3. Fundraising Tips To Keep In Mind
Fundraisers face many challenges today. And while being able to cull that elusive donation is one challenge, check out these other helpful tidbits concerning the field.

• Why do rollout results never equal test results -- even when statistically they should? Fundraising consultants, although knowledgeable, don't know everything.
• What is the impact of inserts promoting something not directly supportive of your direct mail appeal? Be careful about putting conflicting items in the same direct mailing information. Inserts usually work better in a brochure or separate fundraising division, but placing them in your main direct mailing data may not work.
• People hate bad telemarketing. The key is to be smart about telemarketing because it generates an enormous amount of revenue for organizations that have developed creative material and design formats.

4. Turn Downtime Into Renewal Revenue
The Portland (Ore.) Center Stage enticed its audiences to give with an interactive paper fortuneteller. Some 14,000 paper fortunetellers placed on the seats during the theater's final production of the 2000-01 season reminded patrons of the final date for renewing their subscriptions.

Before the curtain raised, patrons could fold and play with the devices. In the paper folds were different messages for regular subscribers who'd renewed, those who hadn't, new audience members, and audience members who've not yet subscribed. When the future was revealed, the organization had bolstered its subscription base.

In the 2000-01 season it boosted renewals over the 50 percent mark. Using the fortunetellers again in the 2001-02 season, it had already surpassed 55 percent before the season had ended, despite a difficult economic environment.

The organization doesn't peg its subscription renewal success exclusively to the fortunetellers. For a theater, the lineup of plays and performers have a role in renewals. Showing that creativity doesn't end at the front of the stage can build a buzz that keeps on growing.

5. What To Do In Troubling Times
Americans learned quickly that the 21st century would be a different giving environment than what the nation had left behind in the 1990s. Following the September 11 attacks, the American Association of Fund Raising Council in Indianapolis advised fundraisers to take heed of the following:

• Recognize what your volunteers and regular donors are thinking about when things aren't going well. Many of them will feel compelled to make valuable contributions to causes that may be other than yours. You may want to acknowledge this and support it on your Web site and at your facilities. These are people who will support you later, as well.
• Stay the course on events in these troubled times. Don't cancel or postpone planned activities unless there are truly valid reasons. A special event may seem inappropriate when a tragic event occurs. Consider how it might need reshaping in light of a tragedy, but remember that special events can bring people together when they need it most. Furthermore, cancellations or postponements may result in lost revenue that can't be replaced.
• Ditto for your direct mail and telemarketing cycles. You may need to revise the timing or the content of your message, but don't cancel your scheduled appeals. It's never inappropriate to reflect on those values and ideals that are at the heart of what your organization does.
• Don't stop planning. The best time to raise money is when you need it most. If your needs are well presented, and you've engaged your board and other key stakeholders in articulating those needs, your program will generate the support it deserves.

6. Doing It Online
Banking, product registration and plane tickets. It seems that everything is going electronic nowadays. Most nonprofits have electronic donation methods instituted on their Web sites and others have gone the next step by erecting online workplace giving campaigns.

Don't rejoice over the extinction of paper cuts before you consider the following regarding online workplace giving:

• Be sure to maintain a personal touch. "Danger Will Robinson!" Avoid being robotic and detached. Speak to individuals and not into a vacuum.
• Sure, it will alleviate a lot of paperwork brought about from traditional campaigns but the emphasis should not be on saving time but rather a more concentrated focus on the campaign itself.
• Pledge processing time will be cut down but do not shorten the campaign. Remain steady in your timeline and put a greater emphasis on the thank you.
• Utilize your online giving program as a supplement to your previous methods of workplace giving. Some people are creatures of habit and are more comfortable with paper transactions.

7. Virtual Tours Raise $$$
Give donors the world and they will love you for it and shovel money toward you. OK, maybe that’s not exactly true. But CARE USA took donors on virtual field trips and raised $1.5 million in the process.

Following Hurricane Mitch several years ago, CARE put together a special report on its Web site, highlighting the organization’s activities in the relief effort. The Kresge Foundation was so impressed it made a $1.5 million grant to rebuild and repair water systems in Honduras and Nicaragua.

What impressed Kresge wasn’t merely the effort, but the details that brought the effort to life. Virtual computer events take potential donors to places they might never reach otherwise. A virtual trip to Peru allowed students in Chicago travel with Peruvian students via chat rooms.

CARE turned Web site visits into donations. The Kosovo crisis months after the hurricane also featured online trips and saw triple the amount $180,000 raised for Mitch.

