With over 10 years in professional fundraising Joe Garecht has worked with large & small organisations in the design and implementation of profitable fundraising plans. In a recent article he outlined his 5 ‘laws’ of fundraising:
Law 1: Prospect – Cultivate – Ask – Steward
Joe says the continuity of the cycle is important and the 2 most common traps are:
· Too quickly moving from prospecting to asking
· Too long cultivating and not moving to asking
Law 2: Spend 5% Planning and 95% Doing
About 2 hours a week should go into planning but the rest should be action! Don’t become one of those people who spend 6 months in the planning cycle without getting out to speak to people.
Law 3: Focus On the 20% that Matters
The Pareto Principle works here as well – 80% of your results will come from just 20% of the effort. But where is your effort being directed? How often do you find a n-f-p spending inordinate amounts of time pursuing an activity or event with only a small pay-off, usually either a ‘pet project’ or because “that’s what we have always done.”
Law 4: Meet – Call – Write – Email
When performing any fundraising activity, Joe reminds us of the need to consider which type of contact will be most appropriate in terms of balancing your time versus likely outcomes. The more personal the contact the better relationship you will build, but you don’t have time to meet with everyone.
Law 5: Leverage Your Relationships or Suffer the Consequences
If you want to increase fundraising, you can’t ever do it with your current donors – you need to keep seeking and asking for referrals.
Read Joe Garecht’s full article on ‘Laws of Great Non-Profit Fundraising’ by clicking here
