Having a diversified base of funding sources is important for organizational sustainability.
Let’s look at three types of donors and how to get them to buy into your vision and support your organization.
Individuals
With individual donors, you need to first realize there’s a difference between mass market and relational givers. Mass market individuals are recipients of direct mail, email, and social media messages who might give somewhat anonymously online or via mail. Relational individuals are donors with whom officers communicate, visit, and call on a regular basis; there’s an established relationship from which the donor support comes.
When it comes to individual donors, you have two goals: turn those mass market individuals into relational donors and deepen the relationships you have already established to create sustaining supporters.
There are many different ways to nurture your relationships with individuals. We include many ideas on our blog, including some of these and others:
- Enroll your supporters in a monthly giving program
- Communicate via engaging storytelling about your mission regularly
- Make sure you know what motivates your donors to give to you
- Get your supporters to fundraise for you
- Appealing to your donors for planning giving and bequests
Corporations
Getting corporate sponsorship is an incredible benefit for your organization. But how should you go about doing so?
Identify companies that align with your vision and mission. With a little research into a corporation’s giving history, mission statement, and stated goals, you should be able to determine if a partnership would be a good fit with your organization.
Go into the relationship seeking to build a long-term partnership. Be creative in finding ways for mutual benefit, and make sure you communicate to the corporation all the opportunities for their stakeholders to volunteer and participate in your work.
Government Grants
Funding from the government is a third source of donations for your nonprofit. This will include a detailed application process, so make sure you are prepared for that.
Depending on the grant for which you apply, you’ll be required to have several things in place, such as: team members to complete the work you’re wanting the grant for, examples of your past successes, full support of your board of directors, a credible need backed by appropriate data, and/or a plan for evaluating your outcomes.
Bottom line: do your homework! There are lots of moving parts and pieces to applying for, receiving, and using a federal grant. Start at grants.gov to begin your research on federal grants, eligibility requirements, and the application process.
Helping you grow your donor base is one of our primary objectives here at Donor.com. Subscribe to our blog so you’ll always receive the very latest in tips and ideas for making your donor development efforts the very best they can be.
