You canceled your event…now what?
You’ve made a brave decision.
You’re going to use this unusual year to diversify your revenue beyond events.
Now, it’s time to get started…
Having guided many leaders and fundraisers through this process, I can tell you: the next few months will be tough.
It’s not that the work will be difficult per se, but rather that you’ll need to shift your mindset and day-to-day pretty radically. To succeed, you’ll need to:
Build your own confidence that donors want to give directly to your work
Spend a lot more time thinking about one donor at a time
Spend your time every day very differently
Focus volunteers on making introductions, rather than asks
Navigate more gray areas than you’re used to
Redefine success for yourself and the people around you
The good news is that on the other side of the discomfort, you’ll see:
A better donor experience
A closer connection between donors and your mission
New simple ways for volunteers to support your efforts
Confidence that you are using your most valuable resource—your team—to the highest potential
Sustainable revenue for your mission
Increased returns on your investment in fundraising (as high as 80-90% for mature programs)
These are results you can count on in diversifying beyond events to relationship-based fundraising. And in this environment, you can achieve them much more quickly than usual. With rapid and focused investment, you can not only replace the revenue from your canceled event, you can put your organization on the path to sustainable, high-impact revenue growth.
Your mission is ready, and your donors are ready. Here’s how to get your team ready.
1. Align your leadership
Relationship-based fundraising cannot be done by fundraisers alone. It requires the whole organization to rally around cultivating a community of engaged investors in your mission.
To get your diversification process started, gather all your staff leadership together and discuss:
Why do we need funding? (Beyond needing to pay our staff and bills—what are we hoping to achieve in the next 1-3 years?)
Why is our mission—including core programs—relevant right now?
Why might a donor be interested in investing directly in that work?
What will be required from each department to attract this kind of donor and deliver on promises to them? From fundraising? From program? From marketing & communications? From finance?
How might resources need to be redeployed?
Engage your board and other key volunteers in the conversation:
Share your mission vision and why you feel a sense of urgency about securing investors in your work right now. What ideas do they have? What is making them feel inspired about your mission right now? What stories can they share that will help others understand the power of your work?
Share some examples of individuals, foundations, and companies that have invested directly in your work, outside an event. Brainstorm: Who else do we know with similar interests and passions? Create a list of names.
Share that your goal now is conversations with these individuals, foundations, and companies to understand their philanthropic goals and to explore potential alignment. Brainstorm how to request and secure these meetings for staff (with or without the volunteer, depending on the volunteer’s preference).
Confirm next steps—including when you will follow up with each volunteer to create a plan for each name they shared.
A few recommendations based on my experiences:
Push beyond your comfort zone. Your leadership—especially volunteer leadership—will be tempted to default back to events because that’s your organization’s comfort zone. How to introduce donors to the organization? A cultivation event. How to show the mission in action? A mission education session. These are great strategies—in combination with 1:1 conversations. The magic happens when we’re listening to donors, not talking at them. So, even if you do integrate cultivation events or mission education sessions into your strategy, don’t let those touchpoints distract your volunteers or staff from the real work of spending time with donors 1:1.
Drive conversation toward what will work. The human brain struggles with transformational change. Our current reality is concrete; an idea for the future is abstract. For that reason, when we’re confronted with a new idea, our knee-jerk reaction is to list all the barriers—in other words, the ways in which the new idea is different from our current reality. A simple moderation technique can overcome this. Rather than asking for feedback in open-ended questions, ask the group to first each share 1-3 things that they like about the idea. Then you can open the discussion to potential barriers and challenges. When we first say aloud what we like, our brains are forced to imagine the new reality and add some shape to it—which makes it much easier to imagine moving in the new direction.
Leadership alignment takes time—so don’t wait. You need your staff and volunteer leadership on board for your new strategy to work, but don’t wait for them all to be aligned before you get started. Innovative leaders will be with you right away. Others will need to see evidence of the new strategy’s potential before coming around. Get the conversations started, and then get to work.
