Part of the AFP / Wiley Fund Development Series,Jump-Starting the Stalled Fundraising Campaign will helpyour nonprofit develop a strategic approach to fundraising in theweak economy, with advice on knowing if your campaign is introuble, what short-term steps you can take to stem your losses,and how to avoid the Top 10 campaign mistakes. Concise and practical, Jump-Starting the Stalled FundraisingCampaign discusses: * Fundraising in a challenging economic environment * Knowing how to identify opportunities * How to re-engage board, staff, and volunteers * Prospect identification, cultivation, and solicitation * Communicating more effectively to attract additionalsupport * Building on opportunities for change across theorganization Stuck? Jump-start your campaign today with Julia Walker'sstep-by-step guidance, practical tools, and clear strategies forgetting your nonprofit's campaign back on the road tosuccess.

Leseprobe

Table of Contents

Title Page

Copyright Page

The AFP Fund Development Series

Dedication

Acknowledgements

About the Author

Introduction

CHAPTER 1 - Fundraising in a Challenging Economic Environment

A New Environment for Philanthropy

Take Immediate Steps to Shore up Your Fundraising Programs

Take a Hard Look at Your Campaign

Take Time Out while You Plan

Improving Advancement Efficiency: Campaign Staffing and Budgets

CHAPTER 2 - Looking Beneath the Surface: Analyze Campaign Results

Analyze Fundraising Patterns

Evaluating Strengths and Weaknesses in Your Campaign

Adjusting the Campaign Gift Table

Summary

CHAPTER 3 - Identifying Opportunities: Making Lemons out of Lemonade

Stewardship Is for Keeps

Planned Giving and Your Campaign

An Opportunity to Build for the Future

Techniques to Restore Campaign Momentum

Summary

CHAPTER 4 - Get Back on Track with Changes in Campaign Structure

Campaign Phasing and Timetables

Learn to Adjust Campaign Goals and Gift Tables

Adjusting Gift Tables to Meet New Realities

Recognition at What Price?

Summary

CHAPTER 5 - The Human Element: Reengaging Board, Staff, and Volunteers

Getting Your Board to Reinvest in the Campaign

Motivating Volunteers

Improve Staff Morale and Productivity

Summary

CHAPTER 6 - Desperately Seeking Donors: Prospect Identification, Cultivation, ...

Improve Your List through Prospect Research

Improve Prospect Cultivation Strategies

Making Asks that Succeed

Making the Ask: Five Basic Steps

Summary

CHAPTER 7 - Communicate More Effectively to Attract Additional Support

Communicate to Attract Support

Review Marketing and Communication Strategies

Sharpen Your Case to Stand Out

Creating Materials that Motivate Donors

Proposal Writing for Results

Summary

CHAPTER 8 - Build on Opportunities for Change across the Organization

Change across the Organization

Lessons in Creative Problem-Solving

Seize Opportunities to Create Positive Change

Repositioning in Tough Times

Summary

Index

Copyright © 2009 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.

Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey.

Published simultaneously in Canada.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:

eISBN : 978-0-470-50038-5

The AFP Fund Development Series

The AFP Fund Development Series is intended to provide fund development professionals and volunteers, including board members (and others interested in the nonprofit sector), with top-quality publications that help advance philanthropy as voluntary action for the public good. Our goal is to provide practical, timely guidance and information on fundraising, charitable giving, and related subjects. The Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP) and Wiley each bring to this innovative collaboration unique and important resources that result in a whole greater than the sum of its parts. For information on other books in the series, please visit:

The Association of Fundraising Professionals

The Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP) represents over 30,000 members in more than 197 chapters throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico, and China, working to advance philanthropy through advocacy, research, education, and certification programs.

The association fosters development and growth of fundraising professionals and promotes high ethical standards in the fundraising profession. For more information or to join the world’s largest association of fundraising professionals, visit www.afpnet.org.

2008-2009 AFP Publishing Advisory Committee

Chair: Nina P. Berkheiser, CFRE

Principal Consultant, Your Nonprofit Advisor

Linda L. Chew, CFRE

Development Consultant

D. C. Dreger, ACFRE

Senior Campaign Director, Custom Development Solutions, Inc. (CDS)

Patricia L. Eldred, CFRE

Director of Development, Independent Living, Inc.

Samuel N. Gough, CFRE

Principal, The AFRAM Group

Audrey P. Kintzi, ACFRE

Director of Development, Courage Center

Steven Miller, CFRE

Director of Development and Membership, Bread for the World

Robert J. Mueller, CFRE

Vice President, Hospice Foundation of Louisville

Maria Elena Noriega

Director, Noriega Malo & Associates

Michele Pearce

Director of Development, Consumer Credit Counseling

Service of Greater Atlanta

Leslie E. Weir, MA, ACFRE

Director of Family Philanthropy, The Winnipeg Foundation

Sharon R. Will, CFRE

Director of Development, South Wind Hospice

John Wiley & Sons, Inc.:

Susan McDermott

Senior Editor (Professional/Trade Division)

AFP Staff:

Jan Alfieri

Manager, New Product Development

Rhonda Starr

Vice President, Education and Training

This book is dedicated to the hundreds of thousands of people who gave generously of their time, money, and volunteer efforts to help rebuild New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina. All of us who experienced the outpouring of support shown by so many private groups and individuals from around the globe remain forever grateful.

