welcome!
Hello and welcome!
For over a year now I’ve been thinking about launching this blog site. Twelve months of thinking about posts I’d like to write, content I want to create, lessons I’m going to share, and specifically who I’m trying to reach. As a nonprofit professional — for over a decade now — I have a lot to say on the subjects of fundraising and organizational effectiveness, and more importantly I have a lot to offer. Admittedly, this blog is unlikely to include the sexiest subject matter, but if I can help a handful of small, young nonprofit organizations or just few nonprofit professionals who want to take their strategy and fundraising games to the next level, I’ll be satisfied.
In 2017, I made the transition from full-time employee to independent consultant. At the time, I conceived of the idea to create nonprofit resources for small to mid-size organizations looking to up their fundraising game but that don’t have the resources to hire an experienced development professional. I also wanted to share my experiences as a development professional—what’s worked, what hasn’t, and more specifically the nuances of fundraising that often get overlooked.
Initially, I thought it would only be about fundraising. But the more I thought about it, the more I wanted to talk about strategic planning and organizational effectiveness as well. When I made the transition from accounting to development, I thought I was leaving my numbered past behind me. Quickly, I realized that my financial background often informs my strategic approach as fundraiser and manager. What’s more, I have seen firsthand how organizations that successfully integrate their programmatic goals with internal infrastructure are ultimately more effective in achieving their goals and sustaining impact.
The blog is just the beginning, a place for me to write what I know (or what I think I know!) and where I can share resources and tools for other organizations that want to improve their internal strategies. In the future, I will also offer courses and group coaching opportunities (free and fee-based) for organizations that want to go deeper in this process.
So let me tell you why this blog is different from the many other fundraising resources that you can find on the internet. Two reasons:
1 - This blog is less about the mechanics of fundraising and more about the strategy of fundraising. What does that mean? If you want to learn how to write a year-end appeal, all you need to do is do a Google search and I’m guessing you’ll find numerous websites that tell you the step-by-step process of writing an appeal. Some will even include examples. What this blog will address is whether you should be writing an appeal in the first place.
Recently, I did a little of my own research on fundraising strategies, and let me tell you, it was overwhelming! The good news is that we live in a time in which there are numerous (tons!) of ways to fundraise. This is an industry ripe with disruption. Gone are the tried and true five ways to fundraise — every day there seems to be organizations innovating and coming up with new effective fundraising strategies. That doesn’t mean to say that the strategies of days of old are over — there is still a ton of wisdom to be gleaned from what works — and what doesn’t. But if you’re a one-person development team — or even an executive director, who also happens to be wear the fundraising hat, it is likely too time intensive and overwhelming to determine where or how you should be spending your development hours and dollars. Because, yeah, there will be times that you have to spend money to make money!
2 - A lot of what I have to say is about Organization Excellence, written with a fundraising lens. You can know all the best practices and cutting edge strategies for fundraising, but if your organization is not operating at its height level and truly making an impact in the world, it’s going to be very difficult to have integrity with potential and past donors. In my experience, the best way to succeed and grow an organization’s financial resources is with a reputation for programmatic excellence. That said, I’ve also seen how organizations can create silos between program staff, development staff, financial staff, etc etc, all to the detriment of the organization. Like it or not, revenue generation is an essential element of non-profit business. And the best way to fundraise successfully is to make sure that your fundraising plan integrates with your programmatic and financial plans. When these three strategies are working synergistically, you are well on your way to organization excellence. A lot of what I write about might not sound like fundraising strategy, but I truly believe and have learned from experience that fundraising is so much more than asking for money.
3 - What I have to say is coming straight from the field. What this means is that my goal is to write about timely lessons that I’m actively learning as a fundraising consultant. Right now, I working with four different organizations of varying size and a fairly broad spectrum of issues. Even after working in the industry for over ten years, I’m not going to pretend that I know everything about fundraising. In fact, I can promise you I don’t. But I have succeeded in helping organizations to raise millions of dollars during my tenure, and even better, I am constantly learning and applying my findings to the clients that I work with. Ideally, I will be able to share what has worked and what has not worked, so that you might be able to go straight to the strategy of success.
WHO IS THIS BLOG FOR:
Ideally, anyone who plays a role in nonprofit leadership and/or fundraising, whether as a volunteer, Board Member, or paid professional, will find useful guidance or tools on this site. More specifically, when I imagine my target audience for these articles. I’m thinking of small to mid-size nonprofit organizations that have limited experience and/or resources to apply to fundraising and organizational infrastructure. And even more specifically, I aim to highlight methods and proven strategies that prioritize efficacy and that leverage existing resources within an organization. So many nonprofit organizations these days struggle as a result of limited resources, whether that’s time, money, and/or human capital. I want to share what I know and offer proven tools and strategies so that these organizations can not only survive but thrive, too.
WHAT IS THIS BLOG ABOUT:
I believe that there is so much room for improvement within the nonprofit sector. Too often, there is an expectation of having limited resources and not enough staff, which can ultimately result in culture of chaos, stress, and burnout. Just because individuals are passionate about changing the world for the better shouldn’t mean that they have to settle for substandard conditions—whether that’s salary, other benefits, internal culture, etc. An organization’s ability to effectively fundraise impacts all of those components significantly as well as the internal infrastructure and organizational effectiveness of how an organization does business. We can do better. We should do better. And I’m committed to continue learning and sharing my knowledge in order to help make that happen.
I look forward to being in touch!
Lauren x