Fundraising Principles and Practice, 3rd Edition

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONEGREAT FUNDRAISING

Objectives

By the end of this chapter, you should be able to:

1. Distinguish between successful fundraising and great fundraising.
2. Understand the characteristics of great fundraising leaders.
3. Describe what great fundraising leaders focus on to achieve great fundraising.
4. Understand the role of a strong, compelling, and emotional case for support.
5. Define philanthropic culture and describe its key components.
6. Reflect on your approach to fundraising leadership.
7. Lead and develop a philanthropic culture.

Introduction

The Great Fundraising Project is ten years old. In the summer of 2012, Alan Clayton and what was then Clayton Burnett and Associates commissioned Professors Jen Shang and Adrian Sargeant to conduct the world's first research on “Great Fundraising.”

The project's aim was to identify how and under what circumstances truly great fundraising is able to flourish. Initially, we thought we would be looking at factors common to specific campaigns, but we quickly came to realize that outstanding fundraising wasn't always associated with a specific campaign and that actually it was just as likely to manifest across the full range of an organization's activities as a consequence of the leadership of a particularly visionary and talented individual.

Having recognized that the focus of our study had to be broader than campaigns, our second issue ...