2. Get the fundamentals organized—quickly
As we explored in our recent webinar series, there are three fundamentals that every nonprofit needs to put in place this summer:
A new case for support that speaks to your mission and core programs’ relevancy in today’s world
An organized list that segments your donors into groups based on their future potential
A donor engagement plan that elevates the experience for each group
This work should be done by the end of August to ensure your team is ready for the year ahead.
In addition, if you are replacing revenue from a canceled event, map out:
Your fundraising goal
The gift table required to reach that goal
The ask amounts required to achieve your gift table (typically 3-5x your fundraising goal for each level)
At each level of your gift table, who are the highest potential prospective donors?
Who will be responsible for those relationships and asks?
3. Redeploy your resources
In fundraising, we have three resources:
Our staff time/bandwidth
Our volunteer time/bandwidth
Financial investment in external support, tools, etc.
Create a list of everything typically invested in your events, including all staff and volunteers who contribute to the efforts. Consider both your direct and indirect expenses.
Now think about how you’ll redeploy them to support your diversification strategy this year. Here are some ideas from other organizations:
Staff: Shift as many roles as possible to be donor-facing fundraisers.
Avoid split roles because the relationship-based fundraising portion of the role will always get squeezed—especially if the fundraiser is new to the work and not yet confident in their abilities.
Give each full-time donor-facing fundraiser a portfolio of 150 donors, selected based on potential.
Give every team member a set of outreach metrics that can give them a framework for how to spend their time—and help them see why these metrics are a great asset.
Review outreach metrics during your weekly team and 1:1 meetings to hold everyone accountable.
Set up extra time to spend with staff to support their transition.
Note that it is extremely challenging for staff to transition from events fundraising to relationship-based fundraising. People who have made this transition have shared that it is deeply unsettling to move from the cut-and-dry world of events, with its clear checklists and timelines, to the nuanced, fluid world of relationship-based fundraising. While relationship-based fundraising is regimented, the checklists and timelines look a little different and take time to get used to.
Volunteers: Shift to focusing on one prospective donor at a time.
Create a shortlist of prospective donors that you will work with each volunteer to cultivate. Include names that they suggest, as well as any other supporters you want their help with.
Assign a staff person to manage these lists and work with each volunteer 1:1 to map out next steps for each donor.
Give volunteers the tools they need to make an introduction and ask for meetings. If they accompany you on a donor visit, give them a clear role—such as thanking the donor or sharing their story.
Financial investment: Repurpose your event budget for crucial capacity-building investments.
If your database needs segmentation, hire an analyst to do the screening and segmentation for you. You’ll save weeks of staff time (that could be used for donor relationships!) and it will ensure you’re focused on the highest potential opportunities going forward.
If your case needs refreshing (as most do these days!), hire a case writer. You’ll get a fresh perspective on why your mission matters and why it’s attractive to philanthropists.
If your fundraisers are transitioning from events, hire a coach to support them in creating moves management plans, working through those plans, and navigating the inevitable crises of confidence.
If your team is short-staffed, hire a professional fundraiser to do donor outreach for you and secure meetings for you and your volunteers.
If you’re a leader new to relationship-based fundraising, hire a thought partner to support your strategy development and planning.
(Hint: Aperio provides all these services in a one-stop-shop. Check out our discounted summer reset services or custom services. Set up a time to talk with us about how we can help.)
4. Celebrate (every!) success
The most important success factor? Celebrate.
You’re making a big leap—that most organizations need to make and very few do.
Know that success is going to look different than it has in the past. You’re going to see the dollars, but first you are going to see:
A team member reaching their outreach metrics for the week
A volunteer actually making that introduction you’ve discussed for years
A high-potential prospective donor replying to an email or answering a call
A donor meeting/zoom/call that is so inspiring, the fundraiser can’t stop smiling
A donor that is genuinely excited to support your mission directly
An event sponsor willing to discuss becoming your organization’s sponsor—year-round
Bottom line: Your mission has more potential. Your donors have more potential. And your team has more potential. And you’re on your way to realizing all of it.