The Double Shot Latte of Your Development Effort

Transport yourself to a time when Coronavirus is not a thing. Imagine you’re about to open a café (bear with me). In preparation, you review countless industry studies demonstrating that 70% of all nationwide café clients order coffee. 70% of revenue in cafes in all corners of the USA comes from coffee sales. It’s irrefutable – coffee will be the ticket to success.

You stock your cute little corner shop with an array of loose-leaf teas, artisanal sandwiches on quarantine sourdough, hand-pressed juices, quinoa this and thats, a gramophone, metal straws, and…one can of Folgers. You hang your “open” sign outside and unlock the door.

How do you think it goes?

As ridiculous as that example is, nonprofit organizations (especially young ones) sometimes (and often accidentally) approach their fundraising efforts similarly.

According to Giving USA’s recent report, 70% of 2019 total charitable giving was from individual donors. If you include bequests, that number rises to 80%.

Yet the most common inquiry we get from start-up or young nonprofit organizations beginning their fundraising journey is “How do I get grants?” I’m not here to dispute the essential role of foundation funders in this sector, but there’s a mismatch with the weight fundraisers (and boards) give to pursuing grants when, in actuality, individual donors are the lynchpin of philanthropy.

Why? Fear may play a role. As this introvert knows, submitting a grant application via a web portal feels less risky than meeting with a real live PERSON and, gasp, asking them for money.

It also takes significantly more time, effort, and dollars to secure a sizable gift from an individual than it does to secure a grant. A robust individual giving program requires consistent strategies for finding, cultivating, asking, thanking, and stewarding donors. Doing this systematically is hard work that could happen 24/7. As a former Director of Development I remember telling myself, “I should call that donor with an update, but the grant deadline is next week….” (Spoiler: I did not pick up the phone).

When you build these systems into the culture of your organization, you’re committing to longevity. By getting to know a donor, connecting them authentically with your mission, thanking them, and sharing stories of impact in the community, you’re cultivating a long-term investor. If your programs genuinely match with their interests and you stick with it, these donors often become life-long contributors of their dollars, networks, and time. Yes, it takes time to turn a $100 supporter into a $10,000 major donor. But if you can do that with 50 people over time, you’ve built a core that will stick with you through thick and thin because of their deep connection to your work, your people, and your values.

Foundations, on the other hand, often ebb and flow in their giving. Shifting priorities as community needs change, evolving evaluation criteria, or even new Program Officers and Trustees can impact predictability of awards. Becoming dependent on this single stream of giving can be catastrophic.

So how do you start? Think about where you’re allocating your development effort and how you might adjust to focus on the people already in your universe. You likely have a plethora of individuals who have interacted with your mission, participated in programs, attended events, volunteered, or joined your mailing list. Begin there. Talk to them, provide an update, illustrate one of your programs at work, or highlight how your organization has embraced a Covid silver lining to propel yourselves forward.

This group, this network you have, is one of the most powerful potential revenue sources in your arsenal. Don’t be afraid to invest in them. In turn, they’ll invest in you.

So take a sip of that double shot oat milk latte and get to work.