Be Intentional About the Gifts You GET
Non-profit friends: the struggle is real in January and February. Everyone is picking themselves up from the end-of-the-year-hustle and cautiously but optimistically navigating donors and gifts in the beginning of the new year.
I’ve seen a lot of a new corporate giving trend happening, especially in Upstate NY, and I want to talk about it with hopes of letting my nonprofit friends exhale a bit.
Businesses and groups are promising a certain amount of dollars to area nonprofits during certain weeks or months, and there’s usually a chance to “win” these funds, or part of them, by engaging in a competition or a drawing — that most often is driven by social media. Let me shout THANK YOU from the rooftops for our area businesses who are investing in these important organizations! Let me also use this as a chance to counter the approach that’s gaining a lot of hype and momentum around here and remind you of what drives all of the work we do at GDG: meaningful, deep-rooted, genuine relationships. How do you raise a large amount of money? With those relationships. How do you feel supported by volunteers and community members? Yup, those relationships. How do you build a major gift program that can take you through a campaign AND also ensure your longterm sustainability? You guessed it.
It’s sort of fun and exciting to engage in these contest-type giveaways of dollars that businesses are generously putting out there. Especially if you feel like you can grow your support on social media channels while you inspire your supporters to come out and help you with this. But, do not mistake one-time gifts from businesses & groups as the philanthropy that you need to transform who you are and what you are capable of doing as an organization. You need relationships. They need to be built in-person, over a period of time, and you need to ask for philanthropic investments from these people who believe in and buy into the vision you are setting together, with their help. Philanthropists offer the best advice and feedback when it comes to strategically planning for your nonprofit, and the closer they are to the process, the more fortunate you are likely to be when they give.
At our firm, we preach it all day, everyday: invest your time in WHO and not WHAT. It’s to say, when you focus on the people you want and need to help advise you, give feedback on the direction you are considering, take a seat at the table, and invest in the course you’ve set, the “what” becomes secondary. I love that our local businesses want to see organizations thrive, and I’m grateful that there is a lot of attention on philanthropy right now. When I think about philanthropy, I think about people who ask the hard questions, commit to sticking through initiatives with you, and pick up the phone when you call them for advice. We all know that we need both: the people and places who are willing to help us meet our goals, even if just for that one year, and those people who become true investors in what you stand for. But you need to be careful about how much time is spent on transactional-type gifts. Your time and your staff are limited — we know. This feels especially true around events and “contests.” It’s most important to spend time on the philanthropy that truly fuels you, and not rely on sponsorships and other donations that will likely come around just once. My success in advising people all over the country on raising money has been tied to investing time in meeting individually with prospects and donors, your philanthropists, in an intentional and meaningful way. Being intentional about their engagement sets the path for a longstanding and real relationship.
While earning money through votes will be a fun opportunity to perk-up a bit on social media and through email in these sometimes sleepy, wintry months, don’t forget about the work that is transformational to what you do as a nonprofit! We’re rooting for you — go out and get those meetings!
