Introduction

Since the days when fairy tales were first told, people have been looking for a way to spin straw into gold. Unfortunately, this impulse remains alive in too many of today’s nonprofits. With sources of new money hard to come by and old revenue streams threatening to dry up—not to mention staff members and volunteers overextending themselves to do the basic work of the organization—the fundraising office is often expected to perform feats of magic, sometimes with few more resources than the legendary pile of straw.

Don’t allow your organization to be trapped into this kind of fairy-tale thinking. Until your group understands that its success will depend, in large part, on your fundraising efforts—and is willing to invest in the people, resources, and technology necessary to do the job right—you’ll be spinning your wheels rather than spinning gold. And investing in fundraising should never mean investing only in activities that will produce immediate results: A successful fundraising program must also budget for the long term, with plans for such things as donor recruitment, cultivation, stewardship, and acknowledgment. These activities may not yield the immediate payback that writing a grant proposal would, but they will provide a solid foundation for the rest of your fundraising structure.

This chapter introduces the tools you’ll need to create and execute a successful fundraising effort. The way you use these resources will depend on your group’s size and experience, but most groups, no matter how large or small, use some combination of these basic tools to raise money.

This chapter covers:

• how the position of each person in your organization—including volunteers and paid staff—can play a role in fundraising
• personal skills that any development professional will need to have or develop, and
• equipment and technology for fundraising, including computer and Web tools.

Resource: Need help with legal tasks like incorporating your nonprofit? This book assumes that your organization has already taken care of some legal and tax basics—namely forming a nonprofit corporation and successfully applying for 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status and any required state tax permits. In addition, most states require you to register with the attorney general before soliciting funds within that state, and many states also require you to report on your fundraising expenditures and revenues. For further information on these requirements, see the links provided on the Association of Fundraising Professionals’ website at www.afpnet.org (click "Research & Statistics"). For step-by-step instructions on incorporating your nonprofit and applying for tax-exempt status, see How to Form a Nonprofit Corporation (National and California versions), by Anthony Mancuso (Nolo).

Fundraising People

In an ideal situation, your well-recognized and highly successful nonprofit would have a bustling staff of paid fundraising professionals, each with separate responsibilities and areas of expertise. Unfortunately, this level of organization and professionalism is far beyond the financial reach of most nonprofits. More often, you’ll need to cobble together a mix of as many board members and other committed volunteers as you can recruit to the fundraising cause, hopefully with the assistance of one or more paid fundraising staffers. The roles and functions of various fundraising positions are covered below, including how to involve and motivate your fundraising team. Don’t worry if your organization doesn’t have all of these people in place. Especially during a nonprofit’s early years, it’s common for several people to wear two or more hats—your best fundraiser may also serve as your volunteer coordinator, your executive director, or even the president of your board of directors.

Those who might participate in your fundraising efforts include:

• the executive director
• the development director
• the board of directors
• an advisory council
• other paid development staff
• paid staff in nondevelopment roles
• other volunteers, and
• outside consultants.

Tip: Track your own hours to find out your staffing needs. If you have the chance to expand your development staff, you’ll need to figure out what type of help will give you the most bang for your buck. The answer may be no farther away than your own workday. Try keeping track, on a separate pad of paper or your calendar, of where each hour goes. Even quickly scribbling entries such as "9:30 to 11:00 planning meeting, 11:00 to 12:30 research" can work. You’ll discover that you spend hours in ways you wouldn’t have guessed. If, for example, you find that most of your time is spent on events planning, it might be appropriate to contract with an outside events planner rather than put a new person on salary. Or, if most of your hours go toward clerical tasks, you might save some money by hiring a support staffer and freeing up more of your own time for development activities.

The Executive Director

Fundraising is, or should be, part of every executive director’s ("E.D."’s) job description. This includes getting to know the organization’s supporters, meeting individuals to solicit major gifts, interacting with staff at foundations, reviewing grant proposals, helping oversee special events, speaking at events, and more. Sounds like a lot of hours, doesn’t it? And most E.D.s already have plenty of issues on their plates concerning the organization’s mission, programs, and personnel. But any E.D. who doesn’t somehow make the time for fundraising activities isn’t fulfilling the job requirements, period.

Tip: Former development directors are often poised to become great E.D.s. According to J.R. Yeager, an affiliate consultant with CompassPoint (www.compasspoint.org) who specializes in executive transitions, "Many skilled, well-organized development directors are ready and well-positioned to step into the role of E.D., particularly with smaller nonprofits. Most smaller organizations truly need their E.D. to do much of the fundraising. As for the other parts of the E.D.’s job, these can be supported (for example, the board treasurer and outside auditor can help with budgeting and financial matters) and ultimately learned as the new E.D. grows into the job."

The smaller your organization’s staff, the more time your E.D. will have to spend on fundraising. But if your organization can afford to hire a development director, the E.D. might be tempted to delegate as many activities as possible to that person. This can be a mistake. To the outside world, the E.D. is the face of your organization, the person who (rightly or wrongly) is seen as having the fullest sense of how your organization’s need for money intersects with its mission, goals, and day-to-day work. It follows that whether you are pursuing a large grant or trying to coax a major donor to increase support, the E.D. is usually the best staffperson to close the deal. In this context, the E.D. is like the author of a famous book, while the development director is like the behind-the- scenes publicist who sets up the author’s appearances. The publicist may do much or most of the nitty-gritty work of publicizing the book, but when it comes to doing a book signing or a key interview, everyone wants to talk to the author.

Fortunately, the E.D. won’t be solely responsible for all or even most parts of the fundraising process. The E.D. should help solicit major gifts, for example, but need not be present for every gift request. Nor will the E.D. have to be involved in the day-to-day work of staying in close contact with major donors. Your board and staff members may also participate, depending on who is being approached. And when it comes to grant applications, the E.D.’s role should be limited to reviewing proposals, not writing them. If you can afford a development director, grant writing and other behind-the-scenes tasks will be done by that person. If not, your organization may use board members and other volunteers, as well as paid consultants and freelance contractors, to do this day-to-day work.

On the other side of the coin, an E.D. must be willing and able to share fundraising tasks with other board and staff members, especially the development director. An E.D. who can’t bear to part with these tasks, or won’t trust others with them, can spell trouble for the organization’s long-term survival. Over and over, one hears stories of a charismatic, successful E.D. who successfully grows a small nonprofit—but then continues to attempt to single-handedly raise all the money and lead the organization. This one-man-band approach doesn’t work over the long haul. Either the E.D. will burn out from overwork, neglect important tasks while trying to cope with too many others, or, in the worst possible scenario, move on to another job, leaving the nonprofit with a huge leadership and fundraising void. J.R. Yeager of CompassPoint notes that, "The wise organization (no matter its size) engages in ‘Succession Planning.’ This means having an internal structure in place where a formal and clear line of succession, cross-training, and information sharing is planned in advance, so that a ‘void’ will not happen—or will at least be minimized if an organization’s E.D. departs."

The Development Director

Perhaps you are the development director at your nonprofit, or perhaps you are a board member or E.D. of a smaller organization that hasn’t yet mustered up the funds to hire for this position. Although some small nonprofits that plan to stay small—let’s say, Friends of the Hillsdale Rose Garden—find it practical to delegate fundraising to volunteers, most growing organizations will find it highly cost-effective to hire a part- or full-time development director. (According to The NonProfit Times, the mean salary that development directors could command in 2006 was $62,455.)

Ideally, a full-time development director’s role is to oversee all aspects of the fundraising process, including planning the fundraising strategy, gathering input from the board and E.D., identifying potential funding sources, and ensuring smooth operation of fundraising activities. Typically, however, the development director’s role also includes carrying out practically every other aspect of the fundraising program: writing the mail appeals and newsletters, writing grant proposals, meeting with donors to solicit gifts, writing acknowledgment and stewardship correspondence, and more.

Because this busywork can prevent the development director from concentrating on important fundraising tasks, it will be key to your long-term success to identify other people who can help take care of any discrete or routine tasks.

A successful development director brings certain skills and abilities to your organization. Among the most important of these skills is good communication—in writing as well in person. You need a "people person"—someone who not only can express him- or herself, but also genuinely enjoys interacting with others. Remember, asking for money is just a small part of the greater—and often more fulfilling—process of building the nonprofit’s relationship with donors. Without a true interest in (and appreciation for) other people, your development director will have a hard time building these important relationships—and forging a close connection between your organization and its supporters.

Unfortunately, experienced and personable development directors are hard to find. There are more organizations seeking development directors than there are people up to the challenge, which means that the best development professionals can pick and choose where they work. Those with an ounce of savvy won’t hitch their wagon to an organization that’s teetering on the edge of financial collapse, dealing with internal dissension, or experiencing other serious problems. Less-established organizations often have to compromise by, for example, sharing a development director with another (noncompetitive) organization, hiring someone who isn’t fully qualified for the job, or hiring a part-time or assistant development director. Groups that use these types of compromises usually give the E.D. primary responsibility for fundraising.

