THE MAGIC OF FUNDRAISING

by Laura Huth, President & CEO, do good Consulting

I AM NOT A MAGICIAN
I had to be blunt with an organization not long ago when their director came to me and asked if I could help raise $100,000 before the end of last year. It was October.

The recession hit the group hard – mainly because for the last three years, they opted to not ask donors for gifts as the economy constricted.

“The board thought it rude to ask during a recession, so we didn’t. We opted to stick with grants during tough times. What a mistake that was,” he said ruefully. The result, he said, was a loss of tens of thousands of dollars each year for three years.

As grant payments dried up and the mailbox sat forlorn, client programs suffered: cuts were made to services and program results began to waver. He now was asking if I could “pull a rabbit from a hat” – the $100,000 he said would prevent them from shutting their doors.

As much as I would love to assist organizations no matter their fundraising situation, there are groups who have created conditions that are nearly impossible to recover from, short of a miracle. I sure wish I had a rabbit to pull from my hat, but fundraising solutions in nearly every instance require a long-view, patience, foresight, good planning, and money, not magic.

Unfortunately for this organization, dormant donors, a bad donor spreadsheet, waning client programs, weak results, and a two-month emergency timeline does not give a fundraiser much to work with.

A HAPPIER STORY
This past winter, I was contacted by two organizations in an opposite boat. Both had decided to make investments of time, training, and money towards their future fundraising efforts and wanted guidance on maximizing results. With money in the bank, they wanted to invest in learning how to fundraise more effectively.

I love when I get calls like this, and I was delighted that both came from students at the University of Illinois.

Volunteer Illini Projects was going through an organizational transition – needing to become more independent and sustainable after a shift away from university dollars. VIP is the largest student-run, student-staffed volunteer organization in Illinois and is committed to providing student volunteers for projects focused on peace, unity, and change. The group stood ready to be trained in fundraising best practices and pledged to make the investments necessary for long-term results, for they knew that the fruit of such an effort would require patience and time.

The Kola Foundation is a new 501(c)(3) start-up founded by a small group of visionary, compassionate, and hard-working business school students. Aimed at creating economic development, education, and health care opportunities for the residents of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, the group was determined to move beyond its own walls and broaden support to help even more of their clients.

Based on the needs and opportunities before these two groups, we settled on a two-hour power fundraising training for VIP, and a half-day organizational training for Kola. Both sessions were hands-on and interactive, allowing participants to see actual examples, ask questions, and brainstorm ideas in real time. Frameworks of plans emerged that have since been formalized and put into action.

The results so far have been tremendous.

For VIP, a two hour session for five leadership members cost them $170, but helped them raise $4,250 in just two months.

Kymberly Ruhmann, Partnership Development Director for Volunteer Illini Projects, sees these results as just the beginning. “We realized it will take a while for VIP alumni to get used to receiving letters directly from us and not the University. But the advice you gave for our first-time communication was outstanding, resulting in us raising over $4,000 immediately. We have a significant major donor prospect as a result, and are well on our way to building strong alumni and donor relations. Every little step of progress is so exciting for us!”

Kola has experienced similar results. In the month since their training, the group launched an e-newsletter and has a major fundraising campaign planned for May. They also eclipsed $5,000 in fundraising with the help of the training and in doing so, secured an anonymous donor willing to donate another $2,500 when that goal was reached.

IF IT’S NOT MAGIC, WHAT IS IT?
There was no magic, rabbits, or hat involved in these transformations: just commitment, investment, and follow-through. Those really are the secrets to good fundraising.

Both organizations committed to three important front- and back-end development strategies.

First, neither organization waited for a pending emergency to ask for guidance. They paused their efforts at the right time, committed to getting expert and custom advice to build their causes, made a real commitment to invest in their futures, and followed through fully on what they learned and committed to.  And it paid off tremendously.

Second, both organizations committed to processes that continually infuse their organizations with new potential donors and volunteers. Alumni play a critical role for both, but each group recognizes that their futures rely not just on past alums, but also on others touched by or potentially impacted by their work – either directly or indirectly. This is a critical, but often overlooked, component for robust fundraising programs.

