My Biggest Competitor? Inaction

Nonprofit GrowthDevelopment
Written By Sherry Quam Taylor

My biggest competitor?

 

Inaction.

 

Just trying harder. Or, hoping THIS will be the year something clicks.

 

I talk to lots of Executive Directors who want to grow revenue and diversify funding. They want to consistently raise to their aspirational budgets. They really need more gen-ops dollars. 

 

But, then…

  • The board said no.

  • The timing isn’t right.

  • It’s not in the budget.

  • It feels risky.

From my point of view? If you do the work, it's not that risky.

 

I find there’s a minimum of at least 25-40% of revenue just sitting on the table from existing donors. So, If your org raises $2M each year…that’s $500-800K just sitting there often because your team doesn’t really know how to solicit individual donors for a larger gift. Or they're spending time on the wrong activities that actually prevent donors from giving their best gift annually.

 

That minimum well covers the investment for my services.…but don’t take too much offense.

 

You see, my business has a similar sales cycle as some major donors…decisions take time. Typically 6-24 months. And often it should take that long for relationships to strengthen.

 

Lots of my current clients are ‘circle-backs’ from 2-3 years ago.

 

But, what hurts my heart in this scenario? When I hop on that same leader’s Form 990 three years later and they are raising the SAME amount of money. That’s what I struggle with.

 

That’s the cost of inaction.

Are you ready to take action as we head into 2027? You can do that here.

Whenever you’re ready to take action, there are THREE things you can do next:

👣 Follow me on LinkedIn where I share insider fundraising info daily — the same lessons I teach my clients through my consultancy about securing larger major gifts and diversifying revenue.

🍎 Get Resources + White Papers — download robust resources you can use to push against the nonprofits sector’s scarcity mindset, equip your board, and shift your entire team into high-ROI fundraising.

📈 Work with me to fully-fund your nonprofit organization’s strategic plan and aspirational budget. If you’re a business-minded nonprofit CEO or Executive Director with big growth plans but need to make charitable revenue from relational 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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Nonprofit Leaders: Tapping Your Line of Credit Every Year? Look at Your Fundraising Model