Effective Frontline Fundraising: A Guide for Non-Profits, Political Candidates, and Advocacy Groups

252 Pages·2011·1.09 MB·English

by  Jeffrey David Stauch (auth.)

Effective Frontline
Fundraising
A Guide for Non-Profits, Political Candidates, and
Advocacy Groups

Jeffrey David Stauch
Effective Frontline Fundraising: A Guide for Non-Profits, Political
Candidates, and Advocacy Groups
Copyright © 2011 by Jeffrey David Stauch
All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any
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formation contained in this work.
To my teachers.
—JDS
Contents
About the Author.............................................................................................................vii
Acknowledgments............................................................................................................viii
Introduction..........................................................................................................................ix
Chapter 1: Nonprofits, Cash Flow, and Philanthropy................................................1
Chapter 2: The Role of a Fundraiser............................................................................13
Chapter 3: The Gift Cycle..............................................................................................23
Chapter 4: Assembling Your Team..............................................................................35
Chapter 5: The Basic Tools............................................................................................55
Chapter 6: The Annual Plan...........................................................................................71
Chapter 7: Crafting Your Message...............................................................................93
Chapter 8: Stewardship.................................................................................................107
Chapter 9: Face Time.....................................................................................................125
Chapter 10: The Ask........................................................................................................149
Chapter 11: Major Gifts...................................................................................................171
Chapter 12: Political Fundraising...................................................................................193
Chapter 13: Charity, Advocacy Group, or Both?......................................................209
Chapter 14: Get Out There and Start Asking............................................................219
Appendix A: Additional Resources...............................................................................229
Appendix B: Example Appeals and Websites You Should Envy.............................231
Appendix C: Funding Sources beyond the Individual Donor..................................243
Index ..................................................................................................................................245

v
About the Author
Jeffrey David Stauch received his BA in political
science at Middlebury College and his MA in social
sciences at the University of Chicago. He started his
career in fundraising in Boston with Grassroots
Campaigns, Inc., and Telefund, Inc. Jeffrey is currently
the assistant director of principal gifts at a small, elite
liberal arts college. He is also the volunteer giving
officer for Betasab (www.betasab.org), a home for
orphaned children in Ethiopia. When not at work, he
runs, coaches youth hockey, trains in the martial art
of Aikido, and writes creative non-fiction. He has a
pet rabbit.

Photo Credit: Alex Roca Sala
Acknowledgments
I would like to begin by acknowledging the team at Apress, specifically Jeff
Olson and Adam Heath for their guidance and patience while this book
came together. Chandra Clarke made us all look good with her expedient
and thorough copyediting. Special thanks to Jeff for trusting that we could
pull this off in the first place, and for giving me the opportunity to put my
thoughts to paper.
I would also like to thank my mentors past and present—Lisa, AJ, Hyam,
Mama Duck, Stephanie, Matt, Meghan, Mike, and Sue K (twice now!)—for
being generous with their time and wisdom over the years. Much of what is
expressed in this book is owed to the lessons that I learned under these
very talented fundraisers.
And, of course, thanks to all those donors who support the important work
of the nonprofits out there.

