Once upon a time…

There was a group of corporate fundraisers living happily and peacefully in times of ‘traditional’ media. When trying to raise funds, they would use a letter, advertisement in a newspaper or would simply call and/or visit the companies they wished to attract as donors, sponsors or partners. Money was not impossible to raise as donors remained loyal and did not need much to be kept entertained. Stories told by the fundraisers were easily accepted, as there was not much media to contradict their messages.

Then suddenly everything changed…

The Information Era kicked in: our current age in which individuals have to ability to transfer information freely, and have instant access to knowledge that previously would have been hard – if not impossible – to find. Our current economy is based on sensation and manipulation of information. The poor fundraisers experienced an increasing amount of trouble trying to find supporters for their cause. Their prospect donors and sponsors became a though crowd, hard to convince to give and even harder to retain, as they were a lot less loyal then they used to be in the old days. Their old letters, calls and visit did not do much good, as they were overruled by powerful new media like Twitter, Facebook and other online social networks, blogs etcetera.
The villain called 21st Century had taken control of the fundraising kingdom, creating very demanding, hard to get interested, easily bored potential donors. The villain also got control of the most important target group of these fundraisers: the companies. They turned the companies into very critical institutions who hardly ever gave something away and were even pickier on whom to give their precious support to.
The corporate fundraisers became more hopeless and desperate everyday…

Until a fundraising hero stood up!

One of the corporate fundraisers had been sitting in his office for days and days in a row, just thinking really hard how to solve this all. Then, finally, after many hard days, he came up with a plan: if we simply adjust our strategies and make the 21st Century our ally, we can actually turn this into a positive story for ourselves! He ran off to tell the other fundraisers and they decided to learn all about their supposed enemies, the new/social media, and started using these tools to get the attention of their prospect corporate donors in a fun, attractive way. Once they learned how to deal with the 21st Century potential donors and sponsors by using new tools and methods, it all worked out,

And they all lived happily ever after…

Moral of this story:

It is nowadays increasingly harder for non-profit organizations to attract new funds, especially in the corporate field. This is most likely due to our changing society: everything is fast; changing all the time; information is available everywhere and to everyone; people become more demanding, therefore harder to attract and less loyal, this goes for individual donors as well as corporate donors (who are probably even more critical on who to give money to these days).

I would really like to know from all of you who read my Fundraising Fairy Tale what your opinions and ideas are on: how exactly has our modern society influenced the process of corporate fundraising, according to you?

I am sincerely looking forward to your contributions to my story!

Kind regards from the author: Maartje Natrop

PS: for more information on this topic ( interviews, movies, articles, surveys etc.) check the ‘background information’, on the top right, under ‘topics’!

You can find the professional fundraising trends report on the following link:

http://www.tacs.org/files/uploads/FundraisingTrendsSurveyFINAL2_21_2.pdf

The key messages of the surveys concluded for this report are:

* The impact on nonprofits of the economic crisis does
vary.
* Those nonprofits with diverse revenue streams, good
management, and what could be labeled “learning
cultures” appear to be coping markedly better than
others.
* Organizations that are faring better appear to be
putting more focus on development activities,especially individual donor relations including major
donor development.
* Respondents report that board members need to be
more engaged team members by actively participating
in fundraising, cultivating relationships, and being
ambassadors for the organization.
* Respondents stress that nonprofit leaders need to set
the tone, be calm, and communicate clearly about
decisions, priorities, and organizational vision and
goals. They need to be more visible and more involved
with individual donor fundraising.
* There is a suggestion that, in some cases, the
organizational sense of being “fine” may not match
with finances, planning, activities, staff/board
engagement, and other components of organizational
health.
* Better internal communication among organizational
team members is key to surviving in this difficult
economic climate.

1. The current situation concerning corporate fundraising in the Dutch market:
1a: How difficult is it nowadays to collect money from corporations?

It depends on what’s given in return, ranging from “image-building” to “personnel engagement” and “corporate identity”. If the corporate does not really get anything in return… collecting cash is nowadays pretty hard.

