Fundraising is the activity of raising resources for non-commercial projects. The person who is involved in raising resources is usually called the “fundraiser,” and we will call him that. And those from whom the organization receives support are donors.
Pay attention to the word "fund": this is not a synonym for the word "money", this concept is much broader.
Fundraising is often interpreted very widely - as attracting not only money, but also friends, connections, media support, etc. It is worth noting that the effectiveness of fundraising is still measured by the quantity and quality of received resources. The effectiveness of fundraising is always possible and necessary to measure. Do not confuse its effectiveness with the effectiveness of the mission of your organization.
It’s still important to know this: if ten thousand were invested in a fundraising event and five were earned, there’s no need to console yourself with the fact that “there were five publications in the press”. Tell yourself honestly that the event, as a fundraising one, failed.
Fundraising and business have a lot in common. Of course, there is a difference - the purpose of the spent resources. These processes always follow the so-called fundraising cycle. It consists of the following steps:
- Problem analysis
- Idea
- Description of the target group
- Defining goals and objectives
- Defining mechanisms and tools
- Estimation, analysis of available and necessary resources
- Search and selection of potential donors
- Conducting the event
- Analysis of the results
- Gratitude to the donors
With the proper organization of work, the fundraising cycle becomes continuous: evaluation and processing of the results of one event smoothly flows into the planning and improvement of a new one.
Where do fundraisers come from and how to become one of them?
You will not find a single university graduate who has written the word fundraiser in his diploma. Officially, there is simply no such specialty. If you analyze the basic education of today's most successful fundraisers, you will find among them geographers and biologists, philosophers and journalists, because the goal of becoming such a specialist lies in their determination.
Nevertheless, to become a successful fundraiser is much easier if you have deeply studied a number of basic sciences for such businesses. These include marketing, advertising and public relations, psychology. Also, knowledge in the field of design or copywriting is an advantage.
Still, if your basic education did not provide you with this knowledge, you will have to turn to self-education. There are a lot of good books and courses to go through, as well as specialists ready to help you develop in this area!
