The Blackbaud Institute recently released its 5th Annual Charitable Giving Report covering 2016 results across nearly 7,000 nonprofits. The news is somewhat sobering.
In 2016 charitable giving grew just 1% over the previous year. Small nonprofits experienced zero growth. A bright spot included online giving, which increased nearly 8% but represents only 7% of overall fundraising.
Sectors with growth included arts and culture, higher education, and medical research. But there were declines in healthcare, public and society benefit, and environment/animal welfare.
Amidst this background of an increasingly challenging fundraising environment, we have a few tips for growing your 501c3 organization and managing it.
For any nonprofit there are three types of growth:
The first two require either additional funding or doing more with the same number of staff and the same level of funding. We’ve all been there and done that. It can work, but usually only for a relatively short period of time. More likely, it causes burn out and we end up churning our way through staff and volunteers.
The third type of growth is happening more and more as organizations with similar or complimentary missions match up and develop joint programs with a broader appeal. Or, they directly join forces and find synergies typically around cost savings in staffing levels and leveraging technology systems across a broader array of programs.
Regardless of the methods and approaches you use to grow your organization, it’s going to require additional funds to first generate that growth and then to support it over the long haul.
We’ve written extensively on fundraising over the years, based on our work with nonprofits of every size across a wide array of missions. I recommend our posts “10 Nonprofit Fundraising Best Practices” and “10 Answers Needed to Create a Solid Fundraising Plan.” And I particularly like “7 Fundraising Ideas to Consider in 2017."
All these posts point to ways of engaging your prospective donors using a solid fundraising plan. Here are a few of the key methods:
Yet, we also note the findings from the Stanford Social Innovation Review about how nonprofits get really big. They point out that small nonprofits can raise funds across a wide array of sources. This is possible in large part because small nonprofit fundraising requirements are small and can be readily supported by smaller donations.
Stanford’s study of nonprofits that reached $50 million in annual revenue, found that across the 110 organization they reviewed, 90% had a single dominant source of funding. Examples include the American Kidney Fund who works mostly with large corporate partners, the National Wild Turkey Foundation focuses almost exclusively on hunters through their local chapters, and Youth Villages receives more that 90% of its funding from state government agencies.
The takeaway is that, yes, you need a comprehensive fundraising program across a wide range of sources and methods. But always be alert to the potential major funding source that truly aligns with your mission. As you find that source, you can then optimize your approach to begin growing in earnest.
Along with growth comes management challenges. Here are a few tips from our experience across many nonprofit organizations:
We hope this post has offered a few new tips in growing and managing your organization. And don’t forget the potential to bring in the experts to support all your efforts. That’s where CampaignNow can make a big difference.
We work with a wide variety of nonprofits on all their growth and management efforts. We have the services, the experience, and the expertise to help with whatever challenge you’re currently facing.
You can contact us at (855) 329-4327 or info@campaignnowonline.com.