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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:
Heyman, Darian Rodriguez
Nonprofit Fundraising 101 / Darian Rodriguez Heyman.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-119-10046-1 (paperback); ISBN
978-1-119-10050-8 (pdf); ISBN 978-1-119-10056-0 (epub)
1. Nonprofit organizations. 2. Fund raising. I. Title. II. Title: Nonprofit fundraising one hundred one. III. Title: Nonprofit fundraising one hundred and one.
HD2769.15.H49 2016
658.15'224 – dc23
978-1-119-10050-8 (ePDF) 978-1-119-10056-0 (ePub)
ISBN: 978-1-119-10046-1 (pbk)
Darian's Dedication
I dedicate this book to my beloved grandmother, Martha Heyman. I love you, and I thank you for a lifetime of service to our family and to the community. You taught us all the value of family, the love of travel, and the joy of serving others.
To my mother, Lori Steele, for teaching me to believe in myself, and that I could do anything I put my mind to. I love you.
About the Book
“You don’t have to know all the answers, you just need to know where to find them.”
There’s a story I like to tell whenever I address an audience of nonprofit fundraisers. It speaks to what I think of as the single greatest obstacle standing in our way as a community, and especially as a sector – the mistaken notion that when we raise money for an important cause, somehow we’re begging for alms, holding out our tin cup.
The story is about a young college student in a philosophy class. One day, the professor greeted his audience of 100 master’s and doctoral students with a question. “Is this glass half full, or half empty?” he asked.
The students spent the entire 90-minute class debating and discussing, but as you might imagine, they never solved the age-old riddle. This especially frustrated one of the students, whose family had made great sacrifices to put him through school, even after he finished his undergraduate studies.
He huffed and puffed on his way home, where his grandmother, Gertrude, was there waiting for him.
“How was class today?” she asked as soon as he walked in the door, but the student was upset and didn’t want to talk about it. She pressed him, as grandmas are prone to do, and finally he told her about his experience.
“Well, if you really want to know, it was incredibly frustrating. We had a hundred master’s and doctoral students sitting around for an hour and a half, and all we did is debate if the glass were half full, or half empty.”
His grandmother, with only a second-grade education, didn’t miss a beat.
“Well son, it depends on whether you’re pouring or drinking.”
Pouring.. or drinking. Brilliant. And the reason I share this story with fundraisers every chance I get is that I believe the tin cup approach to fundraising is based on a failure of perception. We mistakenly think of ourselves as the drinkers, relying on the charitable contributions of others to conduct our work. And although it may feel like that at times, nothing is further from the truth.
We are the pourers. What we do as a sector, as a Movement with a capital “M,” is connect people with resources to the change they want to see in the world. Fundraising is holy work in my mind, and we’re privileged and honored to do it for causes we believe in. The world needs us – we are a conduit, a channel. And through us, the world finds the resources and support it needs to thrive, or at least to improve in some small way, one dollar, peso, or pound at a time.
Our goal when writing this book was to offer a useful, unique resource to you, the reader. Laila and I may not know you, but we’ve been where you are. You’re passionate, creative, and committed to your cause. Maybe you have resources, expertise, and contacts at your disposal, as we have these past years, or maybe you’re like us years ago, starting nonprofits with no budget, no plan, and no experience. Either way, this book will serve you. After more than a decade in the sector, we’ve seen lots of fundraising books, but there’s nothing like what we’ve pulled together in these pages. This book is the first comprehensive, practical guide to all aspects of nonprofit fundraising around the globe.
Ultimately, this is a reference manual, and not every fundraiser needs to know about every tactic or strategy. It’s unlikely that you’ll read this book straight through, and that’s OK; Nonprofit Fundraising 101 is intended to be your yellow pages for social change. Apply it as needed. Keep it on your desk and when you decide to pursue your first government grant, or your executive director charges you with creating a fundraising plan for your nonprofit, it’ll be there. Break it out when you get ready to launch a new crowdfunding campaign or finally commit to taking your cause mobile. Or simply refer to the various Resource Reviews and the Book Partners if you’ve already mastered the basics and are looking for resources to advance your professional development.
Use the book as you see fit and, please, share it with colleagues and peers. All of us can learn a lesson from Chapter 9 interviewee, Kay Sprinkel Grace, who once quipped, “We need to tilt our silos on their sides, and turn them into pipelines.”
To make the book as readable as possible, we’ve crafted a consistent framework for all of the chapters, which is in line with the one used in Nonprofit Management 101:
• Introduction: Each entry starts with a short overview of why a busy nonprofit leader like you should take 20 to 30 minutes out of his or her schedule to learn more about this topic. Which kinds of nonprofits can benefit from this strategy, and what does this approach have to offer your cause?
• Critical Skills and Competencies: This portion typically contains 70 to 80 percent of the content for each chapter, and is where you’ll find the step-by-step framework for success in each respective arena. We’ve done our best to distill each interviewee’s comments and insights into a how-to formula for success, presented in a logical progression with several main headlines, each of which is followed by a few paragraphs to fill in the specifics.
• Conclusion: A paragraph at the end of each chapter helps to underscore key points and takeaways, reminding you of some of the highlights and crucial components of the formula for success.
• Do’s and Don’ts: These are bullet point lists of concrete, actionable tips from within the chapter and beyond, each of which is distilled down to a sentence or two to make it as easy as possible to digest.
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