Fundraising: What you should do NOW

Fundraising is marketing. And for nonprofits, marketing is fundraising. So we thought we’d talk today about marketing your fundraising challenges in an age of turbulence, which is the age we’re in. If your nonprofit is facing funding challenges right now, I promise you there are things you can do. And that’s what we’re gonna talk about today — things you can do.

Right now. Starting today. Things you can do.

We’ve got six buckets of ideas with different action items we’re gonna walk through, related to fundraising and marketing your fundraising appeal — things for you to think about. But first, let’s take a moment and look at the challenge we’re hearing the most about right now, which is expected grant revenue that has evaporated.

If that has happened to you — if you thought you were receiving $10,000 or $25,000 or even more, and now you find that it isn’t happening — that feels terrible. I recently met the executive director of a nonprofit that has lost 20% of its funding in a grant that was allocated, but isn’t being funded. The money’s not being delivered. That’s bad enough, but here’s the worst news.

After I asked questions and learned more during our 90-minute discussion, we came to the sad conclusion that this may just be the first step in their losing 75% of their related funding. They’re worried about this — and rightly so. I have my own worries about all sorts of things. But when you think about it, many or most of the things in life that you worry about, you can’t address head-on.

You can take better care of your health, or how you drive, or how much you spend — what you spend your money on — because much of that is within your control. But things outside your control, like how other people drive? You have no control over that. The best thing you can do is be wary and watchful of other people’s driving. That’s what I tell my kids.

I was fortunate to learn early on this idea of what you can control and what you can’t control — and acting on the things you can control, and letting go of the things you can’t. I was lucky enough, many years ago, to read the philosopher Epictetus and take him to heart.

“There are things within our power and there are things which are beyond our power,” Epictetus says at the beginning of the Enchiridion, which is a short manual of Stoic advice, circa 125 AD, that goes on to offer some of what I think is the best advice in history.

Focus on what you can control — what’s in your power — and let go of what you cannot control.

So right now, many people are worried about the economy, with some of them being outright scared. It’s understandable. We’re in a period of massive change — one that has accelerated recently, but which started at least 25 years ago — and every day makes for a rough ride.

Developments with trade treaties, tariffs, governmental changes, social upset, consumer sentiment, machine intelligence, and more are making for a very bumpy ride. And it’s okay to worry. Worry may have a useful evolutionary function in helping to alert us to danger. But obsessing about worry isn’t helpful. And worrying without doing anything isn’t productive.

So really, today, I’m going to encourage you to take action — and try to set aside the worry that is unproductive. I know this can be hard. I struggle with this every day as I try to follow Epictetus’s sage advice.

So while none of us can do anything about the economy overall (if only we could!), almost all of us can do something about our own economy as it’s tied to our own actions. Once we’ve accepted that something needs to change, and we look around to see what we can control, we notice that, yes — we do have command over certain levers and dials and switches. And that should be our focus.

What can nonprofit leaders do? What control is at our disposal?

Here are some ideas about things we can do to boost our fundraising and our revenue. And before we get into this, let me say three quick things.

Number one: you may want a pad and pen handy so you can take notes — because again, there are six buckets of ideas here with 16 action items.

Number two — but that’s a lot of note-taking — so we’ll also put this in the show notes for this episode on our website at counterintuity.com.

And number three: no single podcast episode can cover the entire ins and outs of how to do everything to improve your fundraising. Mostly, our hope is that you can implement a few of these things, and use the other ideas to boost your own brainstorming. When listening, please ask yourself how you might do these things — and then see where that leads you.

Okay, so here are our jumping-off points about boosting fundraising and revenue — and again, six buckets and 16 ideas overall.

Bucket number one: Refocus your fundraising messaging to emphasize urgency and impact.
Clearly communicate why your mission is especially important now. And by that, I mean important to the people who care — not just ourselves. Call it a targeted demographic, or your funding base, or your audience, but your message has to be targeted to those folks.

