What the Fundraising

5Alignment Fundraising Strategy

For nearly 13 years, I fundraised in a completely scattered way, basically throwing spaghetti at the wall, praying something would stick so that we would meet our annual fundraising goal. As the managing director of a nonprofit that had just passed the million‐dollar mark, I was determined to expand our reach. Through excessive effort and primarily through diversified corporate sponsorships, our revenue grew to $1.7 million. Despite this success, we were still not getting a lot of funding from foundations. The board incessantly pressured me to increase these funds.

One afternoon, overwhelmed by my task list and bracing for an upcoming board meeting, a realization dawned on me. We were not aligned with most foundations. Our priorities, business model, and program designs were vastly different from what foundations in our issue area were seeking. This awareness marked the beginning of my understanding that Alignment Fundraising was a different methodology from what most organizations were practicing. I saw how essential it was to recognize and embrace our organization’s identity, and to find funders who shared our core beliefs and goals, and who appreciated the value our organization brought to the community and our partnership. From this perspective, it was clear that foundation funding—which in this particular instance primarily focused on scientific research—did not align with our organization’s long‐term goals or vision to provide virtual ungated ...