3 Reasons You Should Totally RE-Think Whether or Not You Really Need a 'Fundraising Operation'?
Gregory Warner
We help your supporters self-qualify their interest in giving so your frontline fundraisers spend their valuable time with the right people — when they’re ready to move forward. imarketsmart.com
I think nonprofits should think of their 'fundraising operations' as 'giving enablement operations' because:
1) 'Fundraising operations' work on behalf of organizations while 'giving enablement operations' work on behalf of donors.
2) 'Fundraising operations' focus mostly on what gift officers do (including the 'moves' they make) and how much money gets raised while 'giving enablement operations' focus mostly on why each donor cares, what interests them, and where they reside along the consideration continuum for making a giving decision.
3) 'Fundraising operations' interrupt donors to ask for a meeting or to solicit them while 'giving enablement operations' listen and carefully monitor each donors' readiness so they can supply either an engagement offer or a giving opportunity when the time is right.
See the difference?
BOTTOM LINE:
Fundraising isn't about spraying, praying and soliciting. It's about listening, serving and enabling.
Helping nonprofit professionals make the donor database work for them (instead of it keeping them up at night)!
5 年Great post! I am excited when I see an organization try to balance both within the same process. We should be personable, listen first and always operate on the donor timeline. We can do that at scale when we have the right people focusing on the right data, for the right reasons, while the right people are having the right conversations with the right people about the mission!? Our donors are tired and deserve better. Amazon has known our favorite color is green for years and reminds us with every ad. Whereas we all know many donors never receive a basic thank you for a gift made every year (or maybe the same letter for the last decade?!). I believe the pathway to making it easier for frontline fundraisers to just spend time doing what they should be doing is by investing in the system. Not putting a bandaid on it. However, it is not something that can be done on top of any other job or halfway by the organization. Unfortunately, most organizations lack the capacity in leadership, team structure, and investment to innovate their systems. It takes a huge investment in the development of their team. I do agree that too many organizations take it too far trying to figure this out and that takes the joy out of fundraising.?
Collegiate Faculty, Data Analytics and Collegiate Associate Professor at University of Maryland Global Campus
5 年Gregory, very clever. Do you think the tools (CRMs, metrics, etc.) are driving us toward the "fundraising operations" approach? If we changed our mindset, but still had the same tools,? do you think we could shift to a "giving enablement operations"???