Fundraising Update

Welcome to Fundraising Update. This week, we look at how fundraisers are fighting back against the Giving Crisis. Plus, why the little stuff matters when it comes to building trust.

I’m Emily Haynes, senior reporter at the Chronicle of Philanthropy. If you have ideas, comments, or questions about this newsletter, please write me.

Winning Over Small-Dollar Donors

This is far from the first time that we’ve written to you about what some observers have dubbed the giving crisis: the dwindling number of Americans who give to charity. For a while, major gifts from a handful of committed donors insulated nonprofits from the worst effects of the crisis. It was common to hear the refrain of “donors down, dollars up.” Yet some charities are now seeing both donors and dollars fall. But, my colleague Rasheeda Childress reports, it’s not all bad news. Some fundraisers are fighting back and winning gifts from everyday donors.

Giving experts say generosity is still out there; as evidence, they point to the many people who give to individuals through GoFundMe campaigns or in person. Charities, they say, must do a better job tapping into that generosity with a broader array of people.

As nonprofits combat the giving crisis, a few key strategies are emerging. Organizations are working to build out their base of everyday donors with the goal of ensuring a continuous pipeline. To do that, fundraisers are building personal relationships to hold on to existing supporters, tapping into donors’ own networks to attract new support, and rethinking how to measure fundraising success.

Sarah Jones for The Chronicle

Job number one for organizations is to hold on to existing supporters. Building closer ties with donors through personalized stewardship — such as phone calls, handwritten notes, and messages tailored to each donor’s interests — is an important way to do that. Many organizations may worry they don’t have the staff to thank every donor, but getting creative with volunteers can help.

That’s what the Farmlink Project did. Started by a college student, the organization has long relied on the verve and exuberance of young-adult volunteers. These college volunteers help connect surplus produce to hungry people — and also interact with donors, Rasheeda reports.

“Something that the Farmlink Project had as its advantage when it started was hundreds of student volunteers, which meant major capacity,” says Emma Worth, vice president of development. “This meant that if you gave even a pretty modest-size gift, you could expect to receive a phone call.”

That same energy carries forward today; volunteers share stories about the organization’s work when they call to thank donors. “We try to make sure that we’re demonstrating the impact of their gift,” Worth says.

Nonprofits are also finding clever ways to encourage donors to introduce their friends and family members to the cause, Rasheeda writes.

The Food Bank for New York City has found success with events that let people come together and bring their networks with them. A favorite is the Five Borough Challenge, where the five sections of New York City compete against each other to see which can raise the most money for the charity.

It’s “just a fun way to have people show pride in their borough and to contribute,” says David Jones, vice president for fundraising operations. This event and others, like races, where donors ask people they know for support, have helped to expand the group’s base of supporters. The food bank has actually stopped new-donor acquisition campaigns. That means the group no longer sends new-member appeals to purchased lists of potential donors.

“We instead went more organic,” Jones says. “We relied on public relations … and then leaned more into peer-to-peer fundraising to try to get other people to identify friends for us. That’s been where we are for the last couple of years.” In that time, the food bank has won thousands of new supporters, whom it hopes will stick with the organization as a community of givers.

This strategy embraces research that suggests donors who have friends within an organization are more likely to stay, says Josh Birkholz, CEO of the fundraising consulting firm BWF.

“When the donors are friends with each other, they’re likely to keep giving,” he says. “When I give to an animal rescue, I’m not just giving because I care about animal rescue. I’m also in some ways declaring I want to make friends with other people that care about animal rescue. I’m joining an identity philanthropically.”

For more strategies fundraisers are using to win new donors, read Rasheeda’s full story.

Need to Know

The next time you see one of these reports where trust is declining, it’s a great time to get your team together and say, “We want to be part of the solution.”

— Kristen Grimm, founder of Spitfire Strategies, on why nonprofits should work on trustbuilding with their constituents

Trust is earned and lost in everyday decisions and practices. That’s the contention of a new guide that aims to arm nonprofit leaders with the strategies, principles, and mindset to build and maintain trust with all their constituencies — staff, trustees, donors, those they serve, and the public. Conversely, it hopes to illustrate how routine methods for raising money and running an organization can undermine faith in a group’s integrity and competence.

