Nonprofit Kit For Dummies, 6th Edition

Chapter 21

Ten Tips for Raising Seed Money

IN THIS CHAPTER

Using time-tested strategies to raise money for your organization

Getting prepared to raise funds

Raising money is essential to managing a successful nonprofit organization. In fact, nothing is easier than knowing you should be raising money — and nothing is more difficult than asking for it. This chapter contains our top ten tips for that all-important task of raising funds.

Ask

One of fundraising’s oldest adages is, “If you don’t ask, you won’t get.”

Developing fundraising plans, compiling lists of names and email addresses for potential donors, and designing invitations to fundraising events are labor-intensive tasks. But those tasks aren’t the ones that slow you down in fundraising. Instead, many people pause when picking up the telephone or ringing the doorbell — in other words, when it comes to asking for money. Then, when it’s a little too late for the prospective donor to make a decision, write a check, or forward a proposal to a board meeting, these fundraisers make their move and stumble over their own procrastination.

We repeat: “If you don’t ask (and ask at the right time), you won’t get.”

Hit Up People You Know

Some fundraisers believe that the entire money-raising game is in knowing people with money ...