Fundraising activities refer to the task to win donors and supporters that believe in your institution and its mission and provide you with financial means. Donors provide resources (money, staff, room, equipment, etc.) in order to enable the institution to fulfil its mission or do specific projects. Therefore, the donor(s) pay for services or products provided to others.
Finding support especially monetary funds is not an easygoing and quick task. Comparable to the sales process you will have to search for prospect donors, build contacts and networks, try to maintain long-term relationships and convince the prospects that your institution and its activities are worth the investment.
Basically, there is the distinction between baseline funding and project funding. Baseline funding means that the donor provides means to support the institution’s existence and its overall activities. The institution can decide the use of the means. Project funding relates to the donation of funds for specific projects or programmes. The means can not be used for institutional needs outside the projects.
Fundraising can take place with:
· International organisations or agencies (United Nations, European Union, International Foundations, etc.)
· National or local public authorities (local government, ministries, chambers, etc.)
· Businesses and corporations (sponsorship)
· Other sources, e.g., private foundations, fund collections, religious institutions, etc.
How to find potential donor organisations?
· Draw a list of all organisations that could be interested in your work because it benefits their members, clients or other target groups. They could be interested in the subject you are dealing with (e.g., supply chain management), the region you are working in, the type of activity you are performing (e.g., further education, consulting, etc.) or the beneficiaries you are dealing with (e.g., ethnic minorities, small and medium sized companies, cross border partnerships, etc.).
· Draw a list of all organisations having established funding programmes in your areas of activity in terms of subject, region, type and/or beneficiaries. On the Internet it is easy to search for lists of donors and foundations.
The following Internet resources refer to donor organisations and fundraising:
Foundation Centre : free online courses on proposal writing, setting up non-profits, researching donors, etc.
One World Net – South Asia Fundraising
· Research more information about all identified donors and organisations (see above) that should be interested in your work or maintain programmes you could apply for. Try to find out the possible type of support, their motivation for supporting a special kind of work, their culture and self-understanding, any conditions that could apply to their support, their guidelines and requirements, etc. Comparable to client prospects you need to do your homework if you want to get funding from a donor prospect.
· Screen out the potential donors that are not considered suitable and find out the contact details of the remaining potentials.
Tip 15 Conditions and terms for funding
Study exactly the conditions and terms of any funding granted to you. Receiving funds can lead to additional costs and efforts, e.g., audits, special project and progress reports, formal approvals, regular meetings and presentations, etc.
· Try to contact the donor organisation via phone. You will need to find out a contact person that deals with donations or topics regarding your institution and its activities. Most important in this phase is to create interest and leave a very positive first impression. For this reason prepare yourselves very well for the phone call.
· Give the contact person a short introduction about your institution, its mission and main areas of activities. Explain briefly and concisely the background story why you need and deserve the donor’s support. List remarkable achievements or public recognition to create trust.
· Of course the potential donor organisation will not give you the funds immediately, it will need to find out more about your organisation, its trustworthiness and reputation. Finally the potential donor wants to find out if the support given to you will definitely make the desired impact.
· In general, a meeting between the potential donor and the management of your institution will be agreed to look into further details. For typical project tenders (Development Banks, EU, etc.) the procedure and all necessary documentation will be explained in the tender description. Personal meetings and information inquiries are mostly not available for these big project tenders.
· The steps following the first contacts with the donor organisation will be individually very different, depending on the donor’s experience, information and decision processes. One thing will be common to potential donors and supporters: they need a written project or donation proposal from your side that allows them to decide whether they can and want to support the demanding institution.
