How to build relationships with the organizations for which you are fundraising

Most articles on donor relations focus on how organizations should engage their donors or donor organizers. However, today we’re flipping the script: How about looking at how donor organizers can best show up for the organizations they are supporting?

Let’s look at this from the point of view of the recipient organization.

All groups should love that you are raising money for them! Sure. But additionally, they may be seeking from you something like:

• Moral support; cheerleading.

• Deep respect for their vision and how they go about their work.

• Alignment about how to promote the organization to your friends and fellow donors.

• Understanding; flexibility.

• A good fit with their own donor organizing goals and their fundraising infrastructure and workflows.

In 2018, I reached out to an organization I highly admired and offered myself up as a volunteer organizer of grassroots donors that had yet to hear of this organization. (Let’s call it Organization A.) For about 6 months, I worked in collaboration with a lovely staffer who was open to trying this out. We raised some money. However, in the end, it was a poor match. Organization A was, at its core, an exclusive membership group of very high-end donors. Accordingly, it had a tiny fundraising staff that was set up to engage a couple hundred major/mega donors, but not thousands of smaller, grassroots donors. There was no avenue for my small-donor friends to gain membership, receive the newsletter, meet a staff member, or otherwise build a meaningful relationship with Organization A and stay connected.

Organization A and I shared moral support, deep respect, alignment, and flexibility. But where we fell short was on that last bullet point: “A good fit with their donor organizing goals and fundraising infrastructure and workflows.” So we parted ways - lots of love, no hard feelings! We had experimented and it hadn’t worked out. 

Shortly thereafter, I pivoted to doing donor organizing for (let’s call it) Organization B. This organization had a very similar mission to Organization A - but also a well-established love for and commitment to small, grassroots donors. It had a big enough fundraising staff to talk to grassroots donors; a flow for putting on house parties to recruit new donors and volunteers; a PowerPoint presentation we could use. At Organization B, I was much more successful as a donor organizer, and my donor friends enjoyed Organization B’s much juicier donor engagement.

All this is not to say that donor organizing experiments (a la Organization A) are never worth trying! We do not regret that six-month effort. But if your efforts to fundraise for something are falling flat, ask yourself: Does this organization really want to have grassroots donor organizers? Are we aligned? If you aren’t, consider moving along to an organization that is.

With that out of the way, let’s consider Right Relationship after you have settled on what you think might be the perfect fit.

Most of it boils down to: Be respectful, ask questions, and listen hard!

Some questions to consider asking to assess, build, and strengthen relationships:

• “What are some of your org’s most deeply held values? How does that impact how you go about your fundraising?”

• Example answer from the org: “We lift up the leadership of our staff and volunteers of color, without tokenizing them. We’d appreciate if you would do the same while you are fundraising for us. We’re happy to provide some guidance in a quick sheet and answer questions over email.”

• “How might we set up a fundraising process that is in full alignment with your own workflow?”

• Example answer from the org: “It would be great if you and your other donor organizer friends could attend our monthly training, where everything will be covered. We may not have the capacity to set up a separate training.”

• “How can I be of support to you communicating with individual donors that we bring to the organization?”

• Example answer from the org: “Give us a heads-up about any special donor gifts on the way that might be $1,000+; and maybe you could also introduce that donor to us via email.”

• “What have been some of your general challenges, frustrations, or limitations with donors or donor organizers? How could we do things differently, make your life easier?”

• Example answer: “A few donor organizers have asked us to send our executive director to speak at their fundraisers every time. We can’t always spare our ED. However, we can send an excellent alternate person who will be just as excellent at speaking to your audience. Or we can give you our PowerPoint which has some of our speakers on video and is designed for you to run from start to finish without requiring the direct presence of any of our staff.”

• Remember that particularly in recent years, many social justice and electoral organizations have had to lay off a hefty percentage of their fundraisers and other staff, owing to lack of funds. Thus, if you find yourself at times unable to receive support or answers from the org, be patient. They may love you as donor organizers but lack the capacity to deeply support you right now; and/or they trust you to solve and improvise on your own.

• “What would you like us to fundraise for?”

• Most orgs prefer unrestricted gifts. Others may be promoting a given fund at the moment. Go with their priority, if you can.

• “What would youlike us to emphasize when we talk about your org with potential donors? Is there anything we should steer clear of saying?”

• Example answer: “It’s core to our mission to educate donors not just how many voters we registered in a given year, but how we are building power for the long term, e.g. Achieving policy wins, building a bench, expanding a huge base in our state for future wins. We’d appreciate if you would talk about that with the donors you are organizing. It’s not as simple as ‘dollar per vote.’”

• Example answer: “We’re a nonpartisan, 501c3 organization. We need to ask you to refrain from writing about our org as a group that “wins elections;” that is a partisan statement and in this environment, could cause the IRS to challenge our tax status.”

• “How can we find out more about your organizational strategy and programs in order to answer those fellow donors who have a ton of detailed questions?...Without making this a burden on your organization.”

• Example answer: “We can send you a strategy memo and an annual report that we wrote up for someone else. These items answer most donors’ nitty-gritty questions.”

• “What kind of communication do you prefer? What are your boundaries?”

• Example answer: “I’m a phone person, I’d prefer a call, between 1-5 pm.”

Once you’ve found your organization(s), stick around for the long haul. They will truly appreciate that you have become a highly knowledgeable and valuable asset who can now train the others! In an era when some donors are panic-donating and all-too-quickly abandoning one cause for the next, you can be the steady source of ongoing support that your bestie organizational match feels it can always count on.

Readers: What would y’all add to this? How do you as a donor organizer show up in Right Relationship with a group? Email us!

Lisa Tracy has been jumping into causes since age 15, while growing up in Eastern Oregon. Most recently she served as the Western Regional Director of Donor Advising at Movement Voter Project. Lisa is an advisor to Donor Organizer Hub.