These are uncertain times, and everyone has questions. Lots of questions. We’re here to help you navigate this challenging new landscape with a new advice column.
Send us your questions about fundraising, management challenges, and more, and we’ll track down the right experts to answer them. Submit your questions to askanexpert@philanthropy.com, and we’ll answer a couple each week. Let us know if you’d like to remain anonymous.
What are you trying to figure out in the midst of the pandemic? We’re here to help you navigate this challenging new landscape with a new advice column.
This week, we welcome our experts: Cherian Koshy, development director at Des Moines Performing Arts and a member of the Rogare Critical Fundraising Network, and Peter Heller, founder of Heller Fundraising Group.
How should nonprofits communicate our response to this crisis to our donors? Should we put together a list of FAQs about our response? Are there examples of groups doing this well or any guidance you can share with me?
— Head of fundraising at an educational organization
Your nonprofit should definitely be in contact with donors and grant makers to share important details like whether your organization is open, what you are doing with existing programs, and how people can be supportive if they would like to do something, Koshy says. Whether or not you post an FAQ depends on whether people are accustomed to and are currently going to your website to get an answer to a question, he says. Depending on the relationship you have with your donors, individual emails or phone calls would be preferable.
Heller agrees that a one-size-fits-all approach won’t cut it. “I love the idea of a FAQ, but this would only be one piece of a segmented solution,” he says.
To map out a strategy, all nonprofits should start by creating a plan for how to communicate with different groups of donors and what to say to them, Heller says.
Think about what methods of communication are available: phone calls, personalized and mass emails, website updates, video and photo content, and video conference calls. And think about your organization’s messaging. Heller has been suggesting a range of messages, such as:
- “Here’s what we’re doing to meet this crisis head on.”
- “Our capital campaign will be even more important now.”
- “We need your support more than ever.”
Will foundations read a long-term funding approach as being tone-deaf right now, given the enormity of other current needs? I believe we can “caveat” any approaches under the bigger idea of letting funders know we (a) recognize the crisis and (b) will emerge from this at some point and that we’re trying not to lose too much ground by continuing to do our fundraising work. What’s the best approach?
— A public-media fundraiser
“Most nonprofits think of foundations for one thing and one thing only: money. But it’s also vital that nonprofits think of their foundation contacts as strategic partners,” Heller says. “Don’t just ask them for money, ask for advice: This is true now and always.” Do that and you will stick out from the crowd, he says. Connect first, and then ask them how the pandemic has affected and altered their grant making.
As part of that conversation, fundraisers can discuss their organization’s longer-term funding priorities.
Of course, every grant maker is different, Koshy says. “Talk to the program officer to see what they are planning and if they are supporting other initiatives currently that are higher priority for them.”
If this is a new funding relationship, you will likely need to spend more time in these early stages to understand where they are with their short-term and long-term priorities. “Submitting blindly is likely tone deaf,” he warns, but including a cover letter or email that starts with a paragraph about a previous conversation avoids that problem.
Nonprofits should also think through how to describe their scenario planning to the donor. For example, if X changes, we will move forward as planned. If Y occurs, we’d be delayed six months or more.
Koshy believes grant makers will appreciate an organization that looks through the current uncertainty to the future. “Adding that to the context with your conversation and your application will help donors appreciate that you are planning and thinking beyond the current crisis,” he says.
Heller agrees. “It is a great reminder for all of us that things will improve.”
What advice would you add? Comment below to share your ideas. If you have a question you want us to tackle in a future column, send an email to askanexpert@philanthropy.com.
