Commitment from the Entire Organization
To be successful, every member of the organization must share the task of raising the money necessary to operate. Expecting “someone else” to be responsible for maintaining the needed revenue stream while others wait to spend the money is a recipe for trouble.
As your organization slowly matures, you may want to bring on a professional fundraiser who is already familiar with the environment. Even so, this person will require everyone's assistance to meet the goals you have set.
Committees of the BoardA standing responsibility of every committee established in your by-laws should be to assist in securing funding for any project or other expense item it recommends for the organization. This is especially applicable to programming, building, or similar committees that will be researching and proposing ways the organization can fulfill its mission, usually involving the appropriation of funds.
Consider establishing clearly understood benchmarks for each part of the organization to meet during the course of your yearly fundraising efforts. Present these goals from a positive perspective and make them part of the ongoing board, volunteer, and staff development.
Require your committees to suggest ways to offset the expenses involved in their proposals. This task will help spread the overall fundraising responsibility and provide a true sense of ownership for active committee members. Not only are they going to be proposing action items to the board, but they will also be offering concrete suggestions on how to pay for their proposals.
Community VolunteersIn the early stage of your organization, everyone will need to share some of the responsibility for fundraising. The general orientation given to every new volunteer should include an overview of the finances that allow your organization to function.
This is not suggesting that someone who helps out once a week should have the entire five-year projected budget handed to them to read and evaluate, but they do need to be aware that the organization, while it is a nonprofit, is not isolated from the many challenges in the general economy. All outreach material — newsletters, website, everything that is designed for general distribution to your volunteers — needs to include a way for people to get information about contributing as well as making it easy to make a donation on the spot. Your fundraising must become as much a part of your organization as everything else you do.
