Passion Turned Profession · Book IV · Money in
How to Raise Money for an Unknown Nonprofit
The most common assumption in nonprofit fundraising is that the size of a problem is an argument. It is not, and everything else follows from that.
15 chapters · 147 pages
What it is
One in four children in our county reads below grade level. The sentence is true, it is serious, and as a fundraising instrument it is close to worthless. It describes a condition and stops there, which leaves a reader two possible responses, neither of which is a gift.
The book opens with what research on charitable behaviour has established, much of which the sector disregards, and rebuilds the case for support from there. Then your first fifty donors, who are not strangers, are not wealthy, and are largely people you already know. Then the conversation itself: the request is four sentences, and the silence that follows is where the skill lies.
After that: monthly giving as infrastructure rather than a tactic. Grants, and why they are the slowest and least reliable money available. Government contracts, and what they cost beyond money. The fundraising event nobody costed. And a donor record another person could take over, which determines whether the donors belong to the organization or to you.
A problem presented as enormous and unbounded suppresses giving, because a reader who cannot imagine their gift mattering will not make one. Book IV · How to Raise Money for an Unknown Nonprofit
What this book assumes
That there is a program worth funding. Book Three addresses whether there is.
Every chapter
15 chapters, and what each one does.
Every chapter, with the sentence it opens on.
- 01
How to Raise Money for an Unknown Nonprofit
The most common assumption in nonprofit fundraising is that the size of a problem is an argument. It is not.
- 02
The Case for Support
One document, two pages, written once a year. Everything else you will ever write about money is an excerpt from it.
- 03
Your First Fifty Donors
They are not strangers, they are not wealthy, and you already know most of them.
- 04
The Conversation
The ask is four sentences. Everything else is listening.
- 05
Major Gifts at Your Scale
A major gift is whatever amount changes your year. For most organizations reading this, that is somewhere between two and twenty-five thousand dollars.
- 06
Monthly Giving Is Infrastructure
It is not a fundraising tactic. It is the difference between a budget and a hope.
- 07
Grants, and Why They Are Not the Answer You Want
Most founders' first instinct is to find a foundation. It is the slowest, least reliable, and most competitive money available to you.
- 08
The Proposal
Program officers read hundreds of these. Three sections decide yours, and they are not the ones you will spend your time on.
- 09
Reporting Without Lying
The grant report is where the fundraising promises of eighteen months ago meet what actually happened.
- 10
Government Money and What It Costs
It is the largest single source of nonprofit revenue in the sector and the one most likely to reshape you without your noticing.
- 11
The Event Nobody Costed
Run the arithmetic before you book the room. Most galas are a volunteer appreciation programme that happens to lose money.
- 12
Corporate Partnerships
Companies do not give to be generous. They give for reasons, and the reasons are legible if you ask.
- 13
Earned Revenue
Selling something is the most attractive idea in nonprofit finance and the one most likely to consume the organization that tries it.
- 14
The Development Calendar
Fundraising fails from irregularity far more often than from bad technique.
- 15
The Pipeline You Can Hand Over
If the relationships live only in your head, the organization does not have donors. You do.
Two more lines from inside
From the manuscript.
The four seconds after you ask are the entire skill. Everything before it can be learned in an afternoon.
Book IV · How to Raise Money for an Unknown Nonprofit
Use grants to accelerate something that already works. Never to start something you could not otherwise sustain.
Book IV · How to Raise Money for an Unknown Nonprofit
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What this book assumes
That there is a program worth funding. Book Three addresses whether there is.
Each subject is treated once, in the book that owns it. Where an answer belongs elsewhere, you are given the chapter reference.
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