Strategic Fund Development: Building Profitable Relationships That Last, Third Edition

What You Can Do Now

What is your best insurance against obsolescence? Change the way you do business. Forget the quick fix and pay attention to the fundamentals. Strengthen your relationships within your own organization and with your community, constituents, and volunteers.

Are you afraid your organization isn’t ready for change? The need for charitable contributions can be a powerful motivator.

Clearly, the major motivation for institutional change should be meeting community needs. But if this is too threatening, use the need for increased contributions to get your organization to evaluate itself. Start by evaluating your fund development. If you do this evaluation well, you will examine the four relationships that are essential to effective fund development.

Since charitable gifts are a powerful motivator, the fundraising executive is in a powerful position. There is no better position from which to encourage self-examination and challenge complacency. There is no position with more need to address organizational health than that of the fundraiser. The fundraiser in your organization must be very knowledgeable about the institution’s program and the community’s need. No individual should be better able to develop and foster the four relationships essential to institutional health and fund development. (Indeed, the best fundraising executive is an individual well positioned to become a chief executive. Conversely, service first as an executive director can make a great fundraiser.) ...