SolveYourProblem
eBusiness Series:
Fundraising
Essentials For Your Non-Profit:
How To Raise All The Money You Want
( 34 pages )
Marketing
Questions When Targeting Donors
As you target
donors, keep asking yourself a few marketing questions:
- Where can I
find people who are interested in the issue our non-profit
is furthering?
- What do people interested in
our issue read? Where do they go? What groups do they belong
to?
- What sort of person is so likely
to be interested in our groups’ issue that they will be
willing to help our non-profit financially?
- What companies in my area have
contributed to similar non-profit groups in the past?
- What sort of fundraising effort
would be most likely to draw the people who are most likely
to be interested in out group’s mandate?
- Are there government agencies
or philanthropic agencies that tend to give money for causes
that are similar to our group’s mandate?
Targeting your
donors at first may seem to be only a way of narrowing down
your choices, as you are basically trying to attract only
a smaller percentage of people to your cause. However, if
your group only has limited resources (and this is true for
many starting or small non-profits) then targeting your donors
by choosing to ask those donors can help you get the best
results possible in the shortest period of time.
Think of it as
making educated guesses about who can help. The idea is not
to ask only those who are most likely to help, but rather
to focus on specific groups of people before expanding out
to other donors.
Once you have
targeted specific groups on donors, you may wish to expand
and seek help and support from donors that seem less likely
to be interested in your group’s cause. In some cases, you
may be pleasantly surprised to find unlikely donors who are
willing to help you raise money.
For example, across
North America, there are motorcycle enthusiasts who regularly
take part in a “teddy bear” drive around Christmas in order
to raise money for children who might not otherwise have
a holiday. Many people are surprised to see gruff-looking
biker enthusiasts carrying teddy bears on their Harley Davidson’s
for charity, but this is exactly what happens each year.
Your group needs
to be careful not to overlook sources of donations and fundraising
money simply because you have a preset notion of what people
would or would not support your group. Sometimes, fundraising
money comes from unlikely sources and it is often a good
idea to contact some unlikely groups to see whether in fact
they may be ardent supporters of your cause.
How much time
and effort you spend trying to contact donors outside your
targeted donor group will depend on many factors, including
how much time and effort you have for such campaigns and
it will depend on how much money you have been able to raise
through more targeted fundraising. If you have been able
to raise all the fundraising money you need through targeted
donor hunting, you may simply not need to expand your list
of donors too much and instead of trying to find new sources
for money you may want to direct your efforts to fulfilling
your group’s mission.
If, on the other
hand, you find that you require more money and have had smaller
success with targeted donors (because, for example, a group
with a similar mandate has also been fundraising your area)
then expanding your list of potential donors may be one way
to get more money for your non-profit.
 
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