6 Common Symptoms of a Nonprofit Organization with a Shared Fundraising & Marketing/Communications Position
Did you listen to my new interview on Tony Martignetti's Nonprofit Radio? We did a deep dive on one of my favorite topics: The struggle with combined Fundraising and Marketing/Communication positions.
At about the 11:15 mark Tony asked me to walk through some of the symptoms that tell me an organization might want to reconsider this combined role.
Here are some of the symptoms I see:
1. Overall charitable revenue isn’t growing as quickly as you’d like
2. Heavy reliance on ONE thing like grants, events, earned revenue, or gov $
3. Too many restricted dollars coming in & too little flexible gen-ops dollars
4. Single-source decision maker (individuals, family foundations, private businesses) dollars aren’t constantly growing outside of events and appeals
5. Very few hours left in the week to actually do relational fundraising
6. Boards focused on transactional fundraising activities that are really grassroots or marketing - centric
All of these symptoms tie to a broken funding model and an improper allocation of hours to dollars.
The symptoms also tell me the organization likely hasn’t properly invested in their fundraising staff. Too often, teams are simply doing the wrong things.
You know, like the staff does ok in some areas…but when it comes to securing large, general-operating gifts, they kinda don’t know what they don’t know. They’re busy on deadlines doing what the sector tells them fundraising is; appeals, events, campaigns, etc. (These activities should only be 25% of your org’s charitable revenue.)
The other 75%? Those dollars should result from deep relationships with investment-level donors. Those Single-source-decision-makers that WANT to give you larger, gen-ops gifts. I’m serious.
I see it all the time. If your lead fundraiser has a combined role of fundraising and marketing/communications AND they don’t have proper training...the time-consuming and deadline driven activities that yield the 25% will always take precedence over relational fundraising that should yield 75%.
Full stop.
And, this is why you won't want to miss this month's Nonprofit Radio Show! Take a listen and let me know what questions you have.
Whenever you’re ready, here are THREE things you can do next:
👣 Follow me on LinkedIn where I share the same lessons I teach my clients about attracting larger gen-ops dollars and adding 7-figures + to their bottom line.
🍎 Read my GUIDE! THE TRUTH ABOUT GIVE/GETS :: Top 5 Reasons Your Board’s Give/Get Is Leaving Thousands (Sometimes Millions) on the Table. See how limiting board members to the Give/Get model restricts gifts and keeps your staff from reaching their full fundraising potential. Here to get it.
📈 Work with me to scale your org's revenue by 2-5X and fund your organization’s Strategic Plan // If you’re a business-minded CEO already raising MILLIONS but need to diversify revenue and secure more general-operating dollars to invest in growth, you can apply to work with me here.