Use real stories and data to show how the downturn affects the people and causes you benefit. Animal lovers are more likely to support animal issues. People with a loved one fighting a certain disease — say childhood cancer — or the spread of gun violence in their community… that’s a conversation I had recently. Those folks are more likely to support organizations with that mission.

How does your messaging reflect the particular needs of those people — of that community? Needs like:

• Learning where you’re helping to make progress on that issue
• Hearing success stories
• Even just the comfort of knowing that someone’s working on it — which is what you’re doing

Say what you’re doing about it, what’s going on, and why you need more funding now.

If your cause is urgent, your message should sound urgent.
“Hey, we are concerned about this. We were going to do this particular program, which would have this result. Now we’ve lost this amount of money — or we’re this amount of money short. Can you please help? Here’s why we need it now.”

As part of this, you also want to show results — like real numbers. Statistical, numeric results. As close as you can get to what the numbers people call ROI: return on investment. Donors want to know their money makes a difference. Be transparent about how donations are used and what outcomes they achieve.

Here in Los Angeles, I’m so happy to get these numbers:
Weingart Center has served — as of our counting — 1,092,453 meals across their housing developments for previously unhoused people. 1,092,453 meals. I mean, they are really doing something. That’s a magnificent number. That’s huge. That’s an astounding number.

Of course, I knew they were doing important work, but over 1 million meals to people who’d been living on the street? That’s an impressive result. They’ve got other impressive numbers too — like the thousands of people they’ve helped to bring indoors and back to healthier, more productive lives. I heard these numbers once and now I’m quoting them.

What are your numbers?

• How many people have you served?
• If you’re a tree-planting group, how many trees have you planted?
• Are you showing the trees and how they’re growing?

I have to tell you, I’m a tree lover and I’ve been part of planting many trees over many decades. And I love seeing the results — whether it’s the majestic titan in my front yard that people pull up and take photos of (makes me very happy) or the grove of trees — a hundred trees in a nearby park — that I helped sponsor ten years ago. Every day I can see the results.

What results are you having with your nonprofit effort?

• How can you show them?
• How can you show them in big, easy, impossible-to-miss takeaways?

Use big numbers and photos, or video, or in your email signature — or any other way among countless possibilities of how to show the results of what you do.

Ask yourself: are you making it easy for people to immediately grasp what you’re doing and how you’re making an impact?

Make a list of the ways you could do that, and then work your way down the list — like a checklist. Make it easy for people to immediately see how you’re making an impact.

The number one reason people donate to a nonprofit is belief in the mission.
And the number two reason is they believe the nonprofit is making progress on that mission — they can help to solve that problem. So you have to show them that it’s working — what you’re doing.

Bucket number two: “Plus one” your existing supporters.

Do more. Ask more of your existing supporters.

So ask for a bit more. If they already support you, they’re primed to do more — if possible. Explain why it’s necessary, then ask for more. If someone is donating even $10 a month, they could probably do another $25 now and then. If they’re doing $1,000 here and there, see if you can get an extra donation or an extra amount. Be creative about ways for them to kick in a bit more.

If you’ve lost 10% of your funding — and even if you haven’t — think about how you could ask, and whom you could ask, to make up that 10%. Ten percent from your supporters is overall a small ask of them — but for your nonprofit, 10% added is a huge gain in your overall revenue and your budget.

Strengthen relationships. Personally reach out to loyal donors, even just to check in. Many will give again if they feel valued.

To quote classic rock band Supertramp:
“There’s so much that we need to share, so send a smile and show you care.”
I think I first heard that lyric like 45 years ago, and I still remember it.

Think of it like a date.

• Have you brought flowers lately to the date?
• Have you said thank you?
• Have you just said, “I miss you”?

Send a card in the mail to your donors. Most of what comes in the mail anymore is junk mail — or from nonprofits, it’s a mail appeal: “here’s a mail appeal.” And those are important! But what if you send a birthday card, or a “was just thinking about you” card?

Strengthen those relationships. You and your donors are in this together. Reach out. Be nice. Act like — again — it’s a date.

Monthly giving programs.

Here you go: are you doing a monthly giving program? Offer low-barrier recurring donation options like $10 a month. Do not underestimate the power of a $10 ask.