Tip: A little recognition goes a long way. Smart E.D.s and board leaders know that a dedicated and effective development director is a huge asset to the organization. Protect this precious resource by taking steps to prevent development director burnout. One way to do this is to make fundraising a high priority and encourage all key people to participate without whining. Another is to recognize the development director’s hard work by thanking him or her, sincerely and in front of others, for jobs well done. Too often, recognition goes primarily to board members and volunteers, as if receiving a salary diminishes the value of the passion and energy the development director throws into a project. Don’t make this mistake—a development director who feels overworked and underappreciated will quickly make tracks for a friendlier organization.

Board of Directors

By law, every nonprofit must have a board of directors (sometimes called a board of trustees, board of governors, or other similar term). This is usually a volunteer group of about 12 to 15 people, whose responsibilities include overseeing the organization and being accountable for its compliance with legal and other requirements. Board members are not mere figureheads—if they neglect their duties and your organization is sued or collapses as a result, they can be held financially accountable. (Many boards buy insurance to guard against this type of liability.)

As a practical matter, a good board not only sets the direction of your programs, but will also be critical to the success of your fundraising efforts, both by making fundraising an organizational priority and by participating personally. To this end, it’s a big help to have someone on the board with a thorough understanding of nonprofit budgeting and finance. There’s little point in working hard to raise money if the board can’t make sure that the organization is meeting its financial obligations and spending wisely.

Find Board Members Who Are Willing—And Able—To Raise Money

Unfortunately, there’s often a wide gap between what nonprofits hope board members will do for them and how prospective board members envision their roles. In my earlier life as a corporate law associate, for example, my law firm/employer encouraged me and my fellow associates to join a nonprofit board. The firm wanted us to get involved with the "community"—that is, with people whose incomes were high enough to hire lawyers—by any means necessary, and offered to help us get onto the board of just about any organization we wanted—the opera, the symphony, whatever. That sounded good to me: I envisioned myself sitting around a meeting table, mulling over a group’s mission and giving sage advice. In short, like most novice board members, I was clueless. I not only had no idea about the depths of a board’s responsibilities, I hadn’t even considered that it might include plenty of time fundraising. Worse yet, I was only a few years out of law school, with little life experience beyond minimum wage summer jobs, so I was spectacularly ill-equipped for this role. (Luckily, I quit corporate law before inflicting myself on any boards.)

What lessons can be gleaned from my experience?

• Willing board members may be easier to find than you think, but
• you must be selective to find the ones with the knowledge and experience you need, and
• you need to be up front about your fundraising expectations.

Most board members serve terms of only three years, with one or more renewals allowed. Check your bylaws to be sure—and think about amending the bylaws if your board members can serve "life terms," and you’ve got a few who are running low on energy and ideas. (Or think about enforcing your bylaws if people are overstaying their prescribed welcome!) If your board members serve limited terms, you must build a process to incorporate new board members into the ongoing work of your organization.

If you are new to the nonprofit world, you may wonder why anyone would voluntarily commit many hours per month to a demanding position, usually on top of work, family, and other responsibilities. A few board members are truly selfless—they live to help others. Some are newly retired, with an adequate income and time on their hands. Most are hard-working people genuinely interested in the cause, who hope that they’ll be able to fit board responsibilities into their already-stretched schedules. Unfortunately, too many busy people turn out to be unrealistic in their hopes, and end up unable to do much more than attend meetings (if that). Finally, there are the staff of corporate law and accounting firms and other companies that have a material interest in encouraging their employees to join a board. Even this category isn’t all bad, especially if you can make use of their professional skills (but realize that nonprofit finance and law are specialty areas that your average accountant or lawyer will know nothing about).

No matter what people’s motivations, many of them will have trouble making the kind of long-term commitment that active board membership entails. At the same time, organizations have a larger pool of potential volunteers who might be interested in more substantial work than the odd photocopying job. Recognizing this, some nonprofits are rethinking how their board is structured—perhaps paring it down to ten or fewer members, but asking these members to farm out work—including some fundraising—to committees. The committees may be composed of nonboard volunteers who can commit to the occasional sprint of activity—say, a donor campaign or a special event—but not the marathon of full board membership.

Recruiting board members is a topic well-covered in other places (see the resource list at the end of this section), so this book won’t go into detail. To quickly summarize, your organization will want to look for people with a mix of skills and experience, including people who have personal connections with your nonprofit’s community, deep knowledge of the field, and valuable, specialized knowledge (in the field of law or accounting, for example). You may also want to find influential representatives from the political, social, ethnic, or donor community in which you work. Although board members should be able to get along with one another, they shouldn’t all be of the same "type"—far better to assemble a quilt of people with different backgrounds and strengths.

No matter what else they bring to the table, however, you must make sure that potential new board members have an interest in fundraising—and understand that this will be a substantial part of their role. Because there are so many ways to raise money, there’s a role for any willing board member to play. You can help by preparing materials that excite potential board members’ interest, such as a packet of items highlighting your organization’s mission, fundraising activities, and accomplishments. You should assemble a more extensive selection of such materials for purposes of training new board members.

Board Donations

Some organizations now give prospective board members a very clear up-front understanding of their fundraising responsibilities, by asking them to commit to making a major financial contribution every year. You might require board members to contribute a set amount or base contributions on a sliding scale.

Asking board members for donations may seem odd—after all, they are already asked to give generously of their time, and now they’re being told they have to pay dearly for the privilege. One of the reasons usually given for this practice is that board members will be much better at soliciting large gifts from others if they can say that they’ve given themselves. It demonstrates their commitment to the cause and their confidence that the donation will be well-spent. This reasoning has become almost self-fulfilling: As more and more people become aware of this board practice, potential donors—including individuals as well as foundations—have learned to ask, "How much have board members given?"

For example, one environmental organization I know of not only specifically requires each board member to make a $10,000 donation as a condition of service, but also makes clear that each member’s primary role will be fundraising. When the organization needs advice concerning the technical parts of its mission or activities, it turns to a separate advisory board, made up of scientists and other experts. This organization believes that policymaking and fundraising are the major roles of the board. Their experienced staff and advisers, they feel, are in the best position to know how the organization should be run. While there’s merit to this approach, it also has a downside: If key staff members leave, or the organization faces another crisis or turning point, the board will not be well-equipped to step in and provide continuity or plot a new course.

Of course, your organization will need to decide for itself—based on part on what kind of work you’re doing and what community you serve—whether to solicit mostly affluent board members, or to ask for a particular monetary commitment. (For less well-off board members, an alternative to the up-front donation might be to ask them to bring in an equivalent amount of money from a new donor or business.) For many community-based organizations or small advocacy groups, creating a financial requirement for entry could be just plain misguided. You might be lucky to have even a few affluent members. And the last thing you want is for representatives of a low-income community or dedicated former clients to be shut out. However, that doesn’t mean you can’t still ask financially able board members to make a major gift.

Board Involvement in Fundraising Activities

There is virtually no limit to what your board members can do to help raise funds for your organization—other than each member’s own interests and time constraints. Board members can help plan your fundraising program, spearhead or help carry out a special event, represent your organization in public, provide names of likely supporters, approach supporters for gifts, host house parties or other events, institute giving programs within their own workplaces, coordinate a new member drive, write personal letters, make phone calls thanking people for gifts, and much more. All of this will help take some weight off the shoulders of your in-house development staff. The wide variety of possible fundraising roles also allows board members who are reluctant to ask for major gifts to find a role behind the scenes.

A well-run nonprofit will ask a great deal of board members, at the same time being sensitive to cries of "enough!" Once board members become genuinely committed to your organization, they are more likely to stay interested and involved if you call on them for help on a regular basis. Performing minimal board activities—attending meetings and the occasional workshop, for example—can be less than soul-satisfying. Ideally, you want board members to see that raising the money your group absolutely needs to do its good work can be the most rewarding part of board membership. Properly orchestrated, fundraising gets people out from behind the meeting table and into the community, where they can share what excites them about your organization. It also gives them a chance to enjoy the company of their fellow board members on a less formal and more friendly basis, thus helping them form bonds that may endure for years.

Creating fundraising opportunities for your board will also help board members feel that they’ve achieved something to be proud of. After all, part of each person’s motivation to serve on your board was undoubtedly to ensure your organization’s success, and there is no more direct way to have an impact than by helping to raise the funds your group needs to fulfill its mission.

Resource: Need more information on putting together your board? For more on recruiting, structuring, and developing a strong, dynamic board, see:

• Beyond Fundraising: New Strategies for Nonprofit Innovation and Investment, by Kay Sprinkel Grace (John Wiley & Sons, Inc.)
• Mission-Based Management, by Peter C. Brinckerhoff (John Wiley & Sons, Inc.)
• BoardSource, a membership-based group that offers consulting, training, and various publications, at www.BoardSource.org
• Secrets of Successful Boards, by Carol Weisman (F.E. Robbins & Sons Press).

