I’ve spent over a decade in nonprofits and fundraising. There never seemed to be a rhyme or reason to fundraising. When do you do one strategy over another? Why do some organizations seem to execute some strategies with ease and some struggle?
It wasn’t until I realized two things:
The industry has the wrong terminology. Everything is labeled a strategy but Mirriam-Webster dictionary defines strategy as a careful plan or method for achieving a particular goal usually over a long period of time. It’s a high-level plan or method. An activity is work that is done for a particular purpose. Individual fundraising activities are the work that is done for the purpose of raising money for a larger purpose of raising the money as part of a larger plan. The industry calls each individual fundraiser a strategy. That just isn’t true. There is a structure to fundraising. When you build your fundraising in a sustainable way, you build it in a particular way.
It was at this point that the hierarchy began to take shape.
Topics discussed in this episode:
– What is the Fundraising Strategy Hierarchy [00:02:00]
– Why do we need to follow the Fundraising Strategy Hierarchy? [00:02:33]
– What are the levels and steps to the Fundraising Strategy Hierarchy?
– Step 1: Individual Donors [00:04:15]
-Step 2: Companies, Churches, and Denominations [00:08:30]
-Step 3: Grants and Federated Funds [00:09:04]
-Step 4: Fees for Services, Sales of Products, Earned Income [00:13:15]
-Step 5: Supporting Organization [00:14:30]
Episode transcript: S2Ep5 Transcript
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