Virtual trips could work for a wide variety of nonprofits. For instance, museums, education groups, PBS stations, child sponsorship organizations and others have obvious tie-ins for bringing donors and members around the world through their Web sites. And, foundations may be intrigued to make a grant.

For example, The Field Museum in Chicago offers an online curriculum with a satellite uplink truck for its field trips to research sites.

• Educators can answer emailed questions and Webcast the dialogue. Some PBS stations have already webcast Field Museum communiqués between students and scientists.

A webcast can bring thousands of registered students together through a learning network.

8. A heart-felt thank you
Who does your thank you cards? The American Cancer Society, headquartered in Atlanta, decided to outsource the mailing of its thank you notes to donors of $100 or more. What’s different about its program is the notes are actually hand-written -- not a computer-generated style to mimic a person’s penmanship.

The organization then sends the notes it designs and a vendor handles the actual writing and shipping of roughly 5,000 such letters. ACS pays a 25 cents per piece for the handwriting and an additional quarter for each envelope. The jury is still out on whether the organization’s hand-written thank yous are cost-effective.

Other groups have used similar strategies for years with success. Life Outreach International of Fort Worth, Texas, for example, makes one of its mailings strictly hand-written. The response is typically doubles and sometimes triples the return of its other mailings.

Feed the Children, in Oklahoma City, drops roughly 100,000 hand-addressed thank you notes on December 25 to its $1,000-plus givers to get that final gift of the year from donors. Its Christmas Day mailing in 2000 garnered a 15 percent response rate.

9. Running afoul of guidelines
Raising money isn’t easy. The hoops fundraisers hop through won’t ever be considered child’s play. Bruce Hopkins, an attorney and author specializing in counseling nonprofits, offered a series of dos and don’ts for fundraisers.

• Be aware of the national and the local ramifications of the intermediate sanctions rules.
• Remain safely in bounds on when it comes to the ongoing “line-drawing” between the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and Congress. The distinctions between fundraising strategies central to an organization’s programs and unrelated fundraising operations are often vague.
• Steer clear of what the IRS has called “aggressive tax avoidance schemes.” This includes the charitable split-dollar insurance donation plan, which is now prohibited.
• Be careful with vehicle donations plans. This has been an area of IRS scrutiny for several years now.
• Donations are only deductible when the donor’s intent is charitable, rather than a transaction that is solely to attain benefit or service.
• Don’t let regulation changes pass by unnoticed. As the Internet evolves as a fundraising tool, new regulations will pile onto the current rules.

10. Even online asks needs testing
Turning to email for fundraising presents a unique challenge. While it certainly is cheaper to produce than traditional direct mail, it is also far easier to ignore, or in the case of the Internet, delete. To achieve some level of success try testing methods such as:

• Supplement your email by taking your message to chat rooms and public email lists. The increased audience will drive more eyes to your Web site.
• Use targeted demographics for your emailing. Email services are a good source for demographic information.
• Utilize regular email updates, but keep them short and sweet. An email is more likely to be read if it's an update, rather than an opus.
• Ask common interest Web sites to place your banner ad on their site. Many personal Webmasters are more than happy to link to similar sites
• Consider viral marketing campaigns. By asking people to forward the email on to friends and family you are eliminating possible complaints of spam. Your email is more likely to be opened when it is sent from a friend.
• Allow for the opportunity to opt-out of an email list at any time.

11. Fundraising - Writing that great 'ask' letter

The successful fundraising letter is one that engages the reader in a silent dialogue with the signer of the letter.

This bit of letter-writing advice comes from Mal Warwick in his book “How To Write Successful Fundraising Letters.” In the book, Warwick cited many of the findings of Siegfried Voegele, a German professor of direct marketing. Much of Voegele’s information is based on research with eye-motion cameras and machines that measure subtle changes in skin chemistry.

A major part of that writer-and-reader dialogue is getting the mail recipient to answer “Yes” to many questions, including the one about sending money. To do that, however, the sender must answer many questions even before they are asked.

Among those questions are: Where did this letter come from?; What’s inside the envelope?; Who wrote this letter?; Who signed this letter?; Where did they get my address?; and, What do they know about me?

Other questions include: Have I heard of this organization before?; Have I given to these people before?; and, Do they really need my help?

Warwick cautioned that one size won’t fit all for fundraising letters, and he maintained that an effective fundraising letter possesses three attributes:

• It is an appeal from one person to another.
• It describes an opportunity for the recipient to meet personal needs by supporting a worthy charitable aim.
• It invites the recipient to take specific and immediate action.