1b: What factors would you say influence the degree of difficulty for fundraisers to attract new funds
(e.g. economical situation, societal changes etc.)?

Companies increasingly search for “return on donations”: they want something measurable in return for their giving. Therefore, fundraisers need to come up with well-thought of strategies and provide the company with arguments why that specific company should donate to that specific charity.
1c: Have there been any (major) changes in the field of corporate fundraising over the past few years
(e.g. different methods)?

Corporate fundraising in the NL market has long been – and for the majority of foundations still is – related to other fundraising activities, only slightly adapted to the different target audience. Only recently some foundations have started professionalizing their approach towards corporate fundraising, recognizing the fact that this requires a completely different approach.

2. Organization’s motivations for giving:
2a: What are, according to you, the most common reasons for organizations to invest in non-profit causes?

Organizations hardly invest in non-proft causes, at best they donate.
2b: Should a fundraiser adjust his/her strategy according to the motivation the organization might have for giving?

Absolutely.

3.  The best way for fundraisers to present themselves/their causes:
3a: How can fundraisers make their presentation/message utmost convincing, or in other words, how can they ‘sell’ their cause?

They should not. They should focus on matching mutual objectives and pinpointing the potential win-win situation resulting from partnering.
3b: What are the most important things (think: tips and/or pitfalls) the fundraising party should in keep in mind when presenting themselves to organizations in order to attract new funds?

Merely asking for money might result in a donation in the short run, but will most likely not lead to a long-term relationship.

4.     Communication strategies for corporate fundraising:
4a: What communication tools are most suitable for corporate fundraising?

Website/page specifically tailored towards corporate fundraising, clearly presenting what assets the foundation has to offer.

Face-to-face exploration of common goals/objectives, after a first broad outline has been presented by the foundation via e-mail/telephone.
4b: What elements should be taken into account when developing a communication strategy suitable for corporate fundraising, in general?

Do not start developing a comm strategy before you have explored several potential corporate partnerships and brought at least two of them into practise. Corporates above all are interested in track record and proven reliability. That cannot be beaten by a comm. strategy.

According to dictionary.com, the definition of fundraising is the “The organized activity or an instance of soliciting money or pledges, as for charitable organizations or political campaigns.” or “the act or process of raising funds, as for nonprofit organizations or for a political cause.”

WWF defines fundraising as “the process a team uses to secure the financial resources it needs to implement its project.”

Definition of corporate fundraising

According to the WWF, corporate fundraising is “pursuing a relationship with a company that involves a gift, commitment of support or other monetary transfer to the fundraising party”.

Resources for corporate fundraising. Potential sources and resources for this type of fundraising are event sponsors, co-brands, corporate membership, program sponsors, corporate supporters and corporate partners.

Tools for corporate fundraising. Methods/tools to cultivate this form of fundraising are events, workshops, conferences, networking activities, board contacts, respondents of inquiries and pro-active contacts with corporations.

Market potential of corporate fundraising. Corporations operate everywhere so corporate fundraising can be done everywhere at anytime. Each market however requires a specific strategy and each corporation a specific approach. Which one is most suitable should be determined trough research.

The risks of corporate fundraising. There is one major risk to corporate fundraising. Once the fundraising party engages themselves with a certain corporation which does something negative, e.g. performs an action that damages their reputation, it will also damage the reputation of the fundraising organization; decreasing their credibility in the eyes of the public and in the eyes of other potential corporate partners/sponsors. So when establishing a relationship with a certain organization, as a fundraiser, you should always research their image and reputation first to minimize the risk of being associated with it in a negative way. However, you could try to minimize the risk but you can never totally remove it, as a corporation that seems to have a perfectly positive reputation, can still do something to harm it later on during the relationship/partnership. Always make strong and clear agreements with the other party to avoid them undervaluing the communication values of your partnership.

http://www.netwitsthinktank.com/site/apps/nlnet/content3.aspx?c=ifINKZOzFmG&b=4487123&ct=6926607

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbGKcZ3TMrI

Check out this fund and interesting slideshow on modern corporate fundraising in the 2.0 age.

Starting from slide 8 you will find the slides relevant for this topic.