Missteps in Nonprofit Fundraising

Nonprofit GrowthDevelopment
Written By Sherry Quam Taylor
Image of scrabble letter tiles that say "Learn From Failures" symbolizing the missteps in nonprofit fundraising and how fundraisers can make a shift to relationship-building activities

Here’s one misstep I see fundraisers make all too often. 

It’s automatically shifting into transactional fundraising when the opportunity for relationship-building exists. 

 

What do I mean? Here are a few examples:

 

Truth: Some Foundations like to make multi-year commitments.

Misstep: Asking Individuals for a multi-year commitment before you’ve worked up to their best gift.

 

Truth: Some Corporations like to sponsor events to receive awareness/promotions.

Misstep: Asking Foundations or Major Donors to sponsor events is a wasted relationship opportunity.

 

Truth: Some Foundations like to give toward restricted projects via proposals.

Misstep: Not equipping your team how to lead Individuals through investment-level conversations forces them to default to restricted project proposals.

 

Here’s the bottom line: 

Donors NEVER give their best gift as a result of transactional fundraising activities. Automatically assuming things like multi-year commitments and sponsorships for donors who would have a relationship with you is leaving hundreds of thousands of dollars on the table.

 

Your goal? To build relationships with corporations, foundations, and individuals and eventually lead them to a one-on-one ask. 

 

I know. That’s not what the sector has told us to do.

 

But, the sector’s age-old traditional fundraising activities don’t work.

 

Old keys don’t open new doors. If you're ready to hold new keys in your hand you can apply to work with me here.

Whenever you’re ready, here are THREE things you can do next:

👣 Follow me on LinkedIn where I share insider info daily — the same lessons I teach my clients about attracting larger gen-ops dollars and diversifying revenue. 

🍎 Grab FREE Guides + White Papers — download robust resources you can use to push against the sector’s misconceptions, equip your board, and shift your team into High-ROI fundraising.

📈 Work with me to diversify revenue & secure the gen-ops gifts you need to grow. If you’re a business-minded nonprofit CEO with big growth plans but need to make charitable revenue from investment-level donors a bigger part of your budget, you can apply to work with me here.

Sherry Quam Taylor

Sherry Quam Taylor works with business-minded Nonprofit CEOs whose Strategic Plans require expansive budgets and larger amounts of general-operating revenue for growth. To become investment-level ready, Sherry helps leaders see their revenue potential and helps them see what may be blocking donors from giving in this way. Sherry’s clients know how to attract larger donors by solving the funding challenges at the root of the issue.

As a result of learning her methodology, Sherry’s clients become sustainable, diversify revenue, and know how to add significant amounts gen-ops revenue to their budgets. But mostly, their development departments and board have transformed into high-ROI revenue generators – aligning their hours with relational dollars and set free from the limitations of transactional fundraising.

Sherry attributes the success of her business to her passion for modeling radical confidence to the future CEOs in her house - her two college-aged daughters.

https://www.QuamTaylor.com
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