You Must Learn How to Run Your Nonprofit in a Way That Attracts Investment-Level Donors
I was speaking on a panel and a leader sent me this private message. I didn’t get a chance to answer him so I thought I’d do that here.
For context, we were discussing nonprofit’s need for greater amounts of general-operating income.
“Hi, Sherry - A question for later...I follow you on LinkedIn and saw recently you posted that many fundraisers do not know how to ask donors for unrestricted general operating support. Can you please elaborate and provide an example of what a successful request for general operating support looks like?”
Well, there’s so much wrapped up in a simple question like this. And, because I have very little context on this leader’s organization and experience, I can only make some assumptions based on what I hear from other leaders.
This is the phrase that caught my attention: “provide an example”
Why did it catch my attention?
Because there’s a paradigm shift that happens when leaders and their teams work with me.
They realize that shifting the majority of their funding to unrestricted support has way MORE to do with how you run your annual planning/budget and present your financial need and way LESS to do with what the letter/campaign/appeal/event looks like that might yield unrestricted dollars.
(This is the reason so many organization’s growth initiatives struggle to get off the ground. Cash flow is tight and they’re handcuffed by project-based funding.)
Read: No letter with special wording is going to be the magic sauce that provides a rain storm of gen-ops dollars.
Also Read: You must learn how to run your organization in a way that attracts investment-level donors who get it. They understand how important gen-ops dollars are and WANT to give them to you.
This is also why I only work with organizations for a minimum of 12 months.
Because sprint contracts are for one-off projects, a simple assessment, or creating a deliverable.
If you want to transform the way your organization approaches revenue generation, scale donations by 4X, and secure most of that in general-operating expenses…then we need to work together for at least 12 months.
The biggest lies the nonprofit sector has been told are:
“Fundraising is easy.”
“There’s a secret sauce.”
“You’ve just gotta be relational.”
No. If you’re going to put your organization on a completely different revenue path, that takes time.
If you want to start ATTRACTING donors who can fund this different revenue path (gen-ops), that takes money.
My job is to give you a solution that gets you results. No letter or quick fix will do this. If you need a real solution 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.