So this is an old-time story, but here you go. I once raised four-figure donations from multiple people by asking for $10 at first. In the late 1990s, in the Los Angeles theater community when I was running a theater, my $10 appeal was legendary in theater circles.

I sent out a funny letter to our whole mailing list — probably a thousand people, maybe more — and the whole list got a letter asking for $10 to support our theater. It was a simple word-processed letter with big, funny headlines and a return envelope. And I think a little giving slip of paper: “Put your name on here, send us some money, and here’s how much I’m sending.”

So the letter said: “Skip the pizza. Put off your haircut. Instead, send us the $10.”
Because to you, the $10 probably isn’t much. How many times have you just lost $10 because it fell out of your pocket? But when you send us the $10, we put it with everybody else’s $10, and we’re able to buy lighting equipment and pay the actors and put on a better show. And we promised to list every donation, no matter the size, in our program.

We got back 330 donations from that letter.
Yeah, some of them were for $10.
Most were more like $25.
One donation was three $1 bills — I’ll never forget this — from someone I knew and who I was surprised had $3, but she wanted to do something and wanted her name in the program.

And one day we got a $1,000 check from someone — and the very next day, we got another $1,000 check from someone else. In addition to the funds, we also got a lot of funny written responses. Like this one — I always remember this guy — he wrote back:

“I’ve never lost $10, but your letter made me laugh. So here’s $10. Thank you.”

So we earned $10 by making him laugh.

Inspired by the response to this $10 ask, we started a season you could buy in advance and a monthly giving program. And soon we had 40 regular donors.

Sounds like a small number, right? Forty.
Of course — small number. But prior to this, we had zero regular donors. And again, our total number of donors for the year was now in the hundreds.

So think about how people could do something to support you monthly — and include a low entry level to get in. Everybody should start somewhere.

And by the way, there are text appeals that work this way: Please send us $3.
The first one of these I saw many years ago, I thought, Who would I be if I didn’t send them $3 from this text appeal?

So I got the text appeal.
I believed in the cause.
I sent the $3.
And then I was off and running.
And I’ve sent them a lot of money since then.

Let’s talk about donor segmentation for a moment.

Tailor your asks to different donor types — major givers, recurring, lapsed, etc. With even the most basic CRM — customer relationship management program (I always like to spell these things out because we live in this acronym world where nobody explains what they stand for anymore) — even the most basic one these days can help you segment your list.

If you’re able to do this — to segment your list — you should get different sorts of appeals.

So: major donors (and you have to determine what equals “major” for your nonprofit) should get a different sort of ask than starting/smaller donors.

One of the causes I support gets a monthly donation of $10 — there’s that $10 again. And with that, I send them an occasional bump to support a certain cause. So they asked me for $10 to start — I’m sending them $10. It got me into their system. I believe in what they’re doing. I’m very proud of what they’re doing, actually. And I kick in extra when they ask me — a little bit of extra for whatever’s going on.

Another cause I support gets $500 at a time, three or four times a year. It’s a very different sort of appeal, very different sort of organization doing different work. I also support this. And so I’ve sent them $500 at a time, three or four times a year.

With another, I recently gave $1,000 to support a specific cause. And actually, it occurs to me with yet another, I did that as well. And those were very specific outreach. One was related to the terrible fires we had in Los Angeles — supporting, what would one say, fire remediation efforts.

And so those were for specific asks.
In each of these cases, I was asked in a different way and responded in different ways.

Segmenting your list enables you to look at who your donors are — and your potential donors — and where they kind of belong, and therefore how you’re going to ask.

What you don’t want to do is ask a potential $20,000 donor for $250 and have him figure he’s kicked in.

Many years ago, I set up an ask meeting with a gentleman and I was all prepped — had done my homework — and I said, “So I would like to ask you for $5,000 to support this cause.” And he said:

“I thought you were gonna ask me for $20,000.”

I mean — I’ll just never forget it. I felt like I had left $15,000 on the table. And so I spent months and some additional time trying to get the other $15,000 from somebody who really cared about the cause.