Acknowledgments

Thanks first to my clients, past and present, for all your wonderful ideas, advice, and support, including: The New Orleans Museum of Art, the Louisiana SPCA, Xavier University, the National World War II Museum, Neighborhood Housing Services, my favorite New Orleans charter schools, Newman School, and Metairie Park Country Day School, among others. I have learned more from all of you than I can ever give back. A special thanks to Jan Alfieri and her committee at AFP for keeping me on their author roster. I also owe a big debt of gratitude to my editors at John Wiley and Sons, Brandon Dust, Susan McDermott, and Lisa Vuoncino, for getting my manuscript in shape and keeping it on the right track.

This book is dedicated to my patient and loving family: to Cedric for doing all the computer back-ups, to Ben for creating my web site, and especially to Jacob, who carefully edited every chapter (no more semicolons, I promise!). I couldn’t have done it without all of you.

About the Author

Julia Ingraham Walker holds a BA and an MA in English from Tulane University and an MBA from Rollins College in Florida. Her initial marketing expertise was gained during 10 years as a professional in college admissions, first at Tulane and then as Director of Admissions at Rollins. In 1985, she returned to New Orleans and began a career in fundraising that has spanned 25 years and numerous positions ranging from directing the annual fund to major gifts.

In 1990, Ms. Walker was appointed Vice President for Institutional Advancement at her alma mater, Tulane, where she served until 1998. In this position she supervised more than 100 employees in the advancement area and directed the university’s $250 million capital campaign. Tulane’s campaign raised over $75 million for the school’s endowment and provided the resources for the construction or major renovation of eight campus buildings. In 1994, Ms. Walker was named Outstanding Fundraising Executive by her peers in the New Orleans chapter of AFP, the Association of Fundraising Professionals.

Ms. Walker has been active as an independent fundraising consultant since 1998 and has conducted and advised campaigns that total more than $700 million. Her clients include a wide range of nonprofits, from museums and schools to grassroots community organizations. She has helped to manage capital campaigns for clients in the fields of religion, health care, the arts, historic preservation, low-income housing, K-12 education, higher education, and research. Her areas of expertise include campaign feasibility studies, campaign planning and implementation, and nonprofit management, including management and training of nonprofit staff, volunteers, and boards.

Ms. Walker is a member of AFP and has participated in numerous national conferences and workshops on fundraising topics. She has published two prior fundraising books with John Wiley & Sons, Nonprofit Essentials: The Capital Campaign, and Nonprofit Essentials: Major Gifts. Post-Katrina, she returned home to New Orleans and has been assisting nonprofits in the region to reopen, recover, and rebuild.

Ms. Walker can be reached through her web site, www.walkercapitalcampaigns.com, and would welcome any comments or suggestions from readers of this book.

Introduction

What’s money? A man is a success if he gets up in the morning and goes to bed at night and in between does what he wants to do.

Bob Dylan, singer and songwriter (1941-)

As I write this introduction, difficult economic times have fallen on all of us who work in the not-for-profit sector. Money is tight and donors are cautious. Endowments have lost value and fundraising goals are harder to reach. If your organization has already started a fundraising campaign, you may be finding that the going is tough. If you are planning a campaign, you may be worried about what to expect, and you would be right. These are times to move forward with caution, but standing still isn’t a viable option for most of us.

This book is meant to provide a process for learning how to identify problems, regroup, initiate positive changes, and move ahead with your campaign in order to achieve success.

Almost all fundraising campaigns, even in the best of economic times, experience difficulties and slowdowns at various points along the way. The problems that trip up campaigns are often similar from one organization to another. Many of these issues are predictable and can be resolved with the assistance and advice of an experienced campaign consultant. My intent in writing this book is to share with you my own experiences, gleaned from dozens of campaigns, so that you can diagnose and treat your own campaign, rebuild momentum, and get your fundraising back on track.

Fundraising campaigns are among the most complex initiatives that any organization can undertake. A campaign requires substantial advance planning, brilliant research skills, an exciting reason to give, a split-second sense of timing, and superlative people skills. Those who lead campaigns must have courage, perseverance, excellent communication skills, and rely on a great sense of humor to live through it all. Add to that the need to perform in an unprecedented and difficult economic environment, and you can see that this is not a task for the faint of heart.

Why have a campaign at all? There is more to a fundraising campaign than just raising money (although the money is important). There is no other group activity in the nonprofit world that brings the whole organization together and moves it forward like a successful, well-run campaign. For creating excitement, building momentum, and making progress towards goals, the campaign is an unparalleled experience. A successful campaign brings together the organization’s diverse constituents, focuses on an identified set of needs, and leaves the organization stronger and more resilient than it was before the campaign began.

How do you jump-start a stalled campaign? This book is full of strategies, tips, stories, and techniques to help you move your campaign out of the doldrums. I hope that you enjoy the ride, and please contact me if you have comments or suggestions about the advice in this book. I can be reached through my web site, www.walkercapitalcampaigns.com, and I look forward to hearing from you.

Real success is finding your lifework in the work that you love.

David McCullough, biographer and historian (1933-)

CHAPTER 1

Fundraising in a Challenging EconomicEnvironment

After reading this chapter, you will be able to:

• Understand the new environment for giving.

• Take immediate steps to shore up your fundraising programs.

• Identify the Top 10 campaign mistakes and how to avoid them.

• Create a more efficient advancement operation.

A New Environment for Philanthropy

Suddenly things have gotten a lot tougher in the fundraising business. What began as a credit crisis on Wall Street has become a full-fledged global recession. Investment scandals have rocked the foundation world. Nonprofits have begun searching for new ways to make budgets stretch further, to do more with less, and to maximize their return on investment.