Advisory Council

Nonprofits aren’t required to have an advisory council, but there are many good reasons to establish one. An advisory council is a group of people whose responsibilities include little more than—as the name suggests—offering advice and input on what the nonprofit is or should be doing. The group may also be called an advisory board or advisory committee. Members’ responsibilities usually include meeting a few times a year—or not at all, if you prefer to call upon them only when necessary.

Whom you solicit as members will depend on what types of advice your group might actually need: perhaps scientific or other professional information, community input, contacts with the rich, famous, or influential, or continuity with your organization’s past. That means you might look for members who are experts in a certain field, represent a community you’d like information from, are well known (whether or not they’re in a field related to your organization’s work), or are past staff or board members whose experience you don’t want to lose—but who aren’t able to commit to board membership.

When it comes to the famous folk, your expectations of their actual participation should be minimal. You might be content for them to lend nothing more than their name, so that it appears anyplace that you list people associated with the organization—perhaps on your letterhead, website, newsletter, and in other publications. Assuming your organization does good work, this is an arrangement that makes everyone happy: Your cause gains credibility, and the person named enhances his or her reputation by appearing to be caring and compassionate. If such people actually show up for your meetings, it’s a bonus—if not, no big deal.

For fundraising purposes, your advisory council can be a source of additional friends. At a minimum, members’ names should be added to your mailing lists. Their quasi-ceremonial role makes them particularly well-suited to special events—you might call on them to buy seats, sell tickets to their friends, greet arriving guests, make speeches or presentations, and more. As the advisory council members develop an increased sense of connection to your organization, you may be able to solicit them for major gifts. And you should, of course, find out about their other experience and interests—they may be willing to put in some short-term volunteer time on fundraising activities.

Other Paid Development Staff

Although there’s always pressure to run a lean development office (so as to minimize the percentage of the organization’s money spent on fundraising), penny-pinching isn’t always a good thing. If your potential donor pool is large enough, you may actually become more efficient at raising money by hiring more people.

If you are able to bring on help, you’ll need to confront the pleasant problem of figuring how to divide development responsibilities among a small staff. Although how you do this will depend in part on your organization’s structure and fundraising strategies, a first priority is usually to hire a development assistant: someone to handle the mail, enter names and other information on supporters into your database, check for any email correspondence, prepare and mail thank you letters, and handle other day-to-day tasks. Obviously, these chores could also be handled by a dedicated volunteer or another clerical person in your office (such as a receptionist), but the person will need sufficient oversight to make sure that the tasks get done on time and that the paperwork doesn’t get jumbled with other matters unrelated to fundraising.

If you don’t have someone who will handle these tasks promptly and well, then you’ll inevitably discover, while you’re busy racing toward a grant deadline or staging an event, that important details have fallen through the cracks. The hazards of letting these matters slide are dealt with in other chapters—for example, Chapter 5 discusses how quickly you can lose a supporter’s loyalty if the thank-you letter is sent out late. Relying on volunteers or temporary workers is the next best thing to having a paid assistant, but you need to be extremely careful to avoid mistakes, workflow stalls, or miscommunications, especially when more than one part-time person is involved.

A midsize organization may be able to afford a three-person department, adding a "development associate" to the mix. This is typically someone at a junior professional level, who works side by side with the development director, handling similar but less critical tasks. The associate would also have less responsibility for fundraising planning and dealing with key donors, and would be presumed to be "in training" for a director role.

Larger organizations often split fundraising tasks into subject areas, assigning a development officer to each. For example, care and feeding of major donors might be assigned to one person, while another is responsible for writing grant proposals. A few nonprofits, such as universities, have development officers who spend much of their time just researching future funding prospects.

Paid Staff in Nondevelopment Roles

A truly successful fundraising office will always be in close communication with the rest of the organization, and can call on program staff as needed. For starters, you want program people to keep your office informed about what they’re doing, including supplying you with interesting stories (with photos, if possible) illustrating the important work donors are funding.

As a development staffer, much of your job is to explain the importance and success of your organization’s work to the outside world, as part of your effort to gather a large flock of supporters. But simply repeating your mission statement ad nauseam is not going to bring in the donations you need. To be truly effective, you need details—colorful, lively stories of difficult situations that your organization confronted and hopefully helped to overcome. That’s obviously why, when newspapers write their holiday giving stories, they focus on real accounts of homeless families and down-on-their-luck seniors. Here are some examples of compelling stories from my own days as an immigration attorney at a nonprofit:

• a father who literally got off his deathbed to take the citizenship exam and thereby ensure faster immigration for his children
• a Somali youth who was beaten in intertribal violence and who was desperate to get through the immigration process fast enough to go search for his missing mother, and
• a Guatemalan who’d watched his entire village massacred by the army only to have an unsympathetic immigration judge deny his case because conditions had supposedly "improved" in Guatemala.

Because all of these stories so graphically illustrated the important work our group was doing, they were good material to communicate to potential donors— but not all of them saw the light of day. Unfortunately, because few nonprofits develop a smoothly operating system for communication between program and fundraising staff, program staff members don’t recognize their crucial role in the fundraising process. They may even resent the implication that they should weigh down their schedules or dirty their hands with the business of fundraising. If this is your situation, try gentle persuasion rather than a frustrated lecture. Take a few key staff members to lunch, ask them about what they’re doing, and find out what fascinates—or frustrates—them about their work. This information will give you a fuller sense of what your organization does beyond its mission statement, and what challenges it faces day to day. But don’t finish dessert without taking a minute to explain how you communicate with key donors and funders, who are likely to give more if they understand why your group’s current work is so important.

When you later use information a staffer gave you, be sure to show the staffer the appeal letter, or tell him or her about your successful meeting with a supporter or foundation officer. To this end, some development professionals distribute brief emails or memos to staff describing recent fundraising efforts and successes. Some organizations put up signs within the office—for instance, the classic thermometer—to show progress toward a fundraising goal. Though you can do most of this casually and quickly, it’s got a name—internal marketing. And it’s a valuable tool for getting people within your organization to see how, by working closely with you, they can benefit through increased funding and recognition for their work.

Your next step may be to request something more systematic from staff members. For example, you could ask program staff to write up a regular report on their activities, or to simply stop by and let you know whenever something interesting happens. Asking program staff members to take photographs of their work is also a great way to get them involved. A nonprofit can always use photos, to illustrate its newsletters, brochures, and annual reports. A program staffer who is doing fieldwork—for example, visiting a project in the Maldives or taking children on a hike to see native wildflowers—should always bring a camera. Even in-house program staff consulting with clients over a desk should be encouraged to snap a few shots (with the client’s permission of course), in order to put a face to your work. (Alternative methods of illustrating your work—hiring a photographer or buying stock photos of your subject matter— can be expensive, and will never be as representative of the daily business of your nonprofit.)

If a staffer is willing to bring his or her own camera to the office—and better yet, has some experience with photography—you’re in luck. But even if you don’t have an office full of shutterbugs, you can distribute disposable cameras to anyone interested and willing. Even someone without photo experience is likely to come up with a few worthwhile images. Also be sure to distribute small notebooks, so the photographers can record each photo’s date and subject, including the names of any plants, animals, or people in the picture.

Caution: Go light on the disaster shots. Although evocative photos of grieving family members and emaciated victims are undoubtedly moving, and can be of some use in fundraising, more upbeat pictures showing your successes are usually even more effective. For example, a photo of the new buds of a nearly extinct flower that your group helped preserve will be far more powerful than a photo of the cracked cement that previously covered its habitat.

If your organization holds staff meetings, make sure all development staff attend. If you’re a development staffperson, this will give you a chance not only to keep abreast of what’s happening, but also to give a regular report on the fundraising office’s activities. Such reports should include more than dry numbers, but also convey your hopes, challenges, and disappointments. Staff meetings can also provide a convenient forum for holding a general fundraising training. Such trainings can cover basic issues like the importance of developing an extensive list of supporters, how staff can help contribute names, how they and their clients can help represent the organization at special events or meetings with funders, and what your organization’s strategic plans are for the future, fundraising plans included. Also encourage brainstorming about fundraising. A staffer may have the next great idea for bringing in support.

As program staff hopefully get more attuned to the symbiotic relationship between themselves and your fundraising staff, you’ll want to encourage the more charismatic ones to help you with occasional, specific fundraising activities—for example, participating in an important presentation to a potential major supporter or a foundation, or writing or editing a portion of a grant. While you must make sure that this doesn’t prevent staffers from fulfilling their primary responsibilities, such involvement can be highly effective. A staff member who works directly with clients or issues is often the most eloquent and credible person to explain your nonprofit’s work to the outside world.

