Fundraising is a team sport
Recently, a colleague of mine shared the best professional advice he's ever received:
One person doesn't raise a gift. An institution raises a gift.
This is so very true, yet time and again, nonprofit organizations explain to me that they’ve assigned the task of raising funds solely and exclusively to their Development staff. This approach doesn’t bode well. It foretells a failed fundraising endeavor that will inevitably point fingers at the frontline fundraiser who hasn’t been “allowed” to tap into the board or organizational leadership for partnership and strategic support.
While fundraisers do often build their own relationships, carry out various tactics, and work the mechanics—the strategy, the steps, the timing, the pipeline management—other people in the organization are vital to the fundraising process as well.
Board members can introduce new prospects to the organization. They can participate in cultivation and relationship-building conversations. They can even be the ones to make the ask and close the gift, in concert with the Development staff member. They can evangelize the nonprofit in their professional and social circles. They can host intimate “getting-to-know-you” gatherings. The possibilities are endless!
Executive directors/CEOs/presidents can and absolutely should partner with Development staff on fundraising. How much? Well, in campaign times, we recommend that an executive director devote at least 50% of their time to fundraising. Yes, 50%! The organization’s leader can forge deep and meaningful relationships with philanthropists. The Development staff is also highly involved, guiding the ED as to when and how to connect with prospects/donors; creating briefings and speaking points and decks to help guide conversations; traveling with the ED; and more. There’s nothing better than watching a fundraising professional and an ED work as a strong duo as they build and maintain philanthropic relationships!
Prospect researchers, fiscal managers, support staff, and database managers offer vital insights into potential donors and help prepare information for donors. They uncover pipelines, provide Development staff and leaders with profiles and key data about prospects, prepare budgets to accompany funding proposals, and coordinate meetings.
It can never be one Development professional raising a gift. It's everyone at the institution working behind the scenes to coordinate introductions and visits and tours and proposals and gift terms, all of which will help the donor to understand the nonprofit better, make an informed gift decision, and remain involved over the long term.
After all, fundraising is all about the relationship between the donor and the organization—not the donor and one fundraising professional. Nonprofit boards and leaders who understand this, who weave fundraising into their institution’s culture and make it a core piece of their work, succeed in raising more funds year after year.