12. Major Gifts - Development Before The Ask
A major gift is not something donors make on a whim or a lark but a well-thought-out personal decision. That is the advice of Laura Fredricks in her book “Developing Major Gifts: Turning Small Donors into Big Contributors.”

To get major gift givers to make their donations, Fredricks suggested sorting out major gift prospects by donation, creating donor profiles and keeping donor information. To establish contact, Fredricks advised selecting a contact, someone known by both the organization and the prospective major donor.

Personal contact is essential for a major donor. Letters and telephone calls are an important part of the process, but sooner or later there will have to be a face-to-face meeting. In addition, that first meeting should be used to gain information about the prospect and to observe as much as possible, such as surroundings, pictures and awards.

Besides the ask and the thanks or recognition, stewardship is important. Stewardship involves ensuring proper use of funds for the intended purpose, yearly reports and updates and continuous communication, education and involvement. Stewardship begins the moment the donor agrees to make the gift.

Another important element is keeping track of what a major gift donor is doing. Monitoring the prospect’s progress toward making the major gift and reviewing the effectiveness of planned activities and meetings.

13. Traits of the successful fundraiser
The job of fundraising is so challenging, and yet necessary, that fundraisers have sought to develop ever-more sophisticated ways of raising money. Books, pamphlets, seminars and consultants offer a huge variety of innovative ways by which organizations can secure increasing amounts of cash.

With all of that, as with any constant and evolving process, it is easy to lose sight of the forest while seeking the trees; that is, it is easy to forget the basics of fundraising and to make mistakes about what should be simple matters.

Making such mistakes is actually easy to do, and any manager can look back with dismay on the way that a simple error had a ripple effect.

Ken Burnett, a fundraising and marketing expert from England, lists what he calls the modern fundraiser's most common mistakes. The fundraiser:

• Is not a donor himself.
• Doesn't think it's worth taking the trouble to listen to his donors.
• Thinks of himself as a marketer, so he's selling.
• Is too pushy/doesn't understand the relationship.
• Hides behind his desk.
• Doesn't do his homework (hasn't read the books).
• Lacks self-confidence; is reluctant to explain reality/be accountable.
• Is timid, so plays it safe and avoids even reasonable risks.
• Is not around long enough.
• Doesn't know or doesn't respect the foundations of fundraising.

14. Be persuasive in your solicitation
An effective solicitation follows certain principles of persuasive writing, and adhering to these principles can make a difference for any nonprofit. Tom Ahern, president of Ahern Communications, Ink., spoke at an international conference on fundraising, providing his ideas about persuasive writing.

• Focus on benefits, not features. It's axiomatic for professional copywriters: features tell, benefits sell. Features are what you do, benefits are why the features matter.

Also, it is easy to translate features into benefits. Ask yourself, "If I were the target audience, why would I care about this feature? What would be in it for me?"

Here's a feature: "Our agency offers English as a Second Language to newly arrived immigrants."

Why do I care?

Assume for a moment that you are trying to persuade a corporation to support this program. The same feature translated into a benefit may read: "Our English as a Second Language classes help new Americans become job-ready. We offer classes at four levels, so students can continuously improve their language -- and workplace -- skills."

In this reworking, you've taken into account the audience, and you've made the reasonable assumption that a program that creates a pool of well-trained employees will interest corporate donors.

• Include repeated calls to action. You really do have to tell people what to do, as any pessimistic communicator knows.

• Be "word-of-mouth" worthy. Give people short, memorable (i.e., easy to pass along) examples and stories that illustrate your agency's work.

15. Farming for donations
Nonprofits can utilize Constituent Relationship Management (CRM) to retain and upgrade the value of donors and members. The theory of CRM was explained at a recent nonprofit conference by Sue North of Fair, Isaac & Company.

The concept of CRM is a simple one: maximize the value of the business to the customer, and maximize the value of the customer to the business. The benefits of CRM to a nonprofit are increased revenue and decreased costs.

Ideas included in CRM are, for example, understanding the needs, preferences and motivations of the donor and developing a relationship to reduce costs, provide additional value to the donor and maximize the donor's value to the organization. Included under the rubric of understanding the donor's needs, preferences and motivation is a knowledge of the following:

• The timing and frequency of donations (When and how often does the person donate?)
• The relevance to the donor ("I give because my relative had cancer")
• Other relationships the donor may have with the organization (volunteer work/opportunities)
• How to leverage all touch points (Do you know the donor's email address?).

