The Internet has the potential to bring the art and science of fundraising back into balance, restore the confidence and trust of donors, and deeply enhance the relationships our organizations have with our stakeholders. Or it can be yet another way to alienate our supporters and disempower our fundraising professionals. The Frictionless Fundraising workshop will help you avoid the easy pitfalls and set forth on a path of success.
Modern fundraising is out of balance. In a world of increasing need and limited resources, we have focused more and more on any tactic that will generate a quick return. For some of our supporters it seems that every time we talk to them, we are asking them for money.
Experienced fundraising professionals know that there is more to fundraising than this. Fundraising consists of at least four distinct relationship building processes: Prospecting, Cultivating, Asking, and Stewarding. But because of the cost of mail, phone calls, meetings, and events, we have invested almost all our resources into the Ask.
The first wave of online fundraising didn't even get that far, because it was a breakthrough just to have the ability to accept credit card transactions. The second wave of online fundraising was modelled on contemporary fundraising in general, with an emphasis on repeat, email appeals for money. It's time for the third wave of online fundraising, Frictionless Fundraising.
The cost of communication has distorted the practice of fundraising. With all but the largest donors, the only thing we can ever afford to do is ask them for more money. The real promise of online fundraising is this: The dramatically lower cost of communicating with supporters means that we can afford to treat them all like human beings, even as we increase the scale of our fundraising efforts.
For many organizations, the Internet is making things worse. But the opportunity is there to make dramatic improvements to the process of fundraising, by reemphasizing a balance between all four phases of fundraising. Yes, the Internet can facilitate spamming people with more and more requests for money. But its low cost and high touch aspects can also facilitate treating almost every donor with the care and depth of a major donor. That is a genuine breakthrough with enormous rewards.
No longer will prospecting be so desperately focused on the immediate donors. An investment will be made in respecting and developing the level of permission with each prospect. Owners of lists will facilitate introductions through "chaperoning" rather than through spam-like list rental. Stakeholders who have heretofore been reached only by mail will be helped to change to an online relationship, if that's what they desire.
Nonprofits will begin to genuinely cultivate their relationships and so have these relationships feel more natural to all involved. Newsletters and web sites will be redesigned with richer cultivation in mind and so better integrate the program of the organization with development and fundraising. There can be more and more personalization, resulting in greater and greater trust.
The ask will become easier because, like plucking a ripe fruit, a well cultivated donor hardly has to be touched in order to give. Furthermore, the ask will become about much more than money. Sometimes it will be about volunteering or about activism or about education. The greater levels of rich enrollment will also lead, as all the research indicates, to greater giving.
We will thank and keep people informed like never before and in so doing we will truly steward these relationships. We won't mix thanks or updates with further asks. And, just as we are stewards of our donors, we will learn how our donors themselves want to be stewards of their donations.
This workshop isn't for everyone. How will you know if it's right for you and your organization? If you primarily raise money through a small number of grants or from government contracts, then there are likely to be fewer immediate benefits from developing your online systems. If you are suffering from a chicken and egg problem, where you don't have enough resources to improve how you develop resources, then unfortunately this workshop might be discouraging. If you primarily make money through the sale of tickets and you don't think you're in a position to cultivate your ticket buyers any time soon, then we might not be able to help. Finally, if you are mostly dependent upon a single donor, then you probably have some basic development work to do first. For everyone else, the Frictionless Fundraising Intensive has a very good chance of having an enormous impact on your success.
Like many of our other workshops, Frictionless Fundraising is offered as a private, in house consultation or as a session with open registration. Please contact us for more information. You can also request a free PDF of the seminal article on Frictionless Fundraising.