My ask was too low.

So there is an art to this. But segmenting your list helps you:

• See who you can move up in donation level
• Identify who can go from the $150 donation to the $1,500 level, etc.
• Track where people came from, how they learned about you, and who they’re connected to
• Discover who they could possibly introduce you to

So if this person gave $1,500 and you know this person came from this outreach — this group, this donor party perhaps — who else could that person introduce you to?

Bucket number three: Diversify revenue streams.

We’re going to start by talking about grants.

I know I’ve been talking about what if your grant money doesn’t arrive — but foundation and government grants often increase in tough times.

And let’s remember: there’s more than one stage of government, right? We’ve been focused lately on all the changes with the national government — the federal government. But there’s state government. There’s county government. There’s your municipal government — your city, your township, your whatever.

There are all different sorts and levels of government grants. So foundation and government grants often increase in tough times.

You want to monitor new opportunities frequently — because you never know. But for Pete’s sake, don’t count on them.

I’ve had too many conversations where well-meaning nonprofit executives say:

“Well, we put in for this, and if we get that, we’re gonna do this, and we think we’re gonna get it…”

And I’m like — but we don’t know you’re going to get it.

Don’t even count on the ones that have been awarded to you.

And I’m sorry to say that, but don’t even count on those right now. If you’ve been awarded a grant, stay close to those folks to ensure it’s actually happening.

Budgets are shifting all over the place.
And most surprises will be unwelcome.

We have a client who said to me, “Well, I’m waiting for my EPA grant.”
They’re not getting the EPA grant. That made me sad — and I know how sad they feel about it.

So: stay close. Ask questions. Budgets are shifting all over the place, and most surprises will be unwelcome.

As they say: trust, but verify.

Make sure it’s actually happening — and have a contingency plan for that same amount.

In case that grant does not get awarded — or even worse, gets awarded but not funded (which is absolutely happening in many cases right now) — you need a contingency plan to take care of that.

So, best advice: keep your funders close and your options open. And you keep your options open by having a contingency plan — one that would make up that shortfall if your funding doesn’t happen.

Another way to diversify your revenue streams is with corporate partnerships. And “corporate” may mean a small business — small businesses are corporations too. Some businesses may want to align with nonprofits like yours for goodwill or because your mission is simpatico with their own — what they want to achieve in the world is what you want to achieve in the world.

They’re also undoubtedly aware of the funding climate right now — maybe not great — and they may be keenly interested in your audience segment.

Hint for places with spaces:
Here you go — like performing arts venues. Businesses like to host and hold events and meet your people. Seems like a win-win. When I was a theater producer, I was always looking for what business could help support us and what event I could invite them to, where they could meet people.

And we were pretty successful with that.

Of course, a discussion about diversifying revenue streams should include earned income. Explore services or products related to your mission. And this should apply to you. If you’re working in an arts-related field or a child services field, there’s probably art or performance you could offer.

I have bought kid art.
Kid art is surprisingly kind of cool looking.

And when you think about famous artists like Keith Haring — Keith Haring became famous doing what is essentially kid art. So I love to buy kid art and put it up. Often people don’t realize it was made by a kid.

So if you’re in an arts-related thing — you could do a performance, you could auction some art, etc. There are things you can do to earn some income.

I mentioned trees — can people come plant the tree? Get a tree workshop?

Have you done a webinar about what you do and how people can be part of the solution in their daily lives?

How about something educational? I just signed up for a one-hour webinar about the poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke, led by the Academy of American Poets.

Now I’ve been involved with the Academy of American Poets for probably 35 years, and I’m a big fan of Rilke’s work for even longer — but I’m not clever enough to understand all of it. So I happily plunked down $30 on my credit card to gain a better understanding.

I don’t believe the Academy of American Poets has ever asked me to support a program like that before — so good for them. That looked like something new they’re doing. New revenue stream. I love it. Plus, I’ll learn more about Rilke.

And then, of course, under diversifying your revenue stream — here you go — here’s a no-brainer:
Ask everyone for money.

I’m not kidding. If what you do is important, ask everyone to support it.

Don’t be bumptious about it, right? Don’t be too pushy. But ask everyone. If you believe in it — and what you do is working — you should be communicating the message. And they should be glad to support it if they’re able and if they care about it the way you do.

But you don’t get if you don’t ask, as the saying goes.

And so — you’re going to ask everyone.

Bucket number four: Blend people power with low-cost efforts.

This goes to: how do we do things effectively at a lower cost and in a different time than it was even four or five years ago, because of the advent of technology?

Obviously — but I’m going to say it — use email, social media, texting, and peer-to-peer fundraising platforms. I mean, it couldn’t be more obvious, but let’s leave no stone unturned.

Encourage supporters to fundraise for you.

When I was actively producing theater, I’d ask the playwright, the director, the cast, the designers, the tech people, and my board members — heck, everyone — to be part of fundraising.

It’s not for any one person to take on single-handedly. You are part of a team and part of a network. So ask your network:

• How they can help
• Who they can introduce
• What they can do
• And when they’ll do it

Ask in a friendly, uplifting, we-can-all-do-this kind of way.

What I learned doing that in the performing arts was that it was generally, frequently — at the time at least — one-sided.

“We are producing this, and we’re asking those people out there to support it.”

And I kind of thought: everybody should be involved in it.

So — the people internally:
Who do they know?
How can they support?
How can we broaden and expand those circles?

That proved to be very productive. Everybody felt like they were part of it. And even if you’re getting small amounts of money, you’re getting more people involved, more people informed.

And if they don’t write you a check or something, they can support in other ways.

So just use as much as you can — email, social media, texting, peer-to-peer fundraising platforms — all of those things. Pick the ones that are right for you and build those lists of people you’re reaching out to through your internal and external networks.

That’s a marketing effort — and it’s clearly how marketing and fundraising go hand in hand.

Another low-cost effort that takes advantage of people power is virtual events.

This is something that’s vastly more possible now than it was five years ago.

So consider virtual events — webinars, donor Q&As — instead of a costly gala.

Now, I’m going to make a case for the costly gala in a minute. But I’ve been involved with organizations that feel they must do the costly gala — which quickly goes from fundraiser to fund-loser.

So if it’s good for you and it’s going to return money for you — yes, do the costly gala.
If not, do a realistic assessment and ask yourself:
Can you do something different?
Does the virtual event suit you better?

The costly gala might be right for you. And many of them are indeed right for their relevant organizations. But if the COVID pandemic gave us any bright spots, one of them was the virtual gala.

I attended a couple of those and was really impressed. I had a great time attending one for a huge museum group based out of New York — and it was a load of fun. I was really impressed.

During the pandemic — I’m a playwright as well — I had a play produced over Zoom. And you know what? I had audience members and ticket buyers all across the United States and Europe.

I’ve never had that at one of my in-person productions.

So sometimes, you find an advantage in doing something new — while strictly monitoring costs.

And that’s what this is — keeping an eye on those costs while still putting your message out.

Those big galas have their place too.

Some of us from Counterintuity attended a client gala recently that was incredibly moving. After one presentation, there wasn’t a dry eye in the house. I was certainly weeping — I was very moved.

And then, after the event, an attendee quietly presented a donation of six figures to help support this very worthy cause. Six figures — unexpected.

So if the big gala is right for you — by all means, do it.

But those virtual events? They are low-cost, low-risk, easy to do, and can play a strong part in the financial support of your organization.

And then finally, under low-cost efforts and big results — because of people power — matching gift campaigns.

Ask yourself:

• What money can we get that can match things?
• How can we think about this differently?
• Can you get someone to match donations?
• Can you get someone to support a cost that you hadn’t thought about?

It doesn’t have to be a huge organization.

If you’re location-based — say, a food pantry — what businesses are near you, and what can they do to support you in ways that don’t necessarily cost them too much, but certainly help you?

I always go back to this: it doesn’t have to be a huge organization.

I was once a playwriting fellow in Fayetteville, Arkansas — proudly sponsored by the local brewery.

