Contact, Belief, Ability

A very helpful article by Kim Klein about identifying major donor prospects:

https://www.compasspoint.org/askgenie/details.php?id=53

In sum:

"You are looking for three things in each prospect:

• Evidence that the prospect is connected with someone in your organization,
  so that you can establish contact.
  
• Evidence that the person believes in your cause (or a similar cause), which
  includes evidence that the person gives money to similar organizations.
  
• Evidence that the person has the ability to make the size gift you
  want."

Advice on Planning a Charity Auction

I ran across this how-to on planning a charity auction on CharityNetUSA. It's a good intro to the nuts and bolts... http://charitynetusa.com/blog/?p=103

For my part, I think auctions can be a great source of revenue, but they require creativity, persistence, and a dedicated staff person or volunteer to do it "right."

Consider doing a themed auction- targeted to the audience you are trying to draw, or something that will bring home your mission. Be thoughtful while making solicitations for gifts. What can the donor get out of it? How does their product or service play into the theme of the event, or appeal to the audience?

Approach items it with the eye of a marketer. Can you group related donations to create a package that is more valuable than the sum of its parts? Package together theatre tickets with a limo ride and a dinner downtown and promote it as a killer date night! Can you provide an experience that the bidders could never put together for themselves? If you have access to important or famous people, see if you can get them to donate their time doing something fun or valuable with the winning bidder. Get a famous golfer to donate a round of golf for the winner and two of their friends. Or get and influential business or civic leader to donate a business lunch and see how much people will pay to bend his or her ear! Your celebrity's time doesn't have a fair market value, so bidders can deduct the cost of their bid above whatever expenses are involved, making it a more attractive way to give.

And just like all fundraising, in-person solicitations work better than more passive forms of asks. Many folks throw together a silent auction to augment their galas, and just stick the auction items in a corner for people to bid on in a rather passive manner. This doesn't give donors the visibility they could get for their donation, and really isn't optimizing the value of what is donated. So consider getting a professional auctioneer to do a live auction. It will put the fundraising activity front and center and since it's a public event, a good auctioneer can play on the peer pressure and competition to raise the bids.

Recipe for a Fundraising House Party

I've put together a detailed instruction article explaining how to organize a fundraising house party, which I hope people find useful. It's available for download here if you'd like to take a look. Please let me know if you end up using it and let me know any suggestions you have for improving it. It's intended for volunteers, but can also be helpful for organizations running their own house parties.

I first became conscious of house parties as many did, during electoral campaigns. They are an efficient way to have intimate contact with new supporters and leverage networks of people to form new relationships and get your message out. It's also a good way to energize your base, as house parties tend to be events that spark dialog and re-enforce the urgency and importance of your issues.

I think the key is to keep it simple, and keep it focused on your message. Don't try to touch on more than two or three important points, and don't distract people with random themes or performances, unless they are directly tied to what you are trying to raise money for. If you are a music organization, then a small solo performance would fit, but this isn't the kind of special event where you have to entertain your guests and get admission in exchange. This is a night all about you and your mission! People are there because they are at least open to the prospect of supporting your organization with their time and money, so don't be shy!

The rest is in the article.

Get it here.

Here are some issue or organization-specific how-to's that I used to research my article:

Amnesty International

Rainforest Action Network (PDF)

Nadar-Gonzalez Campaign (PDF)

Want more in-depth info on the topic?
Check out Morrie Warshawski's book: How to Throw a Fundraising House Party

Reminder to self: the fundamental limits of online tools

Daily travels through little corners of the blogosphere, myriad YouFacespacester accounts, email accounts, online collaboration websites/wikis, and plain old websites, it's tempting for a fundraiser to hide behind her computer screen and feel productive, when what she should really be doing is "getting on the horn" (as my grandfather would say) and speak to people directly.

No fancy facebook app or flashy splash page is going to substitute for the power of a firm hand shake when it comes to building trust, and no online donation button is going to subsitute for the face-to-face appeal. Online tools help us broaden our reach, visualize networks of relationships that are invisible in the real world, collect data about our audience and our prospects, and better communicate with images, sounds, and printed words. But in the end, all these play suplimentary roles to meeting people on the ground. Business deals are still sealed over lunch or on the golf course, even if they are maintained using twitter...

Adding pledge power to online campaigns...

Some journalist friends of mine are interested in doing some stories probing the claims and accusations that show up in political advertising during the election season. Anyone familiar with the state of journalism will be interested in the fact that journalists are pursuing crowd funding as a means of support for in-depth investigations (Hats off to you Spot.Us!). I'll save my rant on the lack of funding for quality non-commercial journalism in an age when corporate media consolidation is running rampant slashing editorial budgets for another post...

But the means of my friends' campaign is of immediate interest. They are using an online social media website called The Point that allows anyone to post a cause or petition, and ask people to sign on in a pledge of support in the form of a donation or action. The pledge is only fulfilled if the organizers hit their target for either number of members or donation pledges.

I like the social action bent of this style of online giving. It makes people feel that they are a part of a very specific endeavor and they can feel the momentum of the campaign move forward as they track the progress of the campaign. Plus it allows anyone interested to comment and to see what others who register pledge to the campaign. A good strategy for this one would be to get someone to set the bar early- like at $100 or $250- and challenge people to dig deep. The social nature of this tool lets people see what others are doing, so if people pledge small at the beginning, that pace will probably be set without some additional effort on the part of those running the campaign. But the real point is to get people involved by making it easy and fun to participate.

Coupled with other online media such as email, websites, and other social media sites, this tool gives organizations one more way to break through donor hesitation by letting them know that their credit card will only be charged if the full goal is attained, which gives donors the confidence of knowing that they will only contribute if the means are there for the project to move forward. In other words, they won't waste their money.

One more bright and shiny web 2.0 tool to build movements and get some change for your dollar!

Check out the tool: http://www.thepoint.com/