15 New Fundraising Ideas That Worked, Part III

Memes, GIFs, and Crowdsourcing Creativity

United We Dream launched a talent search after the fall election, when it became clear that Donald Trump’s anti-immigration rhetoric was not just political posturing. The advocacy group counts more than 100,000 young immigrants as members; among them, it hoped to find artists active on social media who could pierce a sense of despair the organization believed was dulling its calls to action.

That hunt turned up some 40 individuals who coalesced into what United We Dream considers a vital asset. Working together in a Facebook group and guided by staff, these volunteers create a virtual flood of internet memes, GIFs, videos, and graphics — significantly more content than the organization could generate, says Adrian Reyna, director of membership and technology strategies. He calls it “crowdsourced creativity.” The messages inspire, he says, because they’re authentic.

United We Dream doesn’t put its logo on all the volunteer-generated content; the goal, Mr. Reyna says, is to lift people from “a hole of hopelessness,” not raise money. But on the occasions when messages are posted on the organization’s Instagram account or other channels, droves of people sign on to its email list.

“We can’t always rely on crisis to build the audience,” he says.

— Drew Lindsay

In a special report for the May print edition, Timothy Sandoval explored how various nonprofits build community online and support their volunteer, do-it-yourself fundraisers.

Dinner at Mr. Jefferson’s: A Fundraising Success

Elevator pitches and slide decks never seemed to work for Rhea Wong, who’s led Breakthrough New York, a college-success program, for 12 years. “There was no magical combination of words I could say to convince people to donate to our cause,” she says.

Instead she turned to Jeffersonian dinners, intimate meals that bring together eight to 12 people for an evening of conversation. The approach was pioneered by Jeffrey Walker and Jennifer McCrea, who described it in their book The Generosity Network. Mr. Walker started holding such dinners when he chaired the board of the foundation that runs Monticello, Thomas Jefferson’s Virginia estate. According to lore, the founding father brought interesting groups of people together and insisted on whole-table discussions, in part because they were easier for the hard-of-hearing host to follow.

Brenda Castillo

Ms. Wong asked her board members to host the dinners and draw on their networks to build the guest lists. The invitations state that the meal won’t include a fundraising pitch. Guests receive one another’s bios ahead of time, as well as a set of questions that will guide the conversation. A juicy question that gets at the “heart of the human experience” can help people relate on a meaningful level, says Ms. Wong. (One dinner started with the ominous request, “Tell us about being a seventh grader.”)

Breakthrough New York’s five dinners to date have been invaluable for bringing new people into the organization’s orbit, according to Ms. Wong. Several guests became regular donors. One offered to host his own Jeffersonian dinner and persuaded his law firm to buy a table at the charity’s annual gala. Other guests have volunteered to speak to the young people in Breakthrough’s program or offered them internships.

Follow-up is the key to turning an evening of discussion into new relationships. Ms. Wong won’t hold a dinner unless she knows she has time to meet with each guest for lunch or coffee in the next week or two. “It’s very, very time-intensive,” she says.

But worth it. Breakthrough plans to start a major-gifts program and expects that Jeffersonian dinners will be instrumental.

— Nicole Wallace

Staff writer Eden Stiffman explores the yearslong influence of political issues on giving to the American Civil Liberties Union.

A New Way to Hunt #MajorDonors

When Cornell University development officials look into the future, they see fundraisers landing big gifts after nurturing donor relationships largely online. To prepare for that, they’ve introduced a new position: digital-gifts officer. Rather than racking up airline miles to meet with prospects, these fundraisers court midlevel donors via phone, text, and email, hoping to move them into four- and five-digit territory.

Over the past three years, these new-breed gift officers — of which the university currently has two — have regularly landed donations as large as $25,000 and even brought in a six-figure gift. Some of their donors have graduated into the portfolios of Cornell’s major-gifts officers.

Next-generation donors starting out small don’t yet need to see a fundraiser sitting across the table, says Joe Lyons, who oversees the university’s leadership-giving program — and in-person visits may not be their preference even when they are ready to start giving big. “People are more comfortable doing things over the phone, doing things over email, doing things by text,” he says. “Why not meet them where they’re tending to interact a lot?”

