Sustaining Nonprofit Fundraising During the COVID-19 Plague

Remember the Great Recession? It ended.  We raised money throughout. Sure, the Giving USA graph dipped, one of the few times since 1969.  But millions of dollars and volunteers were raised by organizations that didn’t pull back or give up.  Many foundations and donors stepped it up.

Yes, serious surveys by Giving USA and AFP have documented a significant pullback by donors in the first half of 2020.  But foundations, including family foundations, are giving more than ever.  They get it — the sector is in trouble because the Country is in trouble.  Happily, Congress has provided once in a lifetime tax advantages for philanthropy this year.  The benefit covers most of your current donors of any size gift.

Fundraise and market as hard as ever.  Harder!  Pull back, and you’ll give up your market shares of awareness and dollars.  All layoffs are sad.  But saddest are those of staff essential to raise revenue.

Our sector has a special responsibility and opportunity to communicate with our donors, grantors, contract partners, and with our volunteers and staff.  Our organizations serve a large cross section of people.  They tend to be especially vulnerable.  Current events make them more so.  Service needs are spiking.  Sadly, cocooning quickly lost its luster and the curve never reached a manageable baseline.  Family counseling and child welfare programs see vastly increased need, too.

So, it’s our professional and civic responsibility to advocate for the support our organizations need from government.  Perhaps more important in the long run for the health of our agencies, we must ensure that our current and past donors and volunteers are invited to create the recovery with us.  We must reach out to new donors through social media as well.  The “community based” aspect of our agencies will be an increasingly important lifeline for our survival.  Community philanthropic and volunteer support make nimbleness, independence and excellence possible.

Giving USA has posted a case study of Australia that has useful guidance: https://givingusa.org/disaster-fundraising-lessons-from-the-australian-bushfires/.

I’ve listed below a compilation of tip summaries gleaned from the above, and others posted by fundraising consulting firms and the nonprofit press.  I’ve added a few of my takes based on 50 years of experience in fundraising as well.

• Reach out to your donors
  • Segment the list and communicate appropriately and as personally as possible.
• Tell them and the public the truth about how you are doing and what you need
  • Be clear about your plans to serve your community
  • Be appreciative of past financial and volunteer support
  • Be specific about your needs and what outcomes they enable for your guests or clients
  • Be relevant to the donor’s interests and values insofar as you know them
• Use 21^st Century technology
• Use the telephone to speak with or leave messages with top donors and all your partners
  • Follow up with voicemail first and then email or other
  • Demonstrate your appreciation for their specific support in the past
  • Then call the rest of your donors; use volunteers
• Go virtual with events, fundraisers, auctions
• Look for partnerships that can help
• Tell stories. Tell real stories about people you’re helping now.
• Be optimistic. I can hear your frown on the phone.
• Be real! Don’t plan face-to-face events before summer 2021.  You’ll just frustrate yourself and waste energy trying to follow the curve.  (Unless you have or borrow enough land or indoor space to fully social distance.  But still add digital participation.)  Make all future events hybrid digital after that.  Why cut people off who have interest?

Another resource:

https://www.philanthropy.com/article/Responding-to-the-Coronavirus/248231