Other Volunteers

Many nonprofits begin their lives with an all-volunteer fundraising effort, often led—initially, at least—by a few dedicated board members. Even some established organizations rely heavily on volunteer participation, or have more volunteers than paid staff. And the development office is certainly one place where volunteers can be useful, whether for ongoing office support, or for labor-intensive, one-time projects such as mailings or telethons. Not only do volunteers allow you to shift a lot more sand than would otherwise be possible, but they can also substitute for paid staff, especially if you can find competent people willing to work for several months at a time.

In many programs, volunteers aren’t terribly difficult to recruit. You can advertise volunteer opportunities in your written materials, work with local volunteer placement organizations, and check with local colleges and schools, some of which require students to perform community service as part of their curriculum. There are also numerous Web matching services, as detailed in "Get Help From Volunteer Matching Organizations," below.

What’s far more difficult is keeping volunteers around for more than a day or two, and managing them effectively. If you’re going to inspire volunteers to provide you with meaningful free service over the long term, you must keep certain cardinal rules in mind:

• understand and respect people’s motive for volunteering
• train volunteers well and ask for a specific commitment
• make volunteering as convenient as possible
• find ways to allow volunteers to have fun, and
• show your appreciation early and often.

Tip: Big businesses may offer their paid staff as volunteers if they get a benefit from doing so. While they don’t get a tax deduction for these contributions, businesses do get goodwill, an opportunity for employee bonding, and an investment in a more economically stable community. Your best bet is to approach businesses that are geographically very near to your organization, especially ones whose goods or services your staff or clients might later purchase. Be ready to point out how, through your newsletter or other means, you’ll publicly recognize their business’s contributions.

Cater to Volunteers’ Motives

Most people who agree to volunteer for your organization will be drawn to your cause, intellectually or emotionally. They really care about fair housing, avoiding conflict through mediation, or giving inner city kids a chance to develop their intellects by playing chess. But sincere interest in your mission is not the only reason that volunteers show up on your doorstep. Of equal importance to many volunteers is the chance to meet new people, develop skills, and feel needed. If a volunteer shows up full of energy and enthusiasm, and you ask that volunteer to photocopy stacks of reply cards for hours, you may never see him or her again.

This can be a hard lesson to learn. After all, the photocopying is crying out to be done, and you don’t have the time to create work that will keep every new, inexperienced volunteer happy. But many organizations rely too heavily on their volunteers for thankless tasks, only to find that their volunteers don’t stick around for long. And, at a deeper level, being involved in a grassroots, community effort should allow you to make a little room for the community to participate meaningfully.

Tip: Retirees constitute a huge pool of potential volunteers. As more and more Americans stay healthy and active for decades after their retirement, there is a vast and growing pool of people with time and energy on their hands. Even better, many of these people are at a point in their lives when they want to make a positive contribution to their communities—and they may well have significant expertise to share. A number of studies have also found that some older volunteers are fighting the loneliness and sense of purposelessness that can come from no longer taking part in the workforce. Others are interested in learning new things and keeping mentally active. For example, here’s what Emily, a retired volunteer I know, says about her reasons for volunteering. It echoes what I’ve heard from many others:

"First I thought about what subjects interest me the most, then I looked for organizations that could connect me to them. I started volunteering at the art museum because I can keep learning more about art that way. I’m always getting notes from the museum coordinator asking me to volunteer in the museum shop, but I tell her no, I’ll do anything that involves the artwork, but I’m not interested in merchandising."

Resource: Want more information on older volunteers? For an interesting report on baby-boomers who are great prospects for volunteering and giving in other ways, see Experience at Work: Volunteering and Giving Among Americans 50 and Over, prepared by Independent Sector in partnership with AARP, and available free at www.independentsector.org. Also see the studies and publications on the website of Experience Corps, a group that coordinates volunteerism by older persons as tutors and mentors to children, at www.experiencecorps.org.

If you’re a development staffer, some, much, or even all the work of recruiting volunteers may fall to you. This makes some sense—your mailings and publicity may ask for donations of time as well as money. As you begin to fully grasp what it takes to get a full corps of volunteers going, you’ll doubtless realize that this is one of those tasks that can turn into a full-time job. That’s why, if your organization really does plan to rely on volunteers in a big way, you might want to create the position of volunteer coordinator. Because foundations are always interested in leveraging their grant money into maximum results, you may be able to attract the financial support necessary to make this a paid position. Or, if you find a person with lots of energy, time, and savvy, you may find yourself in the happy position of having someone volunteer to be your volunteer coordinator.

Fortunately, there are a number of relatively simple ways to satisfy volunteers’ needs and interests. Asking them at the outset what they’d like to get from their experience is a good way to start! But be prepared to talk with them individually (or to save time, in small groups) about what you can and can’t involve them in. Emphasize that, just as Rome wasn’t built in a day, volunteers are most likely to construct a useful, fulfilling role with the organization if they commit to sticking around long enough to allow you to help them find a good fit. Another great approach, if you have regular volunteers, is to try to schedule them so that they overlap and can talk with each other. Especially if your organization uses volunteers in nondevelopment roles, arrange for volunteers to split their time between the development office and other work, for variety’s sake.

To help with development tasks, you might capitalize on the fact that some volunteers are primarily interested in learning high-level job skills, in writing or marketing for example, which means that they might be interested in interning with your office for an extended time period. Local business schools are likely sources for this kind of help. And don’t think only about the classic development office tasks, such as proposal writing and mailings; also look at the tasks you might otherwise hire out, such as photography, illustration, or designing a newsletter or an annual report.

Volunteer Training and Commitment

A formal training process, in which you explain the work of the organization and the volunteer’s place in it, will make the experience more satisfactory for all concerned. If the volunteer is willing to help in the development office, briefly go over the annual budget and the fundraising plan. Explain the importance of seemingly mundane tasks, such as writing thank-you letters or entering data. Discuss what you normally expect volunteers to do, and what more interesting tasks they might "graduate" to after proven good work. You might also want to create a volunteer manual, something like an employee manual, explaining:

• what you expect of volunteers in terms of hours, calling when they’ll be late or absent, and the like
• your commitment to making the volunteer experience a positive opportunity for community involvement, and
• basic office policies such as personal use of the phones and photocopiers.

Unless you are recruiting the volunteer for a one-time effort, ask for a commitment to a certain number of hours per week or month. Be prepared to make this flexible, however. With changes in the U.S. economy and work environment, the number of people who work traditional 9 to 5 jobs is declining. Your best source of daytime volunteers may be freelancers who have spare time—but not always at the same time each week.

You should be ready to provide feedback on how your volunteers are doing. Just because volunteers work free, that doesn’t mean they don’t need meaningful feedback—including constructive criticism as well as positive reinforcement. Volunteers who are trying to develop job skills, or will eventually ask you to serve as a reference, need to know how they are really doing. Your feedback will be taken best if you tell the volunteer during the initial training that you’ll periodically sit down for a performance review—and if you make clear that the volunteer will then have a chance to give you feedback on the volunteer experience and what would make it better.

Make Volunteering Convenient

There just aren’t many people running around with time on their hands these days. If the very mechanics of volunteering for your office are difficult—for example, if the volunteer has to call someone on your staff who’s hard to reach— it creates another reason for the volunteer to drop the obligation.

Let’s look at how a school literacy program in Oakland developed a volunteer program that’s convenient for all concerned. The program is in a public school, in an area with numerous senior care centers. Seniors and others are encouraged to spend one hour a week reading to schoolchildren. No experience is required. To participate, they simply call one of the volunteer coordinators and say they’ll be there that week. The coordinators prefer it if the volunteers can make a long-term commitment, but it’s not required. For weeks when the program is short on volunteers, it has a list of backup people to call. And, to make sure the program doesn’t become too much of a burden for any of the volunteer coordinators, each of them is in charge of managing one day a week.

This literacy program has run smoothly—and succeeded in boosting the children’s interest in reading. As you can see, it creates a system in which no one feels overwhelmed by the amount of work, and people with more or fewer hours to spend can commit accordingly. It also has the virtue that volunteers perform the same task every time, to reduce the amount of oversight needed. This won’t always be possible in your office, but it’s something to bear in mind.

Tip: Do they really need to come into your office? Online volunteering is on the rise, by people who have just enough time to sit down at their computer. Take advantage of this trend. See www.onlinevolunteer.org.

Make Volunteering Fun

Although the volunteers are there to help you—and you don’t have time to make it a party for them—they won’t come back unless they can share in some way in your organization’s sense of purpose. One of the most common requests volunteers make is to work directly with the people (or plants, animals, or environment) being served. If they’re working in the development office, that won’t always be possible. However, there are other activities that will allow them to work with the public, including:

• canvassing
• asking local businesses for raffle donations
• calling donors to express thanks, and
• participating in telethons.