Here’s the thinking behind the new position:

It saves money. Digital-gift officers have a portfolio almost twice the size of traveling peers, at far less cost. “If you had someone on the road two weeks a month, you’re building up a lot in just travel expenses alone,” Mr. Lyons says.

It expands reach. To save travel costs, the university’s assigns major-gift officers by region, often focusing on cities with sizable numbers of Cornell alumni. Digital-gift officers can build ties with donors wherever they live.

It fosters — and retains — fundraising talent. The position could be a valuable learning opportunity for a junior staffer who wants to become a major-gift officer. Or veterans might use it to stay closer to home if they’re raising children or caring for elderly family members.

It’s the future. Developing relationships online is increasingly important in fundraising, Mr. Lyons says. “Over time we’re going to have to see more and more gift officers who feel at ease and comfortable working in that way,” he says. “That includes at the major-gift level, too.”

— Nicole Wallace

“How to Make the Most of Your Meetings With Major Donors” features checklists, advice from Amnesty International’s deputy director of major gifts, and templates for pledge forms, gift agreements, and more.

Millennials to the Rescue

After years of struggling to connect with millennials, Family Lifeline finally got it done. The 140-year-old social-services agency now boasts a council of young professionals that spearheads its outreach to twenty- and thirtysomethings. Here are the lessons from the Richmond, Va., organization’s journey to success:

Dedicate staff to the group: Rebecca Butler, who joined Family Lifeline’s development team in 2014, spends at least half of her time working with the council. The nonprofit’s leaders say it’s the smartest investment they’ve made in years.

Formalize recruiting: Family Lifeline introduced a substantive application and interview after trying to stock the council via a casual search. “That was important,” says CEO Amy Strite. “People came to us believing the work they would do was important.”

Don’t fashion the group as a junior board: Family Lifeline told its young professionals to structure the council as they wanted. The organization’s board operates through committees aligned with its departments — finance, marketing, etc. But the millennials created working groups focused on specific strategies and work like fundraising and events.

15 New Fundraising Ideas That Worked

The Chronicle staff reports on colleges, hospitals, social-service organizations, and other nonprofits that took a risk and got results.

• 15 New Fundraising Ideas That Worked, Part I
• 15 New Fundraising Ideas That Worked, Part II

Embrace ideas for change — even when you have doubts: Family Lifeline this year turned its annual springtime luncheon into a “Spring Give,” complete with a first-ever direct ask for donations. Some organization leaders were wary, but the young professionals jumped into reinventing the event and its branding, helping raise $28,000.

— Drew Lindsay

In our “How to Appeal to Millennial Supporters” tool kit, you’ll find research on young donors, a guide to building ties to them, and case studies of organizations that have found success.

Try Experiments, Not Events

Student Action With Farmworkers raises money by trial and error. Once a month, the group’s experimentation team — a few staff and board members as well as some donors and alumni — get together to study the organization’s fundraising data and come up with an idea to test.

This lab-coats-and-goggles approach started a few years ago, when consultant Meredith Emmett suggested the advocacy group, which has annual revenue of about $700,000, was exhausting itself with a grab bag of events and other traditional fundraising opportunities. Better to devote itself to experiments drawing on data, she suggested.

So far, the team has answered questions like: Will donors give via monthly credit-card deductions? Experiment results returned a definitive yes, as the group now has 120 monthly donors, up from five. Do “donor-appreciation parties” work if you don’t ask for money directly? Again, yes. “I got a check for $1,000 the next week,” says Melinda Wiggins, the group’s executive director.

Failure can teach as much as success. The group, for instance, paid to be included in a newspaper’s annual charitable-giving guide. “That bombed,” Ms. Wiggins says. The lesson, she says: Be wary of anything that seems like easy money.

— Drew Lindsay

In a special report “Why Innovation Matters,” Nicole Wallace writes about the Nature Conservancy and other nonprofits that consider experimentation in fundraising critical to success.