On July 14th, 2009 GIFT hosted a free conference call with Kim Klein to thank Journal subscribers for supporting our effort to include access to our archives as part of a Journal subscription and for encouraging their friends and colleagues to subscribe, and to welcome new subscribers to the Grassroots Fundraising Journal. You can listen to the recording of Kim Klein's conference call, "Thriving on Uncertainty," by clicking on the icon below:
Thank you for your support!
Watch Kim's 2 minute video tips on fundraising during a recession (sorry, the $20 subscription special is no longer available):
Like many of you, we’ve been following the news of the extremely troubled economy with great concern. We wish we could totally reassure you that everything is going to be alright, but we know that these are more challenging times than any of us have seen before. So although we can’t offer any optimistic projections for what the future holds, we’d like to offer you some free resources to help you navigate these troubled times.
1. A free copy of an article by Richard Male that we published recently in the Grassroots Fundraising Journal that offers some very useful tips for raising money during economic downturns.
DownloadRichard Male's How to Prepare Your Nonprofit for an Economic Recession article.
3. A copy of a report by Giving USA on giving during recessions.
4. In November 2008, GIFT, Building Movement Project, Cause Effective, and Center for Community Change co-hosted a discussion in New York City to share our observations, concerns, and ideas about how the economic recession is affecting nonprofit organizations around the country. Sixteen of us met, representing a mix of fundraisers, capacity-builders, funders and consultants, to look at this crisis within a social justice frame. Please click here to download thoughts that came out of the meeting.
5. In October, we co-hosted a brown bag lunch for social justice fundraisers in Oakland to discuss the impact of the economic recession on their nonprofits. Here are some themes and ideas we heard from them that may be useful for you:
Build strong relationships with your donors. Those that have been doing this already are doing well in their fall fundraising so far and are using the economic crisis and elections as a great opportunity to have good conversations with their donors. Organizations that haven’t been building strong relationships with their donors or who have very small donor bases are going to have an even harder time now. You can’t just go to people when you’re in a crisis or just when you need money.
Ask your donors how the economic crisis is affecting them. Don’t project your fears onto them, as some of us found that some donors are confident that they can continue their giving at similar or higher levels than in the past. You may find that people are responding really differently from each other or that their situation changes day to day. Give donors who are having a hard time the option of pledging now and paying later.
Be bold but wise. Reassuring but alert. Determined but cautious. Calm any fears your donors may have about the financial stability of your organization but also let them know you’re savvy enough to be making budget adjustments as needed. Some cited keeping the same budget goals but extending the timeline for making them happen. Others mentioned having a contingency plan. Others said they are lowering their budget goals with the hope of exceeding them.
Collaborate in fundraising. Knowing that some organizations are on the verge of closing their doors, we as a social justice movement need to ask ourselves what responsibility we have to help them survive. Some cited examples of groups working together to secure funding and making a stronger case to funders and donors. Other groups may look at structural partnerships. One group mentioned acting as a fiscal sponsor for struggling partner organizations, so they could cut infrastructure costs and continue their work. In the January issue of the Grassroots Fundraising Journal, we will talk about the fundraising implications of merging.
Create a culture of fundraising in your organization. Sometimes staff who aren’t typically involved in fundraising are even more worried about organizational finances than the fundraisers. Now that you have their attention, have them do more fundraising and build the culture of fundraising in your organization to continue after the crisis is over.
Don’t isolate yourself. A lot of organizations are pulling together similar brown bag lunches, conference calls, or discussions to help deal with the recession. Join one of them or organize your own. Now, more than ever, we need to reach out and work together.
In the future, we’ll be writing more about the impact of the economy on giving, and what those trends mean for you.
Meanwhile, please help get these tools into the hands of more social justice fundraisers:
