Planning ahead means planning on transformation
We all crave the same thing these days: a return to something resembling ‘normal’.
It’s not clear when we’ll get what we want—or that what we get will meet our expectations. Even as states across the country start to ‘reopen’, life remains profoundly altered.
At this time of year, most nonprofits make plans for the coming fiscal year. We project ahead on event revenue, possible major gifts, and other growth opportunities.
This year, planning feels…confusing? Futile?
Fortunately, while none of us knows what the future holds (we wish!), there are steps you can take to prepare. With a little foresight, organization, and focus, you can set yourself up for fundraising success—even in the most uncertain fundraising environment most of us has experienced.
Here’s a checklist of what to do now…
1. Assume your fall event plans will face headwinds.
The biggest myth we see nonprofit leaders and fundraisers clinging is that fall events will make up for revenue shortfalls we’ve seen this spring. We understand the temptation of this line of thinking, which gives us both a sense of certainty and something clear to work toward.
Unfortunately, it’s not true. Fall events are likely to face unprecedented headwinds:
Competition will be higher than ever, with postponed spring events cluttering up the calendar.
People may still be afraid to participate in large gatherings.
Large gatherings may not be permitted, and events may need to be cancelled or postponed again.
The current hype around virtual events is unlikely to last as the novelty wears off.
If events are a major source of revenue for your organization:
Assume your fall events will, at minimum, be disrupted in a way that decreases their revenue potential. Organizations are cutting their event projections by 50% or more. We recommend you do the same.
Given that risk, decrease the amount of time you are spending on events in order to increase the time you are spending on other revenue streams, such as individual giving, major gifts, foundations, and corporate partnerships.
Put together a small group of staff and/or volunteers to make a strategic, time-bound plan for driving alternative revenue streams—starting today. This work is urgent for every events-dependent nonprofit.
Repurpose unused or projected event expense budgets to make investments in your revenue diversification—which will yield more revenue per dollar spent in the long-term and, in the current environment, could even do so within a year.
Draw on external expertise and bandwidth—such as consultants, volunteers, or contractors—to increase the speed and success of your revenue diversification efforts.
Most of all, as we often say: beware the shiny objects. There is no magical quick fix for our current events predicament. As always, fundamentals will pull us through.
2. Shift your focus to relationships—and start making them more strategic and systematic.
No matter what revenue stream you want to grow, relationships are the key. It has always been true that the most successful nonprofits are those with the most strategic and systematic approach to relationships. Now, it’s imperative that all nonprofits invest in relationships to secure their own sustainability—even survival.
But what does that mean? ‘Investing in relationships’? In a nutshell it means putting time and resources into:
Knowing your donor base—size, giving levels, giving potential (capacity), retention rates, and, most importantly, motivations
Segmenting your donors—major gifts potential, middle giving potential, key foundations, key companies, and general supporters
Creating a shortlist of your highest potential donors—largest donors (to anything, including events), loyal donors with high giving potential, known philanthropists with a connection to your mission or community, etc.
Creating a relationship plan for each segment and each donor on your shortlist—who is responsible for each, what experiences you’ll provide, how you’ll get to know donor(s) personally, how you’ll bring the donor(s) closer to your mission
Setting up some systems to make relationships easier—tracking systems in your CRM, outreach metrics and dashboards, a segmented communications calendar, collateral that tells your stories, etc.
Creating a culture of accountability to relationships—leadership focus, prioritization of relationship-related work, clear roles & responsibilities, support for frontline fundraisers from all other staff, etc.
If this list strikes you as daunting to undertake on top of all your other work, you are not alone. Nonprofit leaders and fundraisers all over the country have learned that this work cannot be undertaken as a side hobby. It has to be the number one priority—and that other work will have to decrease, or even stop.
If you’re ready to take this transformational step toward revenue and mission sustainability, here’s where to start:
Create a vision. Where do you want to be in 12-24 months? Why does getting there require a transformation of how you work? Why should your team be excited about working toward your vision?
Decide what you will streamline and stop. Look at how your leaders and fundraisers are spending their time. Where are you spending a lot of effort for minimal returns? What processes are inefficient and cluttering up your day? Where are distractions popping up? Make a list of work/processes that need to be overhauled to make them more efficient and of work/processes that can simply stop altogether.
Cultivate a growth mindset. Share your vision, recognizing that the process of streamlining and ‘stopping’ activities can be painful. Your team will not take the leap with you unless they are bought in on the why. Once they’re excited with you, they will gladly make big changes and let go of pet projects that aren’t profitable.
Make a plan. Take the steps outlined above and break them out into a timeline. Bring in the expertise and bandwidth you need to undertake them quickly and effectively.
Get going. Don’t wait for everything to be perfectly organized before you start. Look for little ways to start pivoting your fundraising approach, how you spend your time, and how you interact with donors.
Relationship-based fundraising sounds warm and fuzzy, but as you can see from above, it is only effective when it is strategic and systematic. Without strategy, you’ll sink your time into the wrong relationships at the wrong time with the wrong messaging. Without systems, you’ll miss opportunities and take longer to secure gifts.
3. While you’re getting organized, keep bringing people closer to your mission.
Strategy and systems take a while to put into place. While you’re getting your ducks in a row internally, carve out some time and resources for outreach to your donor base.
This outreach doesn’t need to be perfect, but it should be:
Frequent. Don’t apologize for telling your story. Tell it. In a noisy world, we can’t afford to have the most important causes—and the voices they represent—stay silent.
Personal. Complement your mass communications with efforts to connect with donors in small groups or 1:1, which is where the real magic happens.
Interesting and inspiring. How can you bring a bit of lightness to people’s days? How can you inspire them with the impact of your mission?
About more than COVID. It’s important to showcase how your organization is responding to COVID, but people are getting burned out on talking about COVID and crisis messaging. Think about the other stories your organization has to tell.
In the coming weeks:
Ensure that all your top donors—from all channels—have received a personal phone call (and ideally more than one) since quarantine began. For tips see our resources on why it’s important and how to make it easier.
Schedule at least 2-3 small-group virtual ‘parlor meetings’. Ask a donor to host each one. Limit attendance to 10 donors. Feature a representative of your mission—an expert, a board member, a client—who can talk informally about your work and answer questions. Don’t have an ask—just a testimonial at the end from your host about the importance of your mission.
Create and execute a communications plan that leverages all your channels—direct mail, digital, social media—to tell your story. Tell the same story across all channels in straightforward, clear, compelling language. Talk about more than COVID.
Deliver at least one stewardship touchpoint to your top donors—like a thank you post card, impact report, or mission update conference call.
At Aperio, we use the word transformation often. The reason is that adopting a relationship-based approach to fundraising is transformational. It upends the way we think about and approach fundraising. It pushes organizational culture in new directions. And through all those—sometimes inspiring, sometimes painful—processes, it transforms the possibilities for the causes we care about.
There has never been a better time to undertake this transformation. If you’ve been waiting for the right moment to decrease your dependence on events, beef up major gifts, elevate your work with foundations and companies…this is it.
Your team has never been more ready—since they’re already outside of their comfort zones and thinking about their work in new ways. Your donors have never been more ready—since they are looking for new ways to support your mission that are less risky than attending events.
And your need has never been greater—since your mission can only continue if your revenue is sustainable.