{"id":160,"date":"2012-03-11T08:53:08","date_gmt":"2012-03-11T13:53:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/archangeladvancement.com\/?p=160"},"modified":"2016-04-11T07:01:56","modified_gmt":"2016-04-11T12:01:56","slug":"why-dont-you-have-fundraising-ideas-on-your-web-site","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archangeladvancement.com\/?p=160","title":{"rendered":"“Why Don’t You Have Fundraising Ideas On Your Web Site?”"},"content":{"rendered":"

“Why don’t you have fundraising ideas on your Web site?\u00a0 We’re a small school and are in need of new fundraising ideas since ones we’ve been holding simply aren’t generating revenue they once did.”<\/em><\/p>\n

This is an easy one…because, in the long-term, you shouldn’t be doing fundraising for sustainable income.\u00a0 Fundraising is crisis-oriented, short-term, and unsustainable.\u00a0 Therefore, if you’re finding that it’s more and more difficult to generate significant amounts of income, you are absolutely right.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

However, fundraising is still important – NOT to raise funds, but to keep your school community of parents strong.\u00a0 Let me first refer you the section of this Web site called Development Development.\u00a0 It lists the differences between fundraising and development.\u00a0 A short definition of each might be helpful in how we currently understand each process:<\/span><\/p>\n

Fundraising = Generating revenue by way of the net result of a financial transaction; Development = the meaningful involvement of individuals with the mission of your organization.\u00a0 Or, as I like to look at it, fundraising is any event or action that requires a financial transaction to first take place; development is any event or action that requires a relationship to first be established.<\/span><\/p>\n

With fundraising, it’s about money; with development, it’s about relationship.\u00a0 The problem is that we’ve confused the two over the past few decades.\u00a0 More and more fundraisers burn people (parents who have to sell the stuff and then get it to the customers, customers who buy the stuff, staff who coordinate the projects and administrators who see more and more efforts bring lesser and lesser results) out.<\/span><\/p>\n

It’s easy to see that fundraising encompasses cookie dough and wrapping paper sales, bake sales (which are becoming more and more scrutinized by local health departments), and magazine or fruit sales.\u00a0 Anything that has the word “sales” in it is a fundraiser.\u00a0 I still have schools that tell me they have a great development program because they have a gala dinner, a golf-outing and a car raffle.\u00a0 Do you have to buy a ticket for the dinner?\u00a0 Yes.\u00a0 Do you have to pay a reservation fee for the golf outing?\u00a0 Yes.\u00a0 Do you have to buy a ticket for the car raffle?\u00a0 Yes.\u00a0 Folks think that because some fundraisers raise significant dollars, they’re not fundraisers anymore.\u00a0 But they are.<\/span><\/p>\n

They are, however, better than the cookie dough sales – not because they generate more money, but because they are “lead generators.”\u00a0 Gala dinners and golf outings require those involved with your organization to invite others that may not be involved with your organization.\u00a0 They gather.\u00a0 They greet one another.\u00a0 They hear the story about your school.\u00a0 They eat.\u00a0 They leave and hopefully go spread the good news about your school and their experience at the event.\u00a0 By the way, does this sound like anything you do on Sunday morning?<\/span><\/p>\n

It’s nice that these event raise significant dollars – but look at the deeper meaning.\u00a0 Relationships are being fostered over time.\u00a0 People are committing their time to organizing these events, and perhaps even their talent (photography, auctioneering, organizational skills, publicity and public relations abilities, etc.) to make these events a success.\u00a0 The members of the school community work together to make it happen.\u00a0 It’s not just the work of “the committee;” it’s the work of everyone in the organization.\u00a0 The event not only benefits the organization financially, but it strengthens the school community.\u00a0 Why would anyone devote time, talent, and yes, treasure, to make such an event a success, and then choose to withdraw their child from the school?\u00a0 Large-scale fundraisers are important because they are retention-oriented – not revenue-oriented.<\/span><\/p>\n

How does development benefit?\u00a0 When all those new people that have come to the golf outing are added to the annual appeal database and are eventually approached for a gift through a campaign, a major gift solicitation, or a planned giving bequest.<\/span><\/p>\n

If you’re not doing those things, then you’re really not “doing” development.\u00a0 Then I usually hear, “But we have a development director, and they’re in charge of planning all the fundraisers!”\u00a0 If that’s the case, and they’re not focusing on the annual appeal, campaigns, major gift solicitations and planned giving, working with alumni and the local business community to make significant gifts to the school, and sharing the good news about the successes of the school to all its constituent groups, they’re not doing the job of a development director.\u00a0 Development is long-term, and individuals that are “planning all the fundraisers” are being expected to make short-term significant gains – which causes them to burnout in less than two years.\u00a0 Relationships take three to five years to develop.\u00a0 Significant success happens after an average of seven years.\u00a0 For more about the thinking behind these assertions, check out http:\/\/www.jimcollins.com\/media_topics\/flywheel.html#audio=93<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

As for the opposite of what author Jim Collins calls ‘The Flywheel Effect,” or, “The Doom Loop,” he says such a process begins in the “undisciplined search for a single silver bullet solution – be it a new program, a motivational event, a sexy technology, a big acquisition or a savior CEO.”\u00a0 The success of your school relies on doing right things every day, realizing that “All things work together for good” (Romans 8:28).\u00a0 We like to emphasize “work together” or “for good;” but the most important part of that passage is “All things.”\u00a0 And “With God, ‘All things’ are possible” (Mt 19:26).<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“Why don’t you have fundraising ideas on your Web site?\u00a0 We’re a small school and are in need of new […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2319,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-160","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dearschooladvancement"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/archangeladvancement.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/DearSA.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2ggCS-2A","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archangeladvancement.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archangeladvancement.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archangeladvancement.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archangeladvancement.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archangeladvancement.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=160"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/archangeladvancement.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":378,"href":"https:\/\/archangeladvancement.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160\/revisions\/378"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archangeladvancement.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2319"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archangeladvancement.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archangeladvancement.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archangeladvancement.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}