Overcoming your fundraising phobia: fundraising for non-fundraisers

1
Overcoming your fundraising phobiafundraising
for non-fundraisers

• Jonathan Farnhill
• Chief Executive Elect, Royal School for the Deaf
  Exeter
• Regional Chair, Institute of Fundraising
• Email jonathan_at_farnhill.org.uk
• Web www.farnhill.org.uk

2
Why am I here?

• Regional Chair, Institute of Fundraising SW
• Fundraising for 15 years
• Popular and non-popular causes
• Specific and generic roles
• Currently at Royal School for the Deaf Exeter

3
A bit of context

• Funders have a different perspective
• Dont know about you
• Care about outputs more than processes
• Dont know jargon

4
A bit of context

• Fundraising is competitive
• Be a bit better than the others
• Are you comfortable with this?

5
A bit of context

• Fundraising is good for you
• It encourages reflection
• It develops project management skills
• It raises awareness of the charity
• It gives the charity an external focus

6
A bit of context

• Fundraising is about partnerships
• It is not about moral superiority
• It is not about a quick buck
• It is about engaging and involving funders

7
Curing the phobia

• A twelve step self-help guide
• There is more to know than this!

8
Step 1 identify need

• Agree what you want money for, how much and for
  how long

9
Step 2 internal audit

• Audit your paid staff, volunteers and trustees to
  identify skills, experience and contacts

10
Step 3 research sources

• Look for potential funders, then get to
  understand them

11
Step 4 establish team

• Who can fill these roles?
• precious artiste
• nerd
• show off
• bean counter
• schmoozer
• gopher
• lion tamer

12
Step 5 agree ethics

• Agree what sources can be approached and what
  cant, and why in order to ensure the fundraising
  is coherent with the charity

13
Step 6 impact statement

• Explain what difference you make, not how you do
  it e.g.
• we enable 50 people a year to gain employment
  not we provide empowering and impartial
  employment advice
• Summarise your organisation in this way in two
  sentences

14
Step 7 cost/benefit

• What fundraising activity will raise the most for
  the least cost?
• Under-promise and over-perform
• Do this in solely financial terms

15
Step 8 plan it

• Timescales, resources, success criteria
• what, to whom, how, for what effect, by when, at
  what cost?

16
Step 9 buy-in

• Communicate to rest of organisation
• Gain their support

17
Step 10 relationships

• Get to know your potential funders
• Build relationships
• never ask for money until you see the whites of
  their eyes

18
Step 11 ask for money


hope opportunity
growing idea, options
facts figures
emotions
worst case
conclusion, proposition
Idea developed by Bill Bruty
19
Step 12 monitoring

• Regularly review
• Use this to feed in to planning process

20
Look after yourself

• Join the Institute of Fundraising
• Access your local network
• Take more training
• Join the e-group