Below are some of the most common fundraising mistakes that you need to avoid for you to compete well.
- Failing to build relationships with donors
Nonprofits are all about finding people and building relationships with them as they can be donors. Therefore, establish a relationship with your donor base by always communicating with them and thanking them for their effort towards a particular cause. For the first time donors, thank them for their contributions and inform them of the part they play for the success of the nonprofit. Call as many donors as possible periodically and thank them regardless of the amount of contribution they give. Always show them how much you appreciate their effort on your organization’s social media pages. Failing to do this will drive your donors away and starve your nonprofit.
- Failure to plan and implement them
When it comes to fundraising, many nonprofits create ideas that they expect to succeed but fail to plan or implement these ideas properly. As such, even the most grandiose ideas end up failing due to a lack of adequate planning. Therefore, you should always plan your ideas if they are to be a success. Planning is crucial as they ensure that all goals and objectives are properly outlined, and strategic checkpoints that ensure that you fundraise well are met.
- Failure to measure nonprofit’s social impact
Every nonprofit must be able to understand whether they are making a difference in society or not. For them to achieve this, they must invest time and resources that will allow them to change their target society over time and tools to measure their performance. Sadly, not all nonprofits realize the importance of measuring their impact on society as most of them focus on raising funds for specific causes or do not know about it. Investing in measurements of such allows data to be gathered and feedback regarding the nonprofit to be obtained. This will attract and retain donors. Measuring the social impact of a nonprofit allows new donors to know if the organization they are donating to is reputable or not.
- Overpromising and under-delivering
Most nonprofits promise the best but end up delivering below the expectations. As a leader of a nonprofit, promise only things that you can deliver. With consistency comes credibility, and therefore, you need to be realistic in whatever you promise donors and other stakeholders. Always remain realistic and honest and work hard to meet the expectations of stakeholders or even work hard to deliver beyond their expectations.
- Focusing only on donor money
It is never a debate that the primary goal of any nonprofit is to raise money for a specific cause. While you should let this known to everyone, sending fundraising solicitations to donors all the time with nothing else can strain your relationship with them. Doing this can give an impression to the donors that they are nothing more than “cash cows,” even if they know they give their donations out of their generous hearts. As a leader, ensure that the donors are partial owners of the great work you do and communicate with them on many other issues regarding your outreach. Share your success stories and send them thank you notes often to show them how much they are valued.