viii
Introduction
There’s No Such Thing as Luck
My first job as a fundraiser was not glorious. I was working for a for-profit
company that contracted with progressive nonprofits that had opted to out-
source their fundraising operations. While the job was far from glamorous, it
was a great training ground, and I was fortunate to meet many people dedi-
cated to what we called internally the movement, or the left-wing conspiracy.
My first year, I was put in charge of directing the street canvassing office in
Boston, in the lead-up to the mid-term US elections. Our client at the time,
not surprisingly, was the Democratic National Committee (DNC). I worked
six to seven days a week, averaging more than 60 hours a week (and often-
times pushing 80). Three or four of those days, I was out with my crew, clip-
board in hand in a bright blue DNC t-shirt, waving down pedestrians with a
smile and a question along the lines of, “Do you have a minute for the
Democrats?” or “Have a second to talk about the mid-terms?”
The work was grueling, and there were certainly moments when I ques-
tioned what I was doing. Back at the office, the saying went: “The hours are
long, and the work is thankless, but at least the pay sucks.”
One of the first lessons I learned, direct from the mouth of one of the vice
presidents of the company, let’s call him Stan, during our week of intense
training in Newton, Massachusetts, was there’s no such thing as luck. It was an
interesting thought, and just counterintuitive enough to make all the young,
starry-eyed liberals in the room pause for a second to internalize what ex-
actly that meant.
Stan’s point was that becoming an effective fundraiser is about developing a
skill set, just as in any other job. His conviction proved true first in my job
canvassing on the streets of Boston, then down the hall as I grew the call
center of the canvassing company’s sister organization, and now, at a small
college in New England, soliciting six- and seven-figure gifts and coordinating
eight-figure solicitations in collaboration with the college administration.
ix
We often get into fundraising by accident; that was certainly the case for
me. I was fresh out of graduate school, and I took the first job I was offered.
Despite the long hours and lackluster paycheck, I was fortunate to have a
solid training program and great supervisors who were goal driven and
checked in weekly on how my staff was doing (or more frequently if per-
formance was down). In most of the nonprofit world, this type of diligence
and attention to quantitative data, at least with respect to the development
shop, is rare.
Granted, this organization was a for-profit, whose sole duty was to raise
money for nonprofits. The fact that nonprofits are outsourcing, however, is
a sign that they aren’t terribly good at doing the development work them-
selves. This can bring with it a number of problems, especially as an organi-
zation first turns toward making its fundraising department a professional
“shop.” Many clients that this company brought on were quite large: the
American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the Sierra Club, Save the Children,
the Democratic National Committee. All of these organizations were able
to make that investment to outsource significant components of their de-
velopment operations to a third party.
Smaller, younger nonprofits do not have that luxury. First, you might not
have the money to spend to pay the vendor. Second, and more important, it
is unlikely that you would be taken on as a client. The company I worked
for operates on a profit motive, so it wants to concentrate on clients that
already have name recognition, nonprofits readily recognizable to the aver-
age passerby on the street as canvassers like me tried day after day to flag
someone down. Name recognition matters. In fact, the company I used to
work for is now turning away business. So instead, young, protean nonprof-
its are left to their own devices when it comes to fundraising.
Even if it were financially viable for your organization to consider outsourc-
ing, I would recommend against it. As you’ll read later on, when I discuss
messaging in Chapter 7, when you outsource your fundraising operations,
you are also sacrificing a certain degree of quality control. You risk your
message getting convoluted by a profit incentive as opposed to a sincere
dedication to the mission that your nonprofit represents.
This book is intended to guide you through the steps of setting up a profes-
sional development shop, to help you come up with ambitious but achieva-
ble annual goals, to make you aware of the important behind-the-scenes as-
pects of the shop that are essential to moving your operations forward, and,
of course, to provide you with the necessary tools to solicit gifts ranging
from a one-time donation of $25 to a five-year commitment of $1 million—
or more.
x
You should walk away from reading this book with the confidence to ap-
proach your nonprofit’s top decision makers with a strong case for why you
need to develop and staff a fundraising shop, and why it is a wise (and ne-
cessary) investment in the organization you represent. You should also be
able to recruit, train, and manage a top-notch development team; come up
with a strong annual plan; craft effective messaging; and follow it up with
solid stewardship, which in turn prepares you to resolicit your donor base
all over again.
Another lesson, which I learned in my second fundraising post working with
a college’s “Young Alumni” program was this: You are not responsible for the
outcome of the conversation, but you are responsible for the preparation going
into that conversation.
To that end, this book will also teach you how to plan a great fundraising
trip, how to provide your prospects with meaningful follow-up, and how to
shine in your face-to-face meetings with prospects small and large. This
book will also provide you with lessons on how to solicit by phone and e-
mail, which will in turn help you to train volunteers to do so. In short, you
will learn how to ensure your organization has an impact on society for
decades to come.
Before we get into the details, however, let’s first look at philanthropy
within the context of the nonprofit world.
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