Here are examples from the guide of common practices that bolster or diminish trust. For some groups, harmful tactics or strategies are too valuable to revenue or mission to stop. But the guide urges leaders to assess the impact on trust as they weigh the benefits.

The website “donate” popup. “When I go to a nonprofit site and the very first thing that pops up is that they want me to give money, that’s probably not the right way to build trust,” says Kristen Grimm, founder of Spitfire Strategies, a leading national communications firm, which produced the guide. It may convey that a group places its self-interest above the public interest. If a group concludes it needs that pop-up, it should consider other ways to signal the importance of its mission, she adds.

The campaign. “When organizations create new campaigns every four years with new names, they may find themselves facing a lack of trust,” the guide notes. This is true for successive efforts to enact policy or raise money and awareness, Grimm says. Groups can lose credibility if they champion a new “critical” policy initiative or “vital” new funding effort before the echoes of the last campaign have faded.

The emergency fundraising campaign. At times, organizations may go to supporters to avert a budget shortfall or other fiscal crisis. Sweet Briar College, for instance, staved off closure with a $44 million “save the college” effort. Repeated emergency pleas, however, can seem like crying wolf and stir uneasiness about your management. “You might get the money in the short term, but over time, if you do that enough, they’re going to start to think you’re incompetent,” Grimm says. “And incompetence erodes your trust.”

Plus …

• Are you looking for a new job? Vincent Robinson, founder of the 360 Group, which places leaders at nonprofits and foundations, penned an advice piece for the Chronicle chock full of tips for those hoping to level-up their job search this year. “This is a human-centered process that is focused on evaluating and building a meaningful relationship,” Roberts writes. “Job seekers who know and understand this have a distinct advantage.”

  When looking for a new role, it’s important to be patient, Roberts says. Hiring timelines are frequently extended. “It’s important to project restraint, even if you’re nervous about the pace of the search,” he writes. “Candidates who repeatedly ask for updates can raise concerns about their temperament and ability to adapt to changing circumstances.”

  Introductory calls and emails are just as important as a formal interview, Roberts says, because they help the hiring team picture you as a potential employee. “The best approach is to communicate in a way that presents your best, most respectful and authentic self at every touch point — and with every person — in the process,” Roberts says.

Gift of the Week

Amy Barmeier Dru left $2 million to Ballet Arizona for endowment. Company officials said in a news release that the bequest will increase the dance company’s endowment by more than 30 percent. Over time, the money will help to support the creation of new works and live music accompaniment, as well as expand the ballet troupe’s education and community programs.

Barmeier Dru was a psychologist by training who ended up managing her and her late husband Stanley Dru’s commercial real-estate holdings. Barmeier Dru was a devoted equestrian and tap dancer. She died in 2021 at 70 after a long battle with lymphoma.

For other notable gifts this week, read my colleague Maria Di Mento’s Gifts Roundup column. To learn about other big donations, see our database of gifts of $1 million or more, which is updated regularly and has data going back to 2000.

Advice and Opinion

Fundraisers Reach for A.I. to Boost Productivity. Some tools suggest whom fundraisers should contact when, based on previous giving patterns or evidence of their connection to the organization.

Donor Privacy Is Essential. Stop Asking Lawmakers to Force Disclosure. (Letter to the Editor) Escalating calls to force charities to say who’s supporting them may lead to harassment of donors and dampen charitable giving.

What We’re Reading

By now, most readers will be familiar with MacKenzie Scott’s method of giving: A team of experts identify and meticulously vet select nonprofits to whom Scott contributes big gifts with no strings attached. In Austria, a 31-year-old heiress is creating a different model. Marlene Englehorn is convening a group of citizens to decide how to give away $27.4 million she inherited when her grandmother died in 2022. Englehorn invited 10,000 Austrians age 16 or older — chosen at random — to participate in the project and will select 50 people from that group to form the Good Council for Redistribution. Members of the council will be paid for their time (about $1,300) and also have their travel and child-care expenses covered.

“A good plan needs many perspectives,” Engelhorn said in a statement on the project’s website. “Not just from one individual who happens to have inherited. Simply because I wish to improve the state of our society does not mean that I have a good plan.” Over the course of four months, the council will convene in Salzburg with academics and nonprofit leaders to determine how to spend Englehorn’s inheritance. We’ll be watching to see how the council chooses to give away those millions. (New York Times)