Nonprofit Fundraising: The Power of Connection

Nonprofits have had to overcome many hurdles in the last few years. One of them being the downward trend in giving. However, not all nonprofits have suffered, so what are successful nonprofits doing to increase their donor funding??

Dr. Rob Harter shared the answer with us in E61 of the Lead with Heart Podcast.

Rob is a nonprofit executive professional with over 29 years of experience leading and building nonprofit organizations, fundraising, leveraging resources, and managing organizational growth.

If you want to check that out, I’ll add the episode player below so you can tune into the full episode where we discuss the key to a successful nonprofit and getting clear on your mission.

In this article, we’re going to learn more about how to lead your nonprofit to success:

1. Nonprofit Fundraising Trends?
2. How to Build Human-to-Human Connections with Your Donors
3. How to Create an Environment of Co-creation at Your Nonprofit

1. Nonprofit Fundraising Trends

Rob shared some nonprofit fundraising trends he has seen over the past couple of years.

1. The Downward Trend of Giving

“Sadly, I would say the trends overall have not been good for nonprofits.” - Rob Harter

Rob explains that during COVID, there was a big spike in giving, however, giving has now reverted to pre-COVID levels which were already on a downward trend.

“It's a 10% drop in corporate giving. It's higher, more like 15%, in personal giving in terms of a drop. So there's definitely this consistent, sadly negative trend line for people giving.” - Rob Harter

However, often what is keeping those numbers up is a few individuals that have huge impact.

Overall though, people are giving less of their money to charities and nonprofits. Rob thinks that's going to continue to be a challenge for the next couple of years depending on the economy.

2. The Utilization of AI

Rob explains that more people are trying to figure out how to maximize AI to interact with their donors.?

“What I’ve found some people doing is a knee-jerk reaction. I'm going to use AI now and I don't have to hire that staff person. I'll just use AI or I'll just use social media and not get a marketing person.” - Rob Harter?

While that might be the right thing for your organization, Rob explains that the key is to continue to connect with your donors.

Rob shares a book called The Generosity Crisis which talks about having radical connection with your donors.

“What they mean by that is simply that you just drop everything and say we need to focus on our donors.” - Rob Harter

Rob explains that this means building authentic face-to-face relationships with your donors and getting to know them personally rather than leaning on AI or social media campaigns.

“Utilize your AI tools but use them wisely and never let that kind of high tech replace high touch, meaning being really highly relational with your donors. And so I think as long as we keep relationships front and center, I think nonprofits will continue to do well and can reverse that trend actually.” - Rob Harter

2. How to Build Human-to-Human Connections with Your Donors

Rob shares two ways you can start to build human-to-human connections with your donors.

1. Spend Time Investing in Relationships

“Whoever's charged with development to me, a big portion of what that person's job should be is literally having sit down one-on-ones, having coffees, having lunches, getting together, going to events, getting to know people personally, and really investing time.” - Rob Harter

Rob says it may feel almost like you’re wasting time but the time is not wasted, it is an investment in a relationship.

“As you develop that relationship and as you value that as an organization, I think you're going to see big dividends.” - Rob Harter

2. Don’t Look at Fundraising in Isolation

“Sometimes when nonprofits are having issues with their fundraising, it's not just a fundraising issue. It's often an organizational issue.” - Rob Harter

This might be something like team dysfunction or a misallocation of resources.?

“It's an organizational issue that kind of rolls out into fundraising and impacts negatively your fundraising efforts.” - Rob Harter

To remedy this, Rob explains that you can’t just look at fundraising in isolation, you also have to look at your organizational culture as a whole.

“What is going on in this organization that may be causing a lack of fundraising efforts?” - Rob Harter

3. How to Create an Environment of Co-creation at Your Nonprofit

A lot of the work that Rob talks about is co-creation.?

Fundraising is not just the fundraising department’s responsibility, rather, we have to co-create an environment where everyone is involved in fundraising and driving the mission forward.

“Let's create a development culture where everybody on your team at some level understands their responsibility is not full-time development, but it is to be an ambassador for the organization. It is to be fulfilling that mission.” - Rob Harter

Rob explains that everyone on the team becomes development staff by extension.

“Are you a culture of development or do you have a development person? That's a big difference.” - Rob Harter

The key to co-creation, according to Rob, is realizing that we're all a team. We're all doing this together. We support each other.

“If the development person is very successful, they're going to support the overall team, which then helps everybody make sure that they can pay the bills and have salaries and expand their programs.” - Rob Harter

Rob explains that if your team knows that every conversation is an opportunity to talk about the mission, they’re in a sense, fulfilling a development role.

‘Co-creation really means we're doing this together and we all win when we're doing this together.” - Rob Harter?

In conclusion, while nonprofits face many challenges, they can still be successful by fostering meaningful donor relationships and creating an environment of co-creation. The path to success is through connection, collaboration, and a unified focus on the mission.

Nonprofit teams often work in silos, which can lead to staff burnout and donor attrition, ultimately, hurts the people we serve. I help nonprofits raise more money through fundraising training, “done for you” fund development strategy, and campaign implementation.?

?? If you want to learn more about ways we can collaborate and work together, please visit my website, https://thesavvyfundraiser.com/ .

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