Caution: Your volunteers are the face of your organization. Be choosy about who you let interact with the public on behalf of your group. If the only human contact a supporter has with your organization is a grouchy high schooler doing mandatory volunteer service and not well versed in your program, you’ll turn the supporter off. (Not that all high school kids are grouchy—some of them are developing interests in community service that will last a lifetime, so giving them interesting and appropriate volunteer tasks is a community service in itself.)

Outside of the development office, you may want to suggest ways that your organization’s other programs can use volunteers, in order to get a more vital all-around volunteer program going. To get you thinking, here are some creative ways that organizations in the San Francisco Bay Area use volunteers:

• An organization helping low-income girls prepare for college invites student volunteers to give talks about the college experience, including how to apply for financial aid and write essays, and what to expect regarding daily life on campus.
• An immigrant services organization has college students help write grant proposals, translate for clients, and call clients to collect information about their cases.
• A nonprofit providing art instruction to people with developmental, psychiatric, or physical disabilities asks volunteers to assist teachers in demonstrating art projects and assisting the art students.
• A homeless shelter asks volunteers to serve as mentors, tutors, chefs, and activity assistants.
• An organization helping students build literacy skills has volunteers help students write true stories about their lives.

Once your organization starts thinking innovatively about what volunteers can do, you may find that your volunteers breathe new life into your programs— thereby attracting more attention from funders and supporters.

Show Appreciation

Every volunteer, even the purely altruistic one who isn’t trying to advance a career or other personal agenda, wants to know that he or she is making a difference and advancing the cause. And it’s your job to tell the volunteer that. Especially when working with highly effective volunteers, it’s important to say thank you early and often. For example, I fondly remember volunteering for a school garden tour committee that hardly ever let me walk out empty-handed— I was given a school T-shirt, a pair of gardening gloves, a poster from last year’s tour, tomato seeds, and more. I was momentarily embarrassed by their generosity, but I got the message—they appreciated the help. And, most important from the school’s point of view, I kept going back to do more.

Individual thank-you gestures are important. But they are only one of the possible ways to say "thank you." Try also to plan some organized volunteer appreciation activities, particularly if you have a large volunteer corps. An annual volunteer party, for example, is guaranteed to be well attended. Inviting volunteers to your nonprofit’s other events, such as a holiday party, lecture, or annual dinner, is also an excellent way to show your thanks. And don’t forget to take advantage of a well-attended occasion by giving a little speech about how much particular volunteers have done for your organization—which you can accompany with awards, certificates, or small plaques.

Outside Consultants and Contractors

To supplement your salaried development staff, it can be useful to hire consultants and contractors. Be warned, however—the hourly rates of well-established writers, designers, accountants, and others may dwarf your own salary. But independent contractors start to look more affordable when you realize that you don’t pay for their health insurance or office space, and you don’t have to find a way to pay their salaries year-round. You can assign them to a limited task, and tightly control the hours they spend on it. Consultants and contractors are probably available in your area for just about every task a development office does, from grant writing to direct mailings to individual solicitations to leading board seminars or retreats. Ask other nonprofits for recommendations, or go to www.idealist.org, where you can post requests for volunteer consultants, or search for and read profiles of consultants for hire.

While outside workers can provide valuable expertise and take the pressure off when numerous deadlines seem to be looming all at once, you’ll want to avoid three common problems. First, start by making sure you remain the "boss" in this relationship, and don’t end up unsuccessfully trying to manage an opinionated and balky consultant. Second, carefully define in advance exactly what the contractor will do on your behalf, when the job will be completed, and how much it will cost. Third, be sure that the services to be completed according to the contract are ethical, honest, and follow fundraising approaches with which you are comfortable.

You’ve probably heard of scandals where hired fundraisers go out and solicit money (by telephone, for example), then take a healthy chunk for their own salaries and "costs" before turning the remainder over to the nonprofit. Although the nonprofit isn’t directly at fault for depriving donors of money that doesn’t go where they thought it would, the nonprofit won’t emerge unscathed from any resulting negative publicity. In addition, some state’s laws address nonprofits’ use of professional fundraisers, for example, by requiring them to disclose their status to the people being asked to donate. Whatever you do, don’t hire outside contractors on a commission basis—that is widely viewed as unethical, and in some states is even illegal.

Caution: Don’t inadvertently turn a contractor into an employee. If you treat contractors or consultants like employees (by requiring them to keep regular office hours and closely supervising them, for example), you’re headed for legal trouble. The IRS, as well as state tax and employment authorities, may claim that you should have paid the same taxes and benefits as you would for ordinary employees. For easy to access, free information about the legal differences between employees and contractors, see the independent contractors materials on Nolo’s website at www.nolo.com. For more detailed information, including a wide selection of sample contracts, see Working With Independent Contractors, by Stephen Fishman (Nolo).

Fundraising Skills

This section briefly covers the most important personal characteristics and skills a good fundraiser needs. Of course, there’s no one perfect way to raise money—a variety of approaches and styles can work well, depending on your audience, personality, and so forth. Some of these skills may be hard to develop if you weren’t born with them, so be patient with yourself, and concentrate on bringing out the things you do best. This section will also help you evaluate prospective new staff, volunteers, and/or board members. It covers:

• interpersonal skills
• writing abilities, and
• profiles of various people who have made a career of fundraising.

Interest in Other People

You’ve probably heard the saying that "people give to people, not to causes." While that may be a bit of an exaggeration, it contains an important message: A fundraiser’s ability to relate positively to his or her fellow human beings is crucial to that person’s long-term success. Unless your fundraising office has so many staffers that a few people can sit in the back room and write grants all day, every person there should enjoy the idea of interacting with people outside the organization, be they donors, foundation funders, board members, or others.

Look for people skills and a personable demeanor when you’re deciding whom to hire. If you’re interviewing a prospective new development staffer, and the consensus is, "We’re not crazy about his personality, but he’s smart, writes well, and knows our work," you should proceed with extreme caution. Hiring that person could be asking for trouble if your supporters and funders have the same tepid reaction.

Whoever is handling fundraising should not only be ready to handle phone calls and meetings with major donors and funders, but also be proactive and enthusiastic about building personal relationships with these and other members of the public. Networking with other fundraisers is also an important part of this job. It’s worthwhile for development professionals to join national or local groups such as the Association of Fundraising Professionals (www.afpnet.org).

Writing Abilities

The ability to write effectively plays an important role in nearly every aspect of fundraising, whether it’s drafting a press release, a thank-you letter, a mail appeal, or a grant proposal. If you’ve always thought of yourself as more of a people person, who would rather swallow frogs than devote a few days to a writing project, you’ll probably be very effective at some aspects of development work. However, if you hope to run a development office, you’ll need to learn some new skills.

Tip: There may be a movement afoot to make the language of philanthropy more readable. Here’s what The California Wellness Foundation had to say about the matter: "We also try to avoid the ‘philanthropy speak,’ which has been a nasty habit for too long in our field…If you think about it, philanthropic communications should be painless, as enjoyable as reading a good book."

Resource: More on the jargon of giving. For a humorous deciphering of some of the most prevalent jargon found in the philanthropic world—terms like "at-risk," "capacity building," "empowerment," and "leverage"—see Tony Proscio’s essays, "In Other Words" and "Bad Words for Good." They’re available as free downloads on the website of the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation, www.emcf.org (click "Publications," then "Jargon Files"). Proscio’s essays will make you think twice about some of the words that may have been slipping off your tongue.

Profiles of Fundraisers

There is much more that one could say about what makes a good fundraiser— charm, tenacity, creativity, and so on. However, the odds of all possible useful traits being found in one person are slim. Many people’s strongest points are balanced by less useful ones—a super-gregarious person might not have the concentration to sit and write for long periods, for example. Also, some traits are simply inborn. No one is going to become charismatic one day just because a book says it’s a good idea.

To help you recognize and draw upon your own strengths, I’ve asked some experienced fundraisers to talk about how they got into the field, and what they bring to—and get out of—their work. These people don’t represent the whole panoply of fundraising personalities—just ones who have found a niche that fits and fulfills them.

Jim Lynch

Jim Lynch is currently Computer Recycling and Reuse Program Manager at CompuMentor, a San Francisco–based nonprofit providing technological consulting and support to other nonprofits. In that capacity, he is developing a large national program and does most of his own fundraising. He was CompuMentor’s development director for three years. Jim says: "I got into fundraising late in my career, having been a social work and teacher type for many years. I worked with difficult inner city teenagers and welfare mothers. But I tend to be restless, always looking for meaningful work, especially work where I can build something new or solve a problem. At one point I was working at an adult school that happened to be located close to a homeless shelter. I began working at the shelter in the evenings, developing a computer learning lab for them—a surprisingly useful tool for homeless people. The only problem was, we had no budget. We couldn’t even buy a paperclip, much less any computers.

