An often-quoted adage among fundraisers goes, “people give money to people with causes.” If this old saying is true, then fundraising and grantwriting are built on developing relationships between prospect and institution.
The power of this tool lies in the nature of relationships among people. Strong relationships are mutually beneficial. You as the grantseeker need funding, affirmation of programs, and political credibility, while foundations as grantmakers must meet requirements for tax-deductible status, lessen misery, and respond to communal needs.
Think of relationships as though they are planets in a universe that revolve around your organization. Following this image, you can construct a graphic of concentric circles to help you analyze the strength of your connections to funding. Strong relationships are at the core (the "inner circle"). These individuals, corporations, foundations, whatever, are the entities most likely to support your organization. Weak or undeveloped relationships are at the outer edge. At the farthest reach of your universe are the subset of entitities with whom you have no relationship at this time. The process of acquiring funding is the process of strengthening relationships -- moving entities closer to your inner circle. In short, fundraising is the art of making good friends, the kind who are willing to support your organization, programs, or endeavors.
I use a process I learned in workshops many, many years ago called the "Five Eyes of Donor Development."
Identification – Through research, we differentiate between those whom seem likely to give us money (i.e. prospects) and those whom one day we hope might give us money (suspects).
Information – We use information all along the way to funding. We send information about our organization to our prospects and they send us information in their responses (even a “no” at this stage is good information because we can concentrate more fully on those who don’t say, “no”).
Interest – Fundraisers often say that information breeds interest. It is not enough for a prospective funder to have a connection with our organization and an ability to give, the prospect must be interested in our cause, program, or project.
Involvement – We must involve prospects in our success. Involvement can materialize in physical, emotional, or professional representations and is generally motivated by empathy. For instance, not everyone can act in a theatre production, but everyone can be involved in the artistic process by becoming a season subscriber. Audiences are every bit as much of the production of art as the artists -- da Vinci did not produce the Mona Lisa to hang in his closet.
Investment – In fundraising investment almost always follows involvement, and almost never precedes it. To every donor, the gift, no matter how small, is an investment in the organization, the cause, or the program.
Although this configuration may seem neat and theoretical, its practical applications can move your organization much closer to funding. Human relationships are built on connections between one person and another and connections can be uncovered if one looks for them. A board member is likely to know members of the community foundation board; a volunteer may well have a daughter who is an attorney in the law firm that acts as executor of the trust of a family foundation. We all have a cadre of associates whom we would like to emulate.
The associative nature of fundraising makes everyone in the organization critical to success no matter the size or visibility of the institution. Whether a large university, community college, local hospital, or the Friends of Feral Cats, people in the institution people with business and professional associations with other community leaders can put your cause in front of decision-makers when your proposal can’t.
Relationships in and out of the institutional community can often tip the scale in your favor. Many times, I have sat on review panels and heard a reviewer say, “oh, I know them. They’re in my town. They do great work.” Even if the reviewer does not “fight” for the proposal, all others on the panel will look kindly on the proposal, and sometimes that “benefit” will be the difference between funding and not-funding.
Relationships will not replace strong proposal-writing based on sound program development based on careful strategic planning to meet the clearly articulated mission of the organization. On the contrary, developing relationships with prospective funders intensifies the importance of all other elements. Your work is being reviewed not by a faceless, nameless, autocrat, but by a relative of your organization.
If we accept the adage, “people give money to people with causes,” then, we must devote time, energy, and funding to developing relationships with people. Such relationships will help our organizations acquire the much-needed funding to attain institutional goals.