Leverage: The Name of the Game

How much do you want?

I was educated as an engineer.?As a result, I naturally think in terms of “inputs” and “outputs”.?

I approach my work in fundraising and philanthropy much the same way.

For every input there WILL be an output.?Period.

The only question is, “What will it be?”

Let’s say you’ve expended the equivalent of $1.00 in time and material toward fundraising.

Is your output

$0.50?

$1.00?

$2.00?

$5.00?

Or

$10.00?

Naturally, you’d like to see your results more toward $10 than $1. And you certainly don’t want it to be $0.50!?(That is unless you’re a masochist.)

Your output is the direct result of something called leverage.

It’s leverage that determines whether your fundraising efforts are “high gain” or “low gain.”

Notice what I haven’t mentioned.?Goals.

Fundraising goals are exceedingly deceptive and pursuing them single-mindedly can be nothing more than an exercise in organizational narcissism.

What you want is impact.?That’s also what your investors (AKA “donors”) are looking for.

That’s why two organizations, each raising $100K, are most likely not equal in impact.

Huh?

Organizations which have a fundraising culture which is aligned have far greater impact than those who’s cultures are a hodge-podge of the latest trends or were fossilized 20 years ago.

Organizational alignment comes with a decision and consistent effort.?From top to bottom.?From the inside out.

Leadership in aligned organizations know that everyone has a role to play in the fundraising drama.?Everyone.?The key to achieving alignment is in everyone knowing what their role is—and living it.

I’ve talked a lot about how organizations can achieve alignment.?

It’s no secret.?Through continuous staff and leadership training.?The right kind of training.?Training that engages, not merely informs.?Training that brings groups together as it’s meaningful to everyone.

Not just the fundraisers.?The executive.?The board members.

I call it Continuous Learning.?Here’s a short video which describes it.

?You can learn how we help organizations achieve it here.

Let’s get back to leverage.?To raise transformational funds, you need high-leverage fund development efforts.

Achieving high-leverage isn’t guess work.?Or sorcery.?It’s actually straightforward.

Even if you’re a relatively large, comfortable organization, that seeming success and comfort could very well be concealing the dozens of hamsters which are frantically turning their wheels to achieve the results you’re currently getting.

Whether you’re raising $100K or $10M, the real focus should be on leverage.?

I share a few details about how leverage works in the short video below, “Escaping the Time for Money Trap.”

For reasons known only to LinkedIn, you're only seeing a sliver of the embed panel. It will play but you won't get visual. For the full video experience go HERE.

I’d love to hear your story and learn more about your organization’s current fundraising efforts.?Schedule a call and together we’ll explore your options for increasing your leverage.?Your desire to achieve transformational giving.

Continuous Learning may or may not be an option for you.?But we’ll find out.?When our conversation is finished, you’ll know what YOU can do next to improve on where you are.

Regardless, what you definitely DO WANT, is high leverage.

To Your Fundraising Success,

Larry C Johnson

Founder, The Eight Principles