Full list of resources

Here is your one-stop shop for explainers, templates, and lists on how to get started in your donor organizer journey!

How Does Fundraising = Activism?

We focus on organizing donors who don’t consider themselves in the major donor “class.” We believe that means you! Fundraising is organizing and anyone can do it.

We think that the resources below will answer many of your questions and inspire you!

Whats and Whys of Political Donations

• 5 Facts about U.S. Political Donations (credit: Pew Research)

• 10 Reasons Why Donors Give (credit: Bluem Ventures)

• Why Give to Politics?

Whats and Whys of Donor Organizing

• Who is a Donor Organizer?

• From Caring to Doing: Why Donor Organizing?

• The Movement’s Invisible Army (it’s volunteer donor organizers) (credit: Bluem Ventures)

• A Volunteer Fundraiser’s Journey from Anxiety to Action (credit: Vera Sandronsky)

• Viva La Causa: Fundraising Lessons from the United Farm Workers Movement (credit: Rona Fernandez, Grassroots Fundraising Journal)

Impact of Your Influence and Asks

• 3 Min Video: You Have More Influence Than You Think (credit: Vanessa Bohns, Cornell social psychologist that studies help-seeking and social influence)

• Anyone Can Be a Relational Fundraiser (credit: Bluem Ventures)

• Why Volunteers Make the Best Fundraisers (credit: Andy Robinson, Grassroots Fundraising Journal)

Why Focus on the Middle Class?

• Why Focus on Middle Class Fundraising Volunteers?

Get Started Now

You know that donor organizing can be the most impactful work you can do as a volunteer. Here are resources to help you get the groundwork set up.

Reflect on Your Relationship with Money

• Your History with Money Exercise

• Class Distinctions (credit: Resource Generation)

Decide What to Raise For

• From Decision Fatigue to Confident Choice

• Common Types of Organizations for Political Giving (credit: Resource Generation Action)

Craft Your Story/Pitch

• Template: Story of Self, Story of Us, Story of Now

Build Your List & Track Your Progress

• List Builder Exercise

• List Builder Template

Donation Logistics

• Ways People Can Donate

• Create ActBlue fundraising page (this allows you to track who has donated, when, and how much)

Gratitude Practice

• Personalizing Your Gratitude Practice

• Two Magic Words (credit: Grassroots Fundraising Journal Archive)

Fundraising Tactics

You’re ready to raise some funds for a cause you care about! Below provides common tactics that volunteers raise funds, trade-offs for each tactic, and resources to support those tactics.

Overview of Fundraising Tactics

• 10 Fundraising Tips (credit: Jeff Blum, All In for North Carolina)

• Tactics: Overview and Tradeoffs

• Finding Your Inner Fundraiser: A Self-Assessment Tool (credit: Kim Klein and Stephanie Roth, Grassroots Fundraising Journal)

• Some Easy Ways to Raise More Money for Our Work

• Fundraising Guide (credit: Seed the Vote)

• Climate Mobilization Volunteer Orientation

Direct Asks

• Getting Over the Fear of Asking (credit: Kim Klein, Grassroots Fundraising Journal)

• Resourcing Fundraising as Part of Supporting and Building Community (credit: Susan Raffo, Grassroots Fundraising Journal)

• Visit a Donor - Not an ATM (credit: Stephanie Roth, Grassroots Fundraising Journal)

House Parties

• House Meeting Handbook (credit: Leading Change Network)

• Sample Invitations, Polls, and Thank Yous (credit: Flip the Vote)

• Hosting a House Party Guide (credit: Flip the Vote)

• Host a House Party Resources (credit: Movement Voter Project)

• House Party Toolkit (credit: Walk the Walk USA)

Community Events

• Event Planning Checklist (credit: Jody Lerner, Neighbors for Progressive Action)

• Fundraising Event Toolkit (credit: Walk the Walk USA)

Email + Social Media

• Email +Social Media Tips

• Email + Social Media Outreach Templates

• Welcoming Your Friends’ Friends (credit: Nzinga Koné-Miller, Grassroots Fundraising Journal)

Build a Fundraising Team

Teamwork makes the dreamwork! But how does one make a team? This page offers a 5-step process to start a team, an overview of common donor organizing team models for volunteers, and resources and activities for team support and reflection.

5 Steps to Start a Team

Overview of 5 Steps

1. Identify Your People

• Exercise & Template

2. Define Your Why

• Exercise

3. Make Asks

• Primer on One on Ones (credit: Montgomery Education Association)

• Primer on Efficacy

4. Host a Kickoff

• Agenda Checklist

5. Provide Support & Community

• Training & Gathering Ideas

Common Team Models

How do we make decisions and work together?