North emphasized that CRM involves all areas of the organization; it is a process that takes time, testing and learning; and it requires the implementation of new systems but is not solely a technology fix.

16. Farming for donations
Rural areas may actually be an abundant prospecting source for nonprofit organizations, said Robert G. Swanson, president of Hartsook Companies, Inc., in Wichita, Kan., which helps nonprofits design and implement fundraising programs. He was speaking at a fundraising conference.

To explain his position, Swanson defined a rural environment as one with a population of 60,000 or less with no single community with more than 40,000 people.

Also, the term “rural environment” is less about educational degrees per household, median and per capita income, birth rates and so on. It is more about a tone, a tempo, an attitude and a view of the world. Consider these profiles of rural residents:

• Rural areas might be cash poor but asset rich. Wealth abounds in rural areas but is just harder to see. They are “waste not, want not” areas.
• “No one will take care of me but me.” Life lessons of the Great Depression are still remembered. Cash is king.
• Ranchland, farmland and small-town business may not be owned by local residents. Learn who the owners are.
• Culture and business require degrees of modesty in rural America.

17. Live Nude Fundraising
Throw a touch of excitement and possibly a flash of skin into a year's worth of exposure. As long as it's tastefully presented, nudity can put some vigor into a sagging fundraiser and leave everyone smiling.

An unexpected relationship between the Ladies of Rhylstone, England, and the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) in White Plains, N.Y., raised more than $60,000 for the organization.

The ladies of the Alternative Women's Institute had been selling "village calendars" of scenic views of the northern English area for years. The ladies disrobed in memory of the late husband of Miss February.

The ladies contacted the organization directly, asking if it wanted half the proceeds from the 19-month calendar. After considering the risk, LLS took the plunge.

Though it will likely be a one-shot deal for LLS, the idea of nudity in a calendar did not go unnoticed by other nonprofits. In its 12-month calendar, the St. James Community Service Society in Vancouver, Canada, presented topless women, including a 60-year old educator and charity official who ran for the federal parliament.

Nonprofit officials offered fruits of wisdom for others considering ways to make their fundraising take off:

• Keep it tasteful. Nudity is risky for nonprofits.
• It can be lots of work. Small development offices could be overwhelmed. Consider working with a partner.
• Once is probably enough.
• Arts organizations may have more success than others. Tastefully presented nudity in sculptures and paintings is commonplace. The New York Academy of Art's "Take Home a Nude" auction also helped entice people to its facility.

18. Corporate Solicitation - Firms are made up of real people
Soliciting corporations for gifts or cash or in-kind merchandise may seem difficult. But, for-profit firms are really nothing more that groups of people. And, people give when they're swayed emotionally, when they seek recognition, and when they can get something in return for their gift. To become proficient in soliciting corporate gifts you must have a plan of attack. Here are a few ideas to get you started.

• Have a specific cause. Hone the description of your cause as sharply as possible. Your children's clinic may need supplies, but exactly what supplies does it need? The clearer the picture the more likely you will be of getting funding.
• Emotionally charge your appeal. Would you rather fund the children's clinic's need for new oxymeters or new educational toys for the waiting room? The oxymeter will only apply to those potential donors who know what it is but the toys gives the visual to a wider audience.

19. Looking for cash across the border
Many nonprofits fundraise internationally, and others are considering the possibility. Speaking at a nonprofit conference, independent consultant Jennifer Jones and Director of Finance & Fundraising for MADD Canada Dawn Regan outlined some of the considerations for organizations thinking of such expansion.

• One big question for any organization is, "Is international fundraising right for you?" That means:
• Are your organization's mission and focus broad enough to appeal to an international audience?
• Is your organization well established with strong name recognition in the USA?
• Are you looking for growth potential from new markets to escape saturated US markets?
• Is there potential to raise money in countries you want to?
• Is your organization financially sound enough to support acquisition investments for years to come?
• Do you have the infrastructure to support your efforts -- offices, technology and support staff?

Once the decision to go international is made, the next hurdle is, "How do you get started?" Some suggestions:

• Research potential countries, in person, on line and through other charities and outside consultants.
• Obtain legal, accounting and tax advice on international fundraising rules and regulations.
• Research markets for appropriate fundraising mediums and messaging.
• Be aware of cultural sensitivities.
• Determine if your accounting systems are prepared to support multiple currencies.
• Set up international offices, or talk to existing ones about your plans.
• Set up the physical infrastructure necessary to support your donors.

