[BOOK REVIEW] Truly great fundraising needs a great organization … here’s how to create that

Great Fundraising Organizations: Why and How the World’s Best Charities Excel at Raising Money by Alan Clayton

Why is fundraising difficult?

Too much competition?

Not enough attention?

The increasing costs of paper and postage?

Shifts in demographics and psychographics?

Sure, all of those things. And more.

But there’s one big reason that overshadows all of those things:

The problem: The culture and leadership of your organization.

I say “your organization” because the same set of organizational problems hobble virtually all nonprofits to some extent.

Those organizations that overcome these problems universally see explosive growth in their fundraising revenue.

Here’s the problem you need to overcome: In simple terms, your organization exists to solve a problem. You are staffed largely by professionals in putting solutions to work. Your culture and structure are maximized for solutions. So far, so good.

Here’s the hard part: You need outside revenue from donors to enact your solutions. That means you need to raise funds.

And effective fundraising is not about the solution that your organization is about. It’s about the problem you solve. And how the donor can help solve it.

Fundraising that works is not about the excellence of your organization. Or the uniqueness and elegance of your solutions. Or the professionalism of your staff. Those things are critical to your accomplishing your mission. But not the focus of effective fundraising.

As you can see, this is a foundational, built-in challenge for pretty much any nonprofit. You are in two businesses. The businesses are radically different in philosophy and competencies. As Clayton says, “Fundraising sells the problem; the rest of the organization sells the solution.”

And, in most cases, the “solutions” people are in charge. They want public-facing communications (fundraising) to be about the stuff they care most about — solutions. As Clayton says:

…[They] think it is the good endings that get you the money, but it is not. It is the bad ending. You may have a thousand stories with good endings that show how excellent your nonprofit is at saving lives, but from a fundraising perspective, these are a thousand reasons why you do not need more money. The reason you need more money is the story with a bad ending. That is the person your nonprofit could not reach at the current capacity, and that is why you need donations – to save others like them.

It also brings out uninformed opinions about how fundraising “should” be. Which brings up one of the more useful acronyms I’ve come across in a long time: ALOOFs: Amateurs with a Lot of Opinions on Fundraising.

They can really squish your fundraising. And they routinely do.

And that’s why you should read this amazing new book. It includes a roadmap for organizational change. Any organization with the will to do so can do this and unlock a lot of revenue from donors who are suddenly excited and connected because they see they are part of making the world a better place — not just a small funding source for someone who is making the world a better place.

This book is based on decades of real-life experience: Incredible success where change allowed fundraising revenue to skyrocket. Painful failures where culture caused great organizations to limp along, or even fail.

You can be an amazing fundraiser. With all the techniques and strategies down-pat. But if you are with an organization that culturally doesn’t get fundraising, you will never fully succeed.

Sadly, that’s the case for so many of us.

This book just may have the solution.