Models: Overview and Tradeoffs

Giving Circles

• Giving Circle Resource Library (credit: Philanthropy Together)

Peer-to-Peer Fundraising Programs

• Peer-to-Peer Fundraising Overview: Tools, Recruitment, Goal Setting, Planning

• Peer-to-Peer Fundraising Guide (credit: Showing Up for Racial Justice)

Team Support and Reflection

How to we build our team, develop an engagement ladder, and ensure that we incorporate our learnings into future efforts?

Get Started

• Resources to Design, Launch, and Support Teams (credit: PowerLabs)

• Team Charter Template (credit: PowerLabs)

Build a Member Engagement Ladder

• Empathy Map and Journey Map Templates (credit: PowerLabs)

Build Community

• Combatting Time Scarcity with Community

Group Exercises

• Who Do You Know? Exercise (credit: Sha Grogan-Brown, Grassroots Fundraising Journal)

• Recruitment & Retention Idea Generation Exercise

• Asking for a Major Gift: A Team Training Exercise (credit: Priscilla Hung, Grassroots Fundraising Journal)

Reflect on Learnings

• Retrospective Templates: Before Action and After Action Reviews, Sailboat, 4L (credit: PowerLabs)

• The Power of Reflection to Develop Long-Term Motivation and Capacities (credit: PowerLabs)

Stay as a Ragtag Group vs. Become a Formalized Organization

• When Everyone is a Volunteer (credit: Kim Klein, Grassroots Fundraising Journal)

• Is Fiscal Sponsorship Right for You? (credit: Priscilla Hung, Grassroots Fundraising Journal)

• No Staff? No c3 Status? No Problem! (credit: Kaytee Riek, Grassroots Fundraising Journal)

Experienced Tips & Tricks

This isn’t your first rodeo with donor organizing, and you know that being a donor organizer means a journey of lifelong learning! Here are some templates, articles, and resources to continue honing your craft.

Make the Case for Early Giving

• Why Early + Sustained Giving? (credit: Movement Voter Project)

• By Memorial Day, your political gifts lose half their value (credit: Bluem Ventures)

Build a Fundraising Plan

• Fundraising Plan Template

Donor Privacy

• Allow Users to Not Share their Emails on ActBlue

• Steps to Shut Down Un-Permissioned Emails (credit: Ethical Email)

Donor Best Practices

• Best and Worst Donor Practices (credit: Resource Generation)

Tech Tools

• Streak: Free Gmail integration for mail merge; allows up to 50 sends per day free

Donor Prospecting and Cultivation

• Recruit New Donors

• Free Donor Research Tools

• Prospect Identification: You Already Know All the People You Need to Know to Raise All the Money You Want to Raise (credit: Kim Klein, Grassroots Fundraising Journal)

• Using Surveys to Strengthen Donor Relationships (credit: Stephanie Roth, Grassroots Fundraising Journal)

Donor Stewardship, Anchoring and Upgrade Asks

• Build a Donor Engagement Ladder

• Primer on Donor Meetings (credit: Kim Klein, Grassroots Fundraising Journal)

• Back to Basics: How to Build Relationships that Last (credit: Kim Klein, Grassroots Fundraising Journal)

• Nurturing Relationships Today and for Years to Come (credit: Kevin Johnson, Grassroots Fundraising Journal)

• Building Authenticity in Major Donor Relationships (credit: Tanya Mote, Grassroots Fundraising Journal)

• The Spirituality of Fundraising (credit: Henri Nouwen)

Donor Segmentation

• How to Make a Donor Pyramid

• Reframe the donor pyramid. Don’t rebuild it. (credit: Sea Change Strategies)

Recurring/Sustaining Donors Program

• Building People-Powered Organizations through Sustainership (credit: Kristin Campbell and Allison Budschalow, Grassroots Fundraising Journal)

• Sustainer Best Practices: Top 11 Tips (credit: Resource Organizing Project)

• Sustainer Program Planning Template (credit: Resource Organizing Project)

Donor-Advised Funds (DAFs) and Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs)

• DAF and IRA Giving Primer

• Donor-Advised Funds: A Tool for Redistribution or a Vehicle for Wealth Hoarding? (credit: Resource Generation)

• #HalfMyDAF Instructions for Donors (credit: #HalfMyDAF)

Donor Surveys

