The Power of Fundraising

Fundraising isn't just about money! It's about promoting the good work of your organization and creating an environment that welcomes donors to participate in that good work:

• Promoting your mission: This is where it all starts - with the organizational mission that powers all of your services and programs. And it's surprising to discover how many folks involved actively in nonprofits are unfamiliar with the agency's mission statement. Everyone involved in fundraising should have this mission memorized, and be ready to talk about it - passionately and personally - with clients, members, and donors.

• Building relationships: Every fundraiser will tell you that there are three basic reasons people give: because they want to participate in the work of the organization, because they were asked, and because they know and respect the person that asked. Your job is to represent your organization with integrity, skill, and passion. As you do this, you also have opportunity to really get to know people - and to build genuine, sustaining partnerships and friendships for yourself and for your agency.

• Encouraging active participation: When people donate to an organization, whether it be $10 or $10,000, they become involved. They have a sense of ownership of the agency and its services. They care more. And that caring frequently translates into active participation doing meaningful volunteer work that benefits your clients, your organization - and the donor. A recent survey by Volunteer Match indicated that two-thirds of respondents said volunteer work makes them feel healthier, both mentally and physically.

• Creating community: We live in a fractured, stressful world increasingly dominated by technology - and often sadly lacking in human connection. As you talk to people about your work in making the world a better place, as you build relationships with your donors, as you facilitate their volunteer participation, you are bucking this trend by bringing people together and creating community. Along with the important services nonprofits provide, this too is how the nonprofit sector can help heal the world.

Fundraising is about real people - staff and volunteers and board members like yourselves - and their passionate commitment to a cause. It's about developing sustaining friendships and relationships. It's about creating an atmosphere that gets people involved in volunteering to make their community and world a better place to live. And it's about creating community in a world where we need as much real personal connection as we can get.

Searching for Gen X and Y

Have you been trying to figure out how to get those elusive young people in their 20's and 30's (Gen X and Y) involved in your organization? Join the crowd. Most nonprofits are dominated by folks age 50 and up - as staff, volunteers, board members, and donors.

• Gen X and Y have been born into a very different world - dominated by the fear of environmental collapse and terrorism, an exploding world of new media, and decreasing faith in institutions. But they also have a strong desire to help others and to raise money for their favorite causes.

• Members of Gen and Y now constitute more than half of the pool of potential donors - yet they contribute less money, support fewer charities, and are challenging to hold onto. According to a recent study by Edge Research, Gen Y donors averaged gifts of $341 to 3.6 group; members of Gen X gave $796 to 4.2 organizations. By contract, Baby Boomers contributed $901 to 5.2 groups and those born before 1946 gave $1,066 to 6.3 charities.

• For Gen X and Y, no one manner of giving dominates - 43% used direct mail, 35% a nonprofit website, 13% cellphone donations. In fact, 77% of those surveyed said they learned about helping quake victims in Haiti via their cellphones, and the majority found information on nonprofits primarily through internet sources. Older folks respond primarily to direct mail and print materials - 77% said they gave through the mail in the past two years.

• Younger donors enjoy giving as part of social events and through volunteering - personal contact with an organization , especially when it involves fun and friends, is still important to them.

• Gen X and Y give just because they are asked by friends - and this is increasingly happening through social media networks. 36% of those under 30 had forwarded a message from a charity to a friend in the past month, 37% would join an organization's Facebook group, and 29% had posted information about a favorite charity on their person Facebook page.

• Younger donors are likely to say they will be increasing charitable donations this year - and much less likely to feel that the global recession has affected their giving.

So: in order to retain current donors and reach out to Gen X and Y, your nonprofit is going to have to do it all: Facebook, text messages, enewsletters, volunteer work parties, youth-oriented events and parties, brochures, phone calls. Your challenge is to engage the genuine desire of young people to make a difference in this world, using every new strategy at your fingertips.

The State of the Arts

These are challenging times for nonprofit arts organizations - and not just because of the economy:

• Since 1998, the number of nonprofit arts groups - all competing for audience and participants and grant funding - has increased by 42%. At the same time, attendance and ticket sales at most mainstream arts organizations have been in a steady decline.

• People are increasingly staying at home, choosing to participate in the arts through television or the internet - where you can find almost anything you want to see, for free - or through do-it-yourself arts projects.

• For-profit businesses - bookstores, cafes, restaurants, retail stores - have become very proactive in promoting and presenting lectures, concerts, and events. For the most part, there is no admission charged because the payoff is increased business, foot traffic, and name recognition. Often these events are benefits for local nonprofits, increasing goodwill for the business while blurring the lines between the for-profit and nonprofit worlds.

• The cell phone culture, in which anyone can be reached and plans made at any moment, has resulted in a casual and last-minute approach to life. This has lead to reduced advance ticket sales and subscription series sales.

• As America's population grows in diversity, people are seeking out arts experiences through ethnically and/or culturally specific organizations rather than standard arts venues.

• At museums, concerts, and theater performances, the majority of folks attending are gray-haired and Caucasian. Nonprofits are struggling to find ways to engage new and ethnically diverse audiences, especially those who are under 40.

• In the competition for government and foundation dollars, arts agencies rarely win when pitted against agencies that feed the poor and house the homeless. For the past decade, arts and cultural groups have been steadily losing their share of philanthropic dollars to international, environmental, disaster relief, and social services agencies.

What does this mean for the future? There are some innovative success stories to consider: the Metropolitan Opera's simulcasts in movie theaters, ArtsMemphis' Iphone app that allows people to directly access their calendar, the new wave of (not quiet anymore) libraries with cafe-like atmospheres and lots of computer access, lively singles' nights at theaters and classical music venues. Arts organizations are going to have to work harder, be more creative and business-savvy, stay up on current trends in social media, experiment with programs designed to reach people of all ages and cultures, and actively seek out collaborative efforts with both for-profit and nonprofit partners that draw new participants.