So I was the fellow of this brewery in Fayetteville, Arkansas.
They were proud. And I was too.

Really nice people — nice people with good beer.

It probably cost them a couple thousand dollars to cover some of the expenses associated with having me there. The nonprofit made money, the brewery was happy, and we brought people there. Just a good thing, right?

So, you can get individual donors to match donations, and you can offset costs by getting businesses and other groups to cover expenses — which essentially match donations.

Bucket number five: Build trust and transparency.
(This one’s a little offbeat, but important.)

Remember, the number one reason people support a nonprofit is they believe in the mission.
And the number two reason is they believe that nonprofit can solve that problem — that it’s making headway.

So right now is a great time to keep communication honest about your challenges and needs.

But don’t guilt trip people. Really.
Some people are going to support, and some aren’t.
Everybody’s going to do what they can do — and should do — and want to do. But not everybody’s going to do something.

There’s a lot of terrible news in the world.
And there’s always been a lot of terrible news in the world — let’s be frank.
And for most of us, our news in no way compares with the truly awful of someone else, somewhere.

So people are going to do what they can do to support you.

Blaming and guilt-tripping not only won’t help you — it’s unattractive and demoralizing.

So I just want to say it. Be happy about the ones who support you.
Be honest about why you need their support.
Let’s be careful not to guilt trip anybody. It’s, again, unattractive, demoralizing, and feeds negative energy.

And I’m glad to know in advance that you’d never do it.

Send impact updates regularly — even if they’re small wins.
Success follows success, as people grow inspired.

Or, as a long-ago roommate of mine used to say, “money goes to money.”
That seems like a quote from somebody else. I don’t know that he invented it. But money goes to money, and success follows success.

If you’re having successes — put the successes out there.
People will say: “That’s working. I want to be involved in that.”

Consider donor surveys — to involve people and to make adjustments based on feedback.

You put out a survey, and people are like:
“I’m part of this solution. Here’s what I think. Here’s what’s working well. Here’s what I didn’t care for,” etc.

Now you’ve involved them.
And you can make adjustments based on the feedback.
And again — it builds trust and transparency.

And then: always be straight up.
Always be forthright.
Always tell the truth.

I mean… I shouldn’t even have to say this. I’m sure I don’t have to say this for almost anyone listening. But: always be straight up.

Here’s a quote I love:

“It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently.”

Thank you, Warren Buffett.
Warren Buffett has certainly lived that quote.
He’s been a straight-up guy and has the track record to show it. People believe and trust him.

Bucket number six: Involve your board.

Activate your board members to make introductions or host small gatherings.

And just a friendly reminder here: this is their role.
They should fulfill it.

Their role is to make introductions, host small gatherings, support you, and so forth.

Volunteer jobs are still jobs. And this is the job they agreed to do.

Involve them. Invite them. Invite them into the success and the good feelings.

Like: I don’t need anything for Christmas.
I don’t need any more stuff, right?
I’m trying to get rid of stuff — I’m at that stage of life.

But what I love about Christmas is giving gifts to loved ones, family, friends.
I love giving gifts, right?

Your board — part of their opportunity here is to feel good about what you’re doing, and to feel good about supporting what you’re doing.

So if what you and your nonprofit do is important — and I’ll bet it is — then it merits support.

And now is the time to think about all of these ideas that we’ve shared today — and every other idea you already have, and everybody else you know has — to think about all of these, and put them (the ones that work for you) into a new plan of action.

Draw from some of the tactics on the list above to help you recover if your budget is in danger.
And even better — to help you grow your mission and your effectiveness if it isn’t.

Many organizations grow in troubled times.
And if what you do is worth supporting — and I bet it is — when you put the message out, you can get more support.

There is money out there.
For the right causes, with the right message, and the right approach.

So: go get it.

Our communities, our nation, our world — the planet — all need help.
We all have to count on each other.
We are counting on our nonprofits.

It’s really important — what we’re doing.
What you’re doing with your nonprofit work.

So yes — about the money out there:
Go get it.

Good luck.
Thank you.