Stewardship is building the trust and confidence of current donors that your organization is worth continuing their support and deepening their involvement each year. Annual reports are the traditional way; authentic conversations, sharing important news, involving a donor as an advisor, volunteer, or to solve a problem for the organization are excellent stewardship strategies. What is an annual campaign? The series of fundraising activities your organization implements each year to secure new donors, renew and increase gifts from donors is an annual campaign. The ‘campaign’ requires structure, timeline and leadership for successfully completing the activities and achieving goals. What is philanthropy? Philanthropy is voluntary action and giving to advance the common good. Root meaning is love of humanity. What is a philanthropist? Not necessarily foundation staff or trustees, nor the wealthiest people who give money away. Think of all kinds of people who volunteer a significant part of their time to a cause, people of all means who give a % of their annual income to improve communities, society, the environment. Think of yourself. Self-Reflections on Money & Your Role in Fundraising Review & highlight which questions are most relevant to you. How confident am I in discussing money? (For example: discussing the organizational financial picture, how much it costs to support the various elements of the work) How comfortable am I asking for money? What barriers stop me from asking?
organizations, or both, they are inherently political and their politics are not muted in their philosophy about how to resource the work they do. And, who they are and what they believe specifically informs how they approach fundraising from individuals. “I encourage other organizations and leaders to feel a confidence and a comfort in focusing on what you do and how you do it and to trust that that will connect you with other likeminded people.” --Bright Spot Organizational Leader Reflection: How is fundraising viewed and understood in our organization? How can fundraising relate to our organizational identity & values about how we do our work? Example: Breast Cancer Action www.bcaction.org For 26 years, we’ve been the watchdog of the breast cancer movement. We believe that women’s health and patient interests must always come before corporate profits. We’re fiercely independent and have a strict conflict of interest policy, which means we cannot be bought or influenced by the powerful industries we’re up against. We refuse corporate funding from any company that profits from or contributes to breast cancer: pharma, chemical, health insurance, etc. – the kind of corporate funding that funds most other breast cancer organizations. We rely on our grassroots network – people like you – to support our work, and nearly 75% of our funding comes from individuals. One important way Breast Cancer Action members support our education and activism for women’s health is to raise money to fund this work. Members have lots of creative ways to mobilize their community’s support for our activism, from bike rides to knitting parties, online fundraising pages, house parties, and more. If you’re interested in supporting our work by hosting a fundraiser of your own, 2. Fundraising is Distributed Broadly across Staff, Board, and Volunteers The majority of the people we interviewed from each Bright Spot organization did not have development in their title. Among these organizations, there is a remarkable distribution of fundraising across staff, board, and volunteers. Whereas many