"The first challenge was just to get the homeless folks off the streets and into the schools. I went to Taco Bell and asked if they’d be willing to donate 35 tacos to one week of the program. They said yes. I followed that with McDonald’s, Burger King, Pizza Hut, etc.—a different fast food vendor for every class. That got people coming, and we made sure to give some publicity to the vendor. It also pulled me into the world of nonprofit fundraising. I moved from hustling up junk food to filling up four homeless computer education labs with donated computers and software, and on to getting small grants.

"My next step was to accept a job with CompuMentor, with the idea of working on bigger, more national digital divide projects. I first worked as a regular project person, building computer systems for nonprofits. However, because I liked writing grant proposals and cultivating foundations, and seemed to be pretty good at it, CompuMentor asked me to fill in as a development director. I stayed in that post for three years.

"As development director, I got a chance to work closely with Daniel Ben-Horin, CompuMentor’s founder and a great nonprofit fundraiser. His approach is to talk informally as much as possible with funders, to discover their philanthropic objectives. This helps him identify which of his own projects closely match those objectives. In other words, he talks the deal out first, only then following it up with a formal written proposal. Because I love schmoozing and making personal contact, this was a good fund development style for me. I’m an extroverted type who likes to engage people on the bus or in the carpool, if for no other reason than to find out who they are. (I have also tried the opposite method, of blasting out query letters and proposals, and found it didn’t work very well.)

"To be successful with Ben-Horin’s style of fundraising, I had to do the usual homework at the Foundation Center, to identify the funders in my field and then chat up anyone who might give me a name or other information about the exact right foundation person to approach. Unfortunately, funders are mostly firewalled against this type of informal engagement. But I found that if I could leave a voicemail or email, particularly saying that someone they knew recommended I speak to them, I could often get a call returned, and proceed from there. I felt like a combination of social networker and investigative reporter.

"Once we’ve connected, my interest in the foundation staffer isn’t merely mercenary. I want to find out what makes the person tick, as well as how he or she views the foundation’s mission. This level of interest is important, because funders seem to have specially attuned antennae to insincerity, or the hard sell, or canned pitches. And sometimes I discovered that the foundation’s mission didn’t mesh with CompuMentor’s needs, but I’d keep checking in, year after year, until the staffer might actually start looking for ways to fund us, or one of our missions had changed so as to bring us closer together.

"It helps that I was born with a certain amount of tenacity. Once I find an area of our work that a foundation person thinks might be worth funding, I become unabashed about following up. In fact, I’ll keep trying until they clearly tell me ‘no.’ This tenacity tends to make up for the fact that I’m not a great recordkeeper. I’m a bit haphazard about putting things on my calendar—but it’s in my blood, enough that I’ll be in the shower in the morning, thinking, ‘I have to call the X Foundation today.’

"Beyond this, I’d say the main thing that suits me for fundraising is that I’m really passionate about my work. I’m not a professional salesperson. My father tried to make me into an insurance agent and I failed miserably. On the other hand, I can’t help getting teary-eyed when talking about how intensely important a particular program is and why it makes the world a better place. Then it’s just a matter of capturing the attention of the funders, to help them feel the same passion and understand what makes a program both effective and special."

Lupe Gallegos-Diaz

Lupe Gallegos-Diaz is currently director of the Chicano/Latino Academic Student Development arm of the Multicultural Student Development Office at UC Berkeley. She is also one of the founders and advisory board members of the Multicultural Alliance of the Association of Fundraising Professionals’ Golden Gate chapter. In addition, Lupe serves on a number of nonprofit boards and committees, and offers consultant services.

Lupe describes finding her niche in fundraising this way: "Ever since I was young, I saw the power of community involvement. When my family came to the United States from Mexico, one of my first role models was my aunt, Enriqueta G. Rincon. By the time my aunt came to the United States from Mexico in the 1940s, she had already been a nurse, an active union member, and a self-made businesswoman. In the United States, she met my uncle, Pedro G. Rincon, who had lived in California when it was still part of Mexico. My aunt and uncle opened a Mexican restaurant, and later expanded it to two restaurants.

"Starting at a very young age, my aunt would take me along to business or community meetings. I loved this, and saw how important it was for the community to be represented. By watching my aunt help the community at various levels, I learned that I should always help people who are less fortunate.

"My parents also instilled in me the values of hard work and education. They were happy that I had the opportunity to go to college. In my mom’s day, the choices were to become a nun or get married. I chose to go into social work. Then, while I was working towards my Master’s in Social Work at UC Berkeley, I got involved in Casa Joaquin Murrieta, a social justice Xicana/o theme house that operates as a nonprofit. I was hired at first to assist the Executive Director, then found myself helping out with other things—everything from ordering food to cleaning the bathrooms. At one point, they were short an E.D., so I filled in for a couple of months. Of course, that involved some fundraising activities. I think that’s when I first started to realize that by learning fundraising skills, I had a more powerful tool to bring about community change.

"Around this time, the University of San Francisco began offering a one-year certificate program in development. I got a scholarship, and signed up. The program was not only a good learning experience, but it exposed me to other fundraising professionals and organizations. Before long, I was recruited onto the board of the local Association of Fundraising Professionals. Back then it wasn’t very diverse—basically, I and Mary, a white lesbian woman, and Rochon, an African-American woman, were about it for diversity. But since then, I’ve made it my personal mission to help people of diverse backgrounds learn about and get into the fundraising profession.

"One of the first things I did with my degree was to turn around and start teaching a course on development at UC Berkeley. At first, I put ‘fundraising’ in the course title, but students weren’t attracted by this, not realizing that it would prepare them to make real change in their communities. So, I changed the title to ‘Leadership and Community Involvement.’ Once I get the students in the class, they say things like, ‘Wow, we didn’t know fundraising was a profession, something you can use.’ I try to show them that fundraising can be both a career that utilizes their academic degree and skills, as well as a way of serving their own community. I emphasize basic fundraising skills like writing, communication, and how to pitch a request. But I also tell them you need to be a real people person, and be humble. No matter how much education or income the person you’re talking to has, you need to know how to really listen to them and understand them. Besides, someone who’s doing manual labor now may save up and be able to make some large donations later—you’ve got to be in this for the long term. I also tell students that you need to go beyond your own community constituency, and think broadly about who your possible donors might be.

"The hands-on fundraising that I do now is mostly as a consultant and a board member for various nonprofits. As a board member, I am always thinking about what people’s interests might be and whether these interests might be a good match for the organizations I represent. Sometimes I’ll just be talking on the phone to someone I know for another reason—like a project we’re working on, or just to stay in touch—and I’ll say, for example, ‘I was wondering if you’d be willing to commit $500 to the Chicana/Latina Alumni Club.’ They know me already, and they know it’s a good cause, so often the answer is yes. If I were calling from out of the blue, and didn’t have something of a relationship with the person, it would be a lot harder.

"I can’t believe it took me so long to find my niche. It’s great to be able to tie my education with my community interests, to merge theory and praxis. But I don’t think I’ve yet reached my peak. I’ve got a daughter now, and many of the causes I’m involved in concern family and child issues. I believe it’s essential to pass our knowledge of money and fundraising to our young ones, so that they become conscious of their world and the choices they will make to change it. Through my fundraising work, as well as my academic research, I hope to leave behind something that will last—a legacy of social change."

Grant Din

"As a child, I never imagined that fundraising would be part of my career. I remember going door-to-door selling candy for Cub Scouts, and not liking it very much. And as the years went by, it seemed as likely that I would end up in something like engineering or environmental science. But the seed may have been planted right after my graduation from Oakland High, when I got a Marcus Foster scholarship to support my college studies at Yale. At the ceremony, we heard speeches from Clark Kerr (the then-head of UC Berkeley), as well as Marcus Foster’s widow Abby and others. While encouraging us to make the most of our educations, they also stressed the importance of coming back to serve our communities.

"Even then, it’s not as though I said ‘Aha, I need to be fundraiser!’ Like many fundraising professionals, I found my way into it via a circuitous route—in my case, almost backwards. I started out as a staffmember at a small foundation, giving out grants to help community development in Oakland’s Asian-American community. (I got the job based on my writing experience and academic background in sociology and urban studies.) I certainly learned a lot about community needs in that job. In fact, the hardest thing for me was that we had only a limited amount of money to give out, and numerous worthy applicants. I hated having to say ‘no’ to them. At the same time, I was on the board of the Asian Law Caucus, and I helped out on their special events.

