In all my years of fund raising, both doing it and teaching it, every successful experience comes down to understand 5 fundamental truths or axioms. They are:
- People only give to people.
- People give to your future.
- People give to success.
- People get something from giving.
- People don’t give unless they’re asked.
Yes, they almost seem too simplistic to be profound. However, your understanding of these fundamentals of fund raising should shape your planning and strategies at every turn. I use them over and over: in developing strategies for a particular donor or a specific ask; in special event marketing or friend-raising, and; to shape underlying themes for grant proposals, fund raising letters and campaign case statements.
Here’s what #1 means:
People only give to people. Obviously, this doesn’t mean that people don’t give to animal or environmental causes. It only means that giving is a person to person enterprise. Fund raising is a relationship-oriented business. When done successfully, an organization uses its closest constituencies – board, past board, committee members, volunteers – and their relationships to reach out to new constituencies or prospects with which they have a connection.