Once you've begun:

• Define rules for handling "cross-border" donors.
• Set up mechanisms for sharing information between offices.
• Know when to share and when to protect your ideas and donors.

20. Test mailing your appeals
To start off on the right foot in a fundraising mailing, Mal Warwick, the author of Testing, Testing, 1,2,3 (Jossey-Bass, 2003) suggests nine guidelines for the first mailing:

• The most important factor to test at the outset is whether direct mail acquisition of donors is even feasible for your organization. It won't work for every organization.
• To test the feasibility for your organization, figure you will need at least 30,000 letters, and preferably 50,000.
• In your initial mailing, you should test various types of prospect lists to see which ones will work best for you.
• Generally, the lists tested in your first mailing should be those that you believe are the most likely to do well, lists of people who already donate to organizations like yours. But, you should also test with larger donor universes.
• Usually 5,000 is the minimum number of names you need to randomly select from a single list to make a valid test of that list.
• It's almost always dumb not to merge-purge your lists to reduce the number of duplicate names and eliminate names of your current donors.
• Restrict your first mailing to just one package, sent to all the lists.
• If you have enough money for an initial test mailing of 60,000 pieces or more, you can test two versions of the same package.
• To maximize your chances of success in your initial test, spare no expense on this first piece. In future mailings you can test to see what corners can be cut.

21. Test Basics
Although guidelines for testing may seem obvious, Mal Warwick points out in his book Testing, Testing, 1,2,3 that forgetting the basics can sabotage results. He counsels that organizations always remember to:

• Keep list coding easy and keep a written key to the coding system so test history can be tracked over the years and throughout personnel changes.
• Keep tests clean. Test only one thing at a time. Overzealous direct mail fundraisers can unwittingly invalidate their own tests by making “just one little change” to a package.
• Keep the number of test cells manageable. It's easy to get “testing fever” and go overboard with the number of test cells. Smart mailers keep it simple, using such models as the six-cell test: one control cell, four test cells that are variations on the control, and one new package cell.
• Keep mailing your control even when testing. Even though a concept works for one organization, it may not work for another. Test, test, test.
• Eliminate unusually large gifts when measuring the revenue impact of the test. If most gifts were in the area of $25, a few random gifts of $100 or more could skew results.
• Test even the best of packages. A direct mail fundraising manager may be reluctant to make any changes in a package crafted by a top professional, but there is no reason not to do everything you can to turn it into a bigger winner.

22. Crisis management and major donors
If an organization finds itself in a situation bad enough to be considered a crisis, fundraising, especially among major donors, is an extremely important function, regardless of how difficult the crisis may have made it.

In her book Fundraising in Times of Crisis , Kim Klein asserts that donors know that a crisis is not just a suddenly appearing big problem but something that might have been brewing. Klein suggests four items that will reassure major donors, many of whom will be satisfied with just one or two.

The four things are:

• An explanation. Major donors, especially long-time major donors, are like family. When a family member becomes ill, relatives expect to receive more information than neighbors do. Tell these donors whatever you have agreed can be told to anyone in the organization.
   
• A fundraising plan. Be prepared to show donors a cash-flow chart and strategy-by-strategy description, including gross and net incomes for each strategy. Show them the gift-range chart and talk to them about how many other prospects there are.
   
• Help from other donors. Evidence that other people have bought into the plan is important. As gifts come in, ask if the donor's name and gift size can be shared with other prospects.
   
• An escape plan. Some donors need to be offered a contingency. They will give only if certain things happen. Such a way out should be offered only if the donors indicate that is what they need.

23. Direct mail, step-by-step
Direct mail fundraising is a time-honored part of nonprofit operations, one that has evolved over the years. With that in mind, there are certain concepts to remember. These concepts have come to be discovered, sometimes by trial and error.

In his book Revolution In The Mailbox: Your Guide to Successful Direct Mail Fundraising , Mal Warwick offers what he calls the 10 most important things to remember about direct mail campaigns:

• Direct mail fundraising is a process, not an event. It is a way to communicate with many people and build relationships.  

• The true rewards from direct mail come only over the long haul. Direct mail can generate steady, predictable income.  

• Cost is less important than cost-effectiveness. Cheaper is not always better.  

• The list is paramount. It is the most important factor in mailing.  

• After list, the next important element is the offer.  

• Segmentation is the key to cost-effectiveness. It rarely makes sense to mail an appeal to everyone on your donor file.  

