Today we are releasing the Relational Fundraising Playbook with an accompanying article in the Chronicle of Philanthropy.
The playbook outlines a new approach to online fundraising that we call Relational Fundraising at Scale (more on this below). In essence, it aims to make every donor feel like a million bucks! You can download the full playbook for free below.
Nonprofit organizations regularly live with a high level of uncertainty and financial stress. However, nothing in the history of our civil society rivals this moment when federal grants are being frozen and canceled without warning. Thousands of nonprofit organizations are reeling from the loss of grant funds that were a fundamental part of their budgets. The Urban Institute estimates that 67% of nonprofits are at great financial risk with the loss of federal grants.
Many nonprofits will now turn to everyday donors, people giving less than $500, to try and make up for the shortfall. Asking a lot of people for money online is easy. However, doing it well to create a sustainable revenue stream isn’t. That is why we created this playbook.
This work is based on content we developed for a bootcamp we facilitated last summer with nine smaller organizations. We are grateful for the input, guidance and wisdom of Dana Britto, Beth Kanter and Rhea Wong for their contributions to this work. We are also appreciative of the Fidelity Charitable Catalyst Fund’s support of this work.
Relational fundraising is an opportunity to be in conversation with donors and treat every donor as an individual with their own unique strengths, gifts, social networks and, of course, financial capital to contribute. It is only possible at scale because of digital tech to segment donors but also the smart, responsible and strategic use of AI to customize stories and messages.
The playbook provides concrete ideas for beginning to become more relational with your donors. Some of the ideas, like creating a campaign specifically aimed at asking donors to become monthly donors, you can implement today on Every.org. Others, like using AI to help segment your donor lists, require outside help.
You can use your Every.org account to create campaigns on our platform, focus on gaining more monthly donors, and have your ambassadors create their own campaigns on your behalf today. And we are building more functionality on the Every.org platform to help you become better storytellers and create matching campaigns instantly. We will keep you informed when we have new features.
Relational fundraising takes time to do well. Time talking to donors. Asking them how they feel and what they want. Time crafting great stories to tell (with which generative AI can help.) Time that will feel better doing things that are more aligned with your organization’s values. However, getting off the hamster wheel, focusing on storytelling rather than constantly asking for donations and learning to use AI well will free up time to be in conversation with current and potential donors.
Yes, you will need to prospect for new donors, and yes, you will need to ask for donations, but this approach will get you off the frantic, hamster wheel of transactional fundraising and save you money by reducing the number of mailings and emails you send. The ultimate goal is to enable you to connect on a more human level with your donors in order to increase your donor retention rates.
Thank you for everything you are doing to make the world safer, healthier, and more joyful. Please email me at allison@every.org if you have any questions.
Best,
Allison