There are 2 things I hear often from nonprofits that are struggling with fundraising or membership growth: (1) We’re waiting it out – scaling back on everything until the economy gets better and/or (2) We’re only going to try “low-hanging fruit” and give it a few months to see if it works.

Fatal Flaws

There IS no “waiting it out” because we have no idea when it will end.
Businesses succeed in bad economies based on some combination of being prepared (i.e. strategies and funds in place specifically for tough times) and their ability to adapt and change to the environment at hand. You would never hear a successful businessperson say they were going to “wait it out”.

Waiting it out also implies that the problem is with the economy and not the nonprofit.
In a great economy many businesses and nonprofits can have successes with minimal effort, no business plan or specific strategy – they just have good luck, great timing and are well-connected. You need more in a bad economy. The nonprofits that were better prepared BEFORE the economy went south are much more likely to be doing well now. It’s far more likely that a nonprofit not doing well now, does not ahve the infrastructure in place to manage their marketing and fundraising efforts. This economy just forces us to be on our toes, and to get more organized and prepared than we ever had to be; we may have to broaden our fundraising and marketing strategies (or even develop our first formal strategies) to stay competitive.

Low-hanging fruit isn’t necessarily going to work for you.
The cheapest, easiest marketing or fundraising tactics are probably ones you are already doing so you wouldn’t be doing anything different or they may not be significant enough to work if you are in crisis mode or close to crisis mode. If the economy were great and you had plenty of time to build up to a full marketing or fundraising campaign, then I would say go ahead and experiment with low-hanging fruit to get your feet wet. But if you are experiencing significant drops in your income and you’ve never had a concrete plan in place, then now is the time to put more than your toe in the water. See Fast Company’s article: Here’s an Idea That’s Not Quite Ripe.

Whatever you do, stick to it for a significant length of time.
Your toes need to stay in the water longer than several months. Consistency is unbelievably important and everyone in your organization has to understand that it takes TIME, MONEY and EFFORT to grow your mailing list, start making money on a new event, increase your online donations or double your website traffic. If you start and stop your marketing and fundraising tactics before they’ve had a chance to succeed (and with no real long-term plan in place), you will end up right back where you were but with no real chance of improving your chances long-term.

Best Tips & Resources

1. Pick the BEST fruit not just the ones hanging low. According to Convio small and growing nonprofits should have these are their top 5 objectives: grow your email list, cultivate new constituents, communicate regularly, maximize fundraising, and convert donors to sustainers. Convio also shows that online giving is increasing – check out their Online Giving Benchmarks Study for 2010.

2. Recession-proofing does not just mean cutting your budget. Nolo Press offers How to Prepare Your Nonprofit for an Economic Recession – obviously we are already deep in it and this article was written at the beginning but it states some basics that it’s not too late to implement if needed. Tips include skipping direct mail to acquire new donors, staying in touch with all donors more often, focus on a few major donors and spend more time with them, rely less on corporate philanthropy and m ore on corporate sponsorship, spend money to build your fundraising infrastructure.

3. Make sure you have strong board that participates in fundraising. I’m sure you’ve heard this a million times – but the organizations that are doing well in this economy have their “infrastructure” solidly in place and the biggest part of that infrastructure is a strong board. Last year many St. Louis universities were able to meet and even exceed their fundraising goals in this economy – see this article – the biggest factor? “leaning more heavily on its board members, other volunteers and even faculty to assist in opening doors and identifying potential donors.” You can’t do that if you don’t have a solid board and the best fundraisers in the world can’t help you if your board won’t participate.

4. Stay informed of the latest tips and resources. The Association of Fundraising has an updated Survival Kit for Fundraising in Challenging Times that is available for members only. And, yes, you should join, they have tons of great resources for members.

5. Take advantage of the opportunities a down economy offers. This article from Associations Now refers to membership organizations but it could apply to social service nonprofits as well; they talk about doing using the economy as an opportunity to get rid of programs and services that aren’t performing well and avoiding the “wait it out” mentality (they call it Change Leadership and I’m thinking if your organization wants to “wait it out” then maybe it’s time for a change IN leadership). They also talk about re-evaluating what their members (or you could say donors) really need and want, giving members more opportunities to meet and share, and that in this economy, members need the assistance of associations more than ever and the associations that are doing it right are increasing their membership right now!

6. Think about increasing wallet-share. You not only need to retain your donors but you need to get more of a share of their wallet – more of a share of whatever they spend on donations to other organizations. Check out this article by DonorTrends Where Else is Your Donor Giving? Your Share of Giving Wallet.

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