Fundraising from a position of power and pride

Fundraising from a position of power and pride

Notes

Fund development session notes:

Broad aspects:

• Did the check show up or not?

• Binary outcome - yes or no

Consider differences in Private sector sales and NPO sales.

• Don’t pitch.
• Creating something together.
• On the same side of the table.
• No performance. It is a conversation.
• No transaction involved.
• Don’t perform.
• Think about it as assembling resources.
• Talent
• People
• Time
• Connections
• Recognition/Reputation
• Values
• Majority - resources
• Going out and try to save
• “mutual dependence”
• 1 of several things that are needed
• Emotionally deep and creative conversations

One size fits all:

• Don’t create a pitch.

• Process question - nuetral

• Take someone to coffee

3 things that the process questions

• establish as a peer

• judges where you are in the process

• tells you if they are full of shit

Verbal committments

Beauty in sales

How to know if toxic?

• Are they coming at you with toxic/ naive?

• Used to being in control or in charge

• Capitalism - “he or she is always replaceable” even the rich

• Meet someone with grace

• Moral authority : root in the work

• Not good to be rude to someone

• Accept and play/ or stop the conversation

• Fundraising : Care about them

Welcoming that person in your presence

Welcoming with grace into the conversation

Liberate your dollars

The more broad and poetic

RFPs are almost always bullshit

Central leadership of an org is strategic fundraising. Not a secondary.

“doing the work” means your not in charge

logic reason and data

Sales based fundraising

Marketing based fundraising

Tactical:

• Anyone trying to sale a fundraising plan - stealing from you
• Not talking to people, not fundraising
• Tactically running a meeting

• at lunch

• coffee

• “they go first”

• Getting other people to go first

• Avoiding a hard start

• “How does that manifest”

• Need to merge with that

• Thinking in coats of paint

• Get the next conversation

Moving money

• People want to be joyful/experience/play with you
• Think of why people are talking to you (spiritual, guilt, maybe they wanted to be an artist, community, fight, learn, struggle, engage with person creatively, strategically)
• Way more likely to give money if engaging in those terms

Need for development staff to have space to process and connect.

• Issue in sector: EDs are the VP at heart.
• We need you to be out there instead of doing the work.
• Change the culture in general.
• Feel full complete self.
• Offering to the space.
• Find the people that are doing what you are doing.
• Always on when you are fundraising.