Five Reasons Your Fundraising Is Failing
- You never ask! This, above all, is the single most important reason fundraising fails.
As my father always told me: If you don’t ask, you don’t get. But do make sure that you are asking appropriately. Which leads us to the second failure point - You don’t cultivate. Synonyms for cultivate include nurture, develop, encourage, enrich. Are you doing any of that for your prospects? If you are like most nonprofits the answer is not really. We meet, maybe we greet, then we send something out in a letter, an email, on social media asking for a gift.
- You don’t do any research. So you don’t know what this person cares about, supports, could give. And you certainly don’t know—nor, apparently, do you care—how he or she most wants to receive information.
- You’re unclear. About what you want and how you describe why supporting you matters. You have no decent messaging. And what you do have is so generic, no one relates to it
- You have no plan. Above all, this is why you fail. If you do not have a strategy, a blueprint for action….you are stuck on start, and that is not the place where fundraising happens.
Janet Levine works with nonprofits, helping to increase their fundraising capacity and move them from mired to inspired. Learn about Janet at www.janetlevineconsulting.com. While there, sign up for her newsletter and contact her for a free, 30-minute consultation. But only do that if you want to stop failing