This week I picked up my car after having some work done which resulted in my radio ‘forgetting’ the preset stations. So I quickly reprogrammed them back to what they were. But after I did so, it occurred to me that perhaps there were some new stations which might be worth listening to. So I manually tuned in to some other frequencies, some which provided some interesting options and which I later added to my ‘memorized’ channels.
When you develop your fundraising strategy, are you just following the path of what you’ve done in the past? If so, you may be missing out on some new approaches that have worked for other nonprofits. For example, many organizations have had success with peer-to-peer fundraising events and other similar campaigns where devoted constituents are asked to encourage those in their network to support them, not your mission. The down side – while these donors have a relationship with the person who solicited them, they may not feel any connection to your cause, making future appeals more difficult. But their contribution at least gives your nonprofit an opportunity to reach out to these individuals and convince them why your cause is so important.
As I discovered with my car radio, sometimes you need to open up your options, not just continue to raise money the way you have in the past (which may no longer work as well as they have). Take note of organizations like charity:water, which recently announced it has raised over $2 million through mycharitywater.org, a web site designed for supporters to develop personal fundraising campaigns to help provide clean, safe drinking water for everyone.
Have a safe and restful Memorial Day weekend.