• Annual giving provides the structure for direct mail fundraising. This approach is cost-effective and promotes donor loyalty.  

• Testing will lead to incremental improvements over time. It gives results that are precisely measurable.  

•  Repetition is essential. A consistent look and feel is required.  

• Without timely and accurate record keeping, direct mail is impossible. The donor base is the sine qua non of direct mail fundraising.

24. Cultivating and soliciting endowment gifts

The strategies for cultivating and soliciting endowment gifts are similar to those used for major and capital gifts, but the building of a successful endowment program necessitates being mindful about what is special about endowment fundraising.

In his book Building Your Endowment , published by the Indiana University Center on Philanthropy, Edward C. Schumacher lists eight items that must be kept in mind about endowment fundraising.

They are:

• The total raised will consist of a few large gifts rather than many small gifts. For the interest from an endowment fund to make a financial impact, there must be a significant amount of money in the endowment fund.  

• Negotiating an endowment gift will take longer than any other kind of fundraising. The time spent with prospective donors will be longer and more demanding.  

• Endowment donors are sophisticated about ways of giving. Most endowment donors already have been approached by their church, their college or their hospital.  

• Solicitations will require more personal contact that is required during other types of fundraising. Endowment fundraising cannot be done entirely by phone or mail.  

• Prospects will ask tough questions. They will request a wide range of financial and money-management information.  

• Prospects will want proof that endowments are a good investment. They will think like investors.  

• Prospects will want proof that their endowment gift will make a difference. It is vital for the organization to have a clear view of the impact of the endowment.  

• Prospects will want to know the entire endowment plan. Endowment donors think big and ask tough questions.

25. Fundraising - Using style when writing a case statement

Writing a case statement is an important part of any new undertaking, and there are certain objective matters that must be kept in mind, such as focus on what the statement is about.

In his book Making the Case, however, Jerold Panas makes his own case that subjectivity can be helpful and that a writer’s unique style can add force to a case statement.

The elements that Panas said he has found helpful are:

• Sell your reader. Don’t lean over backwards to present your case too objectively. Be truthful, but state the case in a manner that propels the reader to get out the checkbook. Make your organization look as if it has been destined since the beginning of time to address the very special challenge at this very moment in history.  

• Appeal first to the emotions, then to the intellect. Personalize statistics with true stories and case studies. Reject the mundane. Don’t be subtle. Be specific; use names. If it makes the reader tingle and break out in goose bumps, then you’re on your way to a gift.  

• Hone your words painstakingly. Some words are more positive, more powerful than others. When you are talking about the project, say what wonderful things it makes possible.  

• Break the copy with interesting headings and subheads.  

• Tell your readers what you want them to do.  

• Be certain to use visual aids and quotations. Maps, graphs, charts and photographs add high impact to the case.

26. Dealing with an immediate crisis

Considering the troubled times in which we live, it is not inconceivable that an organization can have a crisis on its hands. In her book Fundraising in Times of Crisis, Kim Klein writes that any organization finding itself in a crisis situation must move immediately to establish a Crisis Task Force that will act as mission control for about two months.

The task force must develop answers to nine questions. If the information is not available immediately, it must be obtained as soon as possible. The questions are:

• Are people committed to keeping the organization going?  

• If the answer is yes to that question, does everyone have the same understanding and information on what happened?  

• What is the cash-flow projection for the next six months?  

• What fundraising plans are already in place?  

• What, if any, financial reserves are there, and what are the terms of using them?  

• What is the immediate financial need?  

• What are the other immediate needs (e.g., reassure staff or make a layoff plan, hire an interim director, negotiate paying bills, deal with the media)?  

• What do the funders and donors know about what happened, and what do they think about it?  

• How often and to whom does the task force communicate what it is doing?

27. Building your first endowment

One of the special challenges of endowment fundraising is finding the seed money to underwrite a startup, wrote Edward C. Schumacher in his book Building Your Endowment, published by the Fund Raising School of the Indiana University Center on Philanthropy.

There are four major sources for financing the startup costs of such a venture:

28. Marketing to build an endowment

A comprehensive marketing and communications plan should be developed along with the overall endowment fundraising plan, according to Edward C. Schumacher in his book Building Your Endowment, published by the Fund Raising School at the Indiana University School on Philanthropy.

Working with marketing and communications to form a plan is important.

Schumacher maintains that a well-designed plan for endowment fundraising is almost entirely prospect- and donor-centered and the primary elements of such a plan are:

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Copyright © 2006 The NonProfit Times.