For the Kola Foundation, strategies for such “prospect development” were developed at the training, formalized at the following board meeting, and have already resulted in over 300 new potential donor names. Since VIP’s training last fall, over 500 new contacts were added by their board. Together these two groups have added nearly 1,000 new names to their databases – a notable and impressive accomplishment by student-led organizations.

Finally, both organizations purchased GiftWorks , a powerful, affordable database system (or CMS, constituent management system) to manage their growing sets of information. Moving data from relatively flat, inflexible formats (in their cases, Excel) now means that as donor behavior increases (years donating, variable amounts, by various event), the organizations have infinite power in knowing exactly who their supporters are either as individuals or in groups (i.e., all donors from Chicago who gave over $100 for three or more years). This sort of management control is going to have enormous pay-offs for these groups, both in the short- and long-term.

“GiftWorks is easy, intuitive, and simple,” Ruhmann reports. “The transfer from Excel was a breeze and the program has been an amazing shift from Excel. The power and flexibility it provides is just remarkable.”

Both groups have exciting plans on the horizon – more fundraising, alumni events, reservation mission trips, community volunteering, and more. Knowing how to fundraise – and fundraise right – will boost these organizations efforts for years to come.

“The fundraising and marketing workshop was immensely successful,” reports Adam Ratner, co-founder and President & CEO of the KOLA Foundation. “It not only substantially increased the effectiveness and efficiency of Kola’s fundraising endeavors, but also generated an all new level of excitement about our mission and the creative ways we can go about accomplishing it. All non-profit organizations should utilize the vast resources and experience do good brings to the table.”

Says Ruhmann, “The time we spent with do good was perhaps one of the wisest investments VIP could make in our future. I can’t think of another way to turn $170 into $4,250 in just months. And the best is yet to come. do good’s fundraising advice is outstanding!”

Group Spotlight: THE KOLA FOUNDATION

by Laura Huth, President & CEO, do good Consulting

One would expect graduate business students at the University of Illinois to have their noses buried in their books.

However, earlier this year I met a group of remarkable business students from the U of I who are balancing rigorous school schedules with a passion for giving back and repeated trips to an area of the United States that is 900 miles from campus and riddled with poverty comparable to the third world.

The students I met are clearly hitting the books: they are bright, engaged, and talented. But what is most remarkable about the 16 students who sat in a half-day fundraising and marketing training session I ran in early April was their ability to look off-campus in the midst of classes, exams, jobs, career searches, and other commitments and head west to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota.

Originally, four students travelled to the “rez” in August 2010 for a week-long service trip arranged through the Business School at U of I. They came back transformed – changed by the massive poverty they witnessed, the sheer need they saw, and most of all, by the opportunity they had to use their talents and connections to influence change.

Sprawling across 3,400 isolated square miles in the southwest corner of South Dakota, the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation is mostly composed of barren lands – a stark difference from their previous home in the Black Hills, which have deep spiritual significance to the Oglala Lakota. Most who live on the Pine Ridge Reservation lack running water and electricity. There is little to no development or industry, no public transit, and no banks. The closest commercial area is 120 miles away in Rapid City. Poverty, alcoholism, and gangs are rampant.

Within months, these compassionate students had successfully started the Kola Foundation, a non-profit organization focused on improving lives on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. 'Kola' is drawn from the Lakota word for “friend”.

The group’s goal is clear and commendable: to promote pride and self-sufficiency for the youth and form partnerships that empower and bring hope to the entire tribe.

They are drawing on their economics, law, business, accounting, and finance expertise as well as their connections to form partnerships and programs to transform the lives of the approximately 40,000 residents who live on the Pine Ridge Reservation.

While the Kola Foundation is run by MBA students, the group is developing a base of support across Champaign County and throughout South Dakota.

In addition to organizing mass goods drives that distribute tens of thousands of dollars worth of clothes, blankets, shoes, and personal care items, the group is also engaged in other initiatives which have the potential to generate sustainable improvements to the quality of life on the Reservation. Initiatives include partnering with a South Dakota-based organization, Lakota Funds , to open a reservation credit union, working with artisans to market products off-rez, creating an exchange program for Pine Ridge High School students to study and learn at the U of I, and offering business courses to reservation residents.

The Kola Foundation is one of the most impressive student-run groups I have ever worked with. Result-oriented, focused, and making a real difference, the Kola Foundation is worth a look – and your support. For more information, visit http://kolafoundation.org.

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