"When I decided to move on, I looked at some corporate communications jobs, but realized that just wasn’t for me. I ended up taking a job as Director of Resource Development (fundraising) with Asian Neighborhood Design, where I’ve been for the last 14 years. (Asian Neighborhood Design is a 31- year-old nonprofit that provides urban planning, neighborhood revitalization, architecture, construction management, and other assistance, and also provides low-income people with job training and placement, as well as assistance in transitioning out of poverty. See www.andnet.org.) Currently, I serve as Executive Director, where fundraising remains an important part of my job. I work primarily on developing and maintaining relationships with foundations, while our development director works mostly with major donors.

"At the beginning, my natural tendencies were to prefer the quieter, written work parts of fundraising. Although I’ve always enjoyed being with other people, I’d never thought of myself as hugely outgoing. But one of the great things about fundraising for me has been that it has pushed me to further develop my social side, which has helped me grow as a person.

"For example, I attended one seminar that I really enjoyed, by Debra Fine, author of The Fine Art of Small Talk. What I picked up from her was that, when meeting new people, you have to take responsibility for their comfort. If you’re talking about your organization, you need to make it a real conversation. If you can achieve this, you won’t come off as a phony just plugging for money.

"By now, I’ve so internalized the relationship-building parts of my work that I joke that I’m always on the job. I’ll be at a party, and someone will tell me, ‘Do you know that the person over there works with X,’ and I’ll approach that person about our organization. As long as you’re not overbearing, this seems to be okay—after all, people in one’s social circle seem to have mutual interests, and so they’re truly interested in making another meaningful connection.

"Now the personal parts of fundraising are the parts I enjoy the most. There’s nothing more exciting for me than having a potential funder visit our organization. The visit might include watching our student trainees learn to use hammers or power saws or develop their math skills, a neighborhood walk to see some of our architecture projects, or a conversation with one of our recent graduates about what he or she is now doing. I’ll see the funding officer’s eyes light up, realizing the impact our work has.

"One of the most important things I’ve learned over the years is not to get too discouraged. It’s really easy to feel let down after a rejection. But it may just mean that a foundation has used up its money for the year, and will put you at the top of its pile for next year. I cope with the down times by commiserating with my colleagues, and reminding myself that a number of groups are competing for a limited pool of funds. You have to put out a lot of tries before you meet with success."

Fundraising Equipment and Technology

Though good equipment can be pricey, the inefficiencies that result from trying to raise money with tools and technology from the horse-and-buggy era will cost far more. Of particular importance are:

• adequate office space and equipment
• effective telecommunications equipment
• computer technology, and
• credit card capabilities.

Office Space and Equipment

If you’re a development director or other high-level development staffperson, it should go without saying that you need a private office, a desk, and a phone to do effective fundraising work. Unfortunately, many a fundraising professional has had to make do with a table in the corner of the reception area or the E.D.’s office, so this is apparently less obvious than it should be. In case anyone in your office needs reminding, explain that you’ll be placing important and sensitive phone calls to supporters and funders, so you’ll need some quiet and privacy. Preparing proposals and mailings are also tasks for which you need adequate space to collect and organize your documents. For example, if you ever have to prepare a grant proposal for the federal government, you may end up with a five-inch-high stack of forms, reports, statistics, and more. If you don’t have enough room to sort and organize your paperwork, you might lose track of important documents or leave something out.

Resource: Need more information on office space for fundraising? For an eloquent and detailed exposition of a development office’s needs, see Kim Klein’s Fundraising for the Long Haul (Chardon Press).

Effective Telecommunications Equipment

Although you may not have much say in the type and condition of your office’s telephone system, you should emphasize the important role communications play in your work. People must be able to reach you easily. To accomplish this, you’ll want a wired phone system with a direct line to your desk, and, if at all possible, a mobile phone you can use to stay in touch when you are out of the office. It’s also good to have a voicemail system that allows you to access your messages remotely.

Perhaps the best way to think about your phone needs is to put yourself in the shoes of a major donor or foundation officer who is trying to reach you. Can the caller make his or her way through your reception or voicemail system quickly and easily? What if the caller doesn’t know or can’t remember your last name, or your direct line or extension number? If you have a "live" receptionist, he or she can easily handle these kinds of contingencies. This is why many experts will tell you not to replace your receptionist with a machine if at all possible; if necessary, you can even line up volunteers to answer the phone.

If a voicemail system picks up the phone some or all of the time, make sure it’s designed to help callers get what they need, quickly and easily. Too many offices rely on voicemail systems that force callers to listen to dozens of menu options, none of which has anything to do with their question, before the "secret" of how to reach a live person is revealed. (At the very least, such a system should include a quick menu option for people interested in contributing or volunteering.) In other systems, you must know how to spell an employee’s last name in order to get past the initial recording. If you’ve got a potential donor on the line who doesn’t know your name, you could lose him or her right there. Make sure the person has another option.

Another issue to think about is how many phone lines are coming into the office. If you’re planning on having volunteers come in to do telethons, you’ll need several lines that can operate at one time.

Computers and Software

Computer technology becomes obsolete quickly, and it’s probably inevitable that many budget-challenged nonprofits are using yesterday’s equipment, complete with software that was state-of-the-art last decade. Hi-tech tools that employees in the for-profit sector have long taken for granted, such as internal office networks, high-speed or wireless Internet access, and more, are often unheard of in nonprofit work environments.

Unfortunately, because you have to communicate with people in the for-profit sector (and in foundation and government work), relying on seriously inadequate technology risks leaving you quite literally out of touch. A donor who sits down at his or her office and regularly hears the email on his desktop beeping "new message!" tends to forget that not everyone lives like that. This donor is not going to be amused if he or she sends you an email only to receive an answer a week later, because someone in your organization just got around to checking the sole email inbox.

The good news is that you’re not alone. Because inadequate computer systems are so endemic in the nonprofit sector—and money for upgrades is so short—you’ll find classes at your local nonprofit support center, written materials specifically directed at nonprofits, and foundations offering grants and consulting to help you bridge the technology gap. All of these can help you meet your basic needs, such as:

• a computer
• a donor and finance database
• a client-tracking database, and
• Internet and email access.

Computers

Because technology prices have fallen so much in recent years, decent equipment— including computers and printers—may well be within your reach. And, buying your own equipment allows you to avoid the common trap that many strapped nonprofits fall into: accepting used computers from a corporate office. (They unload these dinosaurs and get a tax deduction; more often than not, you get junk.) Assessing donated equipment and fixing problems or adjusting it to fit your office’s needs is often more trouble than it’s worth, unless you have a staffperson or volunteer who’s adept at information technology. Or, you might ask the donor to send a tech person to get everything up and running. Still, with new equipment, the odds are better that you’ll reach a helpful person when problems arise.

If you haven’t yet invested in a donor and finance database, start researching this before making any computer purchases. You’ll want to be sure that your computers are powerful enough to support the database you choose.

Resource: Need technical assistance? For consulting on computer equipment and technology needs, talk to:

• CompuMentor, a San Francisco–based nonprofit specializing in technology planning, implementation, and support for community-based organizations and schools, at www.compumentor.org (also the home of TechSoup.org)
• NPower, a nationwide network of nonprofits that provides free or low-cost technology assistance, at www.npower.org.

Donor and Finance Database

A high-quality database that keeps track of individual donors’ names, other information, and gifts can be one of the best investments your organization makes. If you’re still working with a homemade database that only you know how to use, lose it now. New databases are getting progressively faster, cheaper, and easier to use. They offer wonderful opportunities to segment donors into categories for special attention, and produce reports showing patterns you might never have dreamed of. They can also save you huge amounts of time— a mailing list that might take you two weeks to put together by hand can be generated in 15 minutes or less using a database.

Tip: Get free advice or even funding for your investment in a database. For example, a funder may be willing to offer a grant toward this, or some organizations may help you locate free or discounted software. See, for example:

• Idealware, a space for candid reviews and information about nonprofit software, at www.idealware.org
• TechSoup, offering free and discounted software to nonprofits, at www.techsoup.org
• Network for Good, which supports free ebase software; see www.groundspring.org and www.ebase.org
• Technology Grant News, a subscription-based service that tracks technology funding opportunities, at www.technologygrantnews.com.

There are literally dozens of software programs available to handle your supporter database (and other technology needs). Many can be downloaded via the Internet, making upgrades automatic and information accessible to all your office locations. If possible, team up with your accounting staff when investigating databases and setting up your website. Many packages include accounting functions (thereby ensuring that donor gifts are tracked smoothly from the mailbox to the bank) and can handle the credit card portion of your website.

Instead of driving yourself crazy with research, talk to your colleagues at other nonprofits. As M. Eliza Dexter, then–Development Director of Oakland, California–based Save The Bay, says, "The smartest thing we did when choosing a database was to call around, ask what others are using, and ask what they’ve been disappointed in." You might even visit other offices and watch how they use their database—see if you can intuitively understand how they move between screens, and whether the visual layout appeals to you. Also ask your colleagues how much they’re actually taking advantage of the various bells and whistles—many software packages promise a world of reports, tracking features, and more, but users find the features too hard to use or irrelevant to the organization’s needs.

Once you’ve got some recommendations, research the possibilities online or call the company’s customer service representative. In choosing a database, here are some factors to consider:

• Cost. Prices for fundraising software packages can vary from zero (especially for introductory periods) to $250,000. Some companies charge a flat fee, others a monthly one as well. Some customize the software to the user’s needs and charge accordingly, others assess a per-user (or per concurrent user) fee. Even if your nonprofit is as tiny as it is financially challenged, you’re likely to find a product that meets your needs. The prevailing rule of thumb is to spend 0.25% to 0.50% of your annual budget on this.
• What’s included. Depending on your office’s needs, you’ll want to see some combination of:

transferability of your existing data
interface with your website
office management, including task reminders
information-keeping capability, with extensive biographical and gift records, the ability to segment supporters based on various biographical or gift criteria, the ability to link files on couples or related donors, and a hopefully unlimited ability to enter contact information on individual donors
mail merge and production of labels
automated reports (including graphics) that draw together the information in the database, such as multiyear support trends, tracking of grants (when they’re received, how much is received, and when reports are due), successes of particular mailings or campaigns, and detailed information on donors (how and when they’ve given, groupings by gift amount, and other criteria)
automated production of receipts, thank-you letters, pledge reminders, and renewal requests
easy generation of personalized correspondence (by letter or email)
specialized modules for planned giving, special events, and more, and
ability to import and export data to Word and Excel programs.

• Record capacity. Unless your organization is small and has no plans to grow, you’ll want to make sure the database can accommodate plenty of donor records. They all promise this, of course, but some don’t deliver. For example, if the vendor’s definition of a "record" is every single gift entered, your database will quickly fill to bursting. You want every record to represent one donor, with unlimited capacity to enter relevant information.
• Training. Find out how much (if any) training is necessary. Some software packages are advertised as being so easy to use that you don’t need training. (Check out this claim with some current users.) If, as is common with more sophisticated programs, some training is needed (somewhere between three days and two weeks’ worth), find out how much, if any, you’ll receive for free, and where classes will take place. Some companies conduct trainings only at their headquarters, which may quickly put the software out of your price range if you have to fly a number of staffers across the country.
• Ongoing technical support. Installation and support costs can mount if you’re not careful. Make sure that the number to call for help is toll-free, or that email is an option. Also see whether the support contract runs out after a time (usually a period of months) and if so, how much it will cost to receive support after that.
• The company’s future. You don’t want to buy a product from a company that’s about to be sold, go bankrupt, or discontinue the product line you’re interested in. Unfortunately, this happens frequently, with the result that loads of nonprofits end up with "orphaned" software that will not be supported or updated in the future. Asking the company about whether they will be there in a few years won’t help (even the shakiest company will claim to have a rosy future), but doing a little outside research (for example, a simple Google search of the company’s name) often turns up interesting information.
• Ease of use. Here is another reason to take M. Eliza Dexter’s advice and ask your friends for recommendations. A program that looked easy to use when the salesperson demonstrated it may turn into a nightmare when you’re alone staring at a mystery screen. Another excellent approach is to ask for a demonstration model before you purchase the product. Instead of just seeing whether you can perform a few simple tasks, challenge it and yourself to doing something difficult. Also, see how easy (or impossible) it is to recover if the program fails. Finally, think about how hard this system will be for an office volunteer to learn to use quickly.
• Upgrade frequency. Does the company periodically publish newer versions, and will you receive these for free, or at a price? If you must pay for them, how well will the company continue to support the old version?

Caution: Pay careful attention to the database’s available security measures— and use them. The accuracy of your data is critical—so protecting it from accidental deletions or alterations, perhaps by inexperienced users, should be a first priority. Most software provides some protective measures, such as a backup system, but you may need to take an active role in implementing these measures. Find out what kind of security measures various programs offer before you decide which one to buy.

In making your final choice, consider the advice of Lauren Williams, a Maryland-based professional nonprofit database consultant: "You absolutely want to shop around, and get the best database you can afford. Do not go second class if you can afford first class. The difference between first class and second class in these systems is astronomical, in terms of the power you gain. By power, I mean how many different kinds of donor relationships you can track, how intimately and intricately you can track them (how much information you can store), and how many other fine details the software incorporates. As an example of important details, I recently worked with a product whose programmers didn’t have the savvy to include a field for middle names! You could have a ‘Lauren Agnes Williams’ who is a completely different person from ‘Lauren Amy Williams.’"

Service-Tracking Database

In addition to the donor database described above, you’ll also want to consider a database that collects information on your outcomes or provision of services. Why is this a fundraising issue? Because your organization will have to send detailed reports to foundations and others on how their money was spent. If you’re a development director or other development professional, it will likely be your job to review these reports. And if they’re not up to snuff, you’re obviously going to have a tough time approaching the same funder for more support next year.

Unfortunately, advancements in data collection software tend to lag behind donor software. This is in large part because the developers who profit by creating standardized software find that service provision is anything but standard. Even among nonprofits providing the same type of service—for instance, shelters for the homeless—one shelter might be accustomed to measuring success based on the number of beds filled, while another might measure the number of hours spent housing or counseling each client. In fact, many software companies throw up their hands, leaving nonprofits to try to develop their own databases.

Although this may seem like a daunting task, it’s important that you tackle it. Otherwise, you’ll end up keeping track of essential information using handwritten notes on file folders, index cards, or at best a Word document. Especially as your nonprofit grows, these old-fashioned methods will prove to be inadequate. Foundations and other donors increasingly want access to up-to- the minute information—and many want to know how you’re collecting it. Put bluntly, they’re tired of seeing the ad hoc, often questionable data that many nonprofits throw together at reporting time. To set your nonprofit apart, find or develop a database that makes tracking and reporting simple and accurate. Once you’ve done that, loudly advertise that fact to every foundation or other funder with whom you’re in contact.

If you can’t find off-the-shelf software that meets your needs, go to www. techfinder.org, and click "Databases" to find a list of nonprofit database developers. Other potential sources of advice and referrals include CompuMentor, a nonprofit dedicated to providing technical support to other nonprofits (www.compumentor.org), and NPower, dedicated to putting technology know-how in the hands of nonprofits (www.npower.org).

Resource: Want to read more about service-tracking databases? Check out www.techsoup.org, including the "database" articles in its Learning Center.

Internet and Email

The Internet is both more and less important to nonprofit fundraising than was first predicted. Time has proved wrong the optimist’s predictions that people would troll the Web looking for places to give their money. It’s too bad, but people don’t seem to wake up and say "Gosh, I think I’ll go online to make a charitable gift today" (or not nearly as often as they wake up with an urge to do online discount shopping). But it’s also true that the Internet has become a more important development tool than anyone first imagined. Not only does a website enhance your organization’s credibility, but it is also the first place many people go to learn more about your group and obtain key contact information.

Email has had a similar mixed history for nonprofits (and other businesses). Though there were high hopes that the speed and affordability of email would eliminate the need for "snail mail" marketing, these hopes have been significantly dampened by one thing—spam. The good guys aren’t the only ones who have figured out how easy it is to send their message far and wide, and most of us have become lightning quick at deleting any message from an unrecognized sender. But, on the positive side of the ledger, email is an easy and affordable method of communicating with existing supporters who have demonstrated an interest in hearing from you.

You’ll find more on creating a website that effectively supplements your fundraising goals in Chapter 12. Chapter 5 explains how email can fit into your overall fundraising strategy.

Credit Card Capabilities

One of the mantras of every fundraiser should be, "Make it easy for supporters to give." To this end, allowing people to donate by credit card can be crucial. A person who doesn’t feel like writing a check—or even thinking about his or her account balance—may be happy to give you his or her credit card number, whether on a reply card or online. Because there are costs associated with accepting credit cards, however, many nonprofits have been slow to take advantage of this, figuring that it’s better to bank every penny of a donation. But a critical mass of nonprofits now accept credit cards, so you stand to lose far more by holding out.

To set up a credit card system, talk to a few banks. You’ll be asking to open a "merchant banking account." The bank where you open your account will serve as the intermediary between you and the credit card companies. You’ll have to pay a startup fee (usually no more than $100), a monthly or annual fee (usually no more than $15 per month or $150 per year; avoid banks that charge both), and a charge per transaction (usually either 1.5% to 5% of the amount of the transaction, or a flat fee of 10 cents to 75 cents, or a combination of the two). Transactional fees are usually higher in cases where you aren’t given the actual card to swipe, as with a telephone or Internet donation.

You can see why it’s important to shop around for a bank that charges low fees, and whose overall fee structure isn’t so complicated that you find yourself paying high fees without knowing what you did "wrong." It’s possible to find banks that waive some of the fees, or return a portion of the percentage normally charged, in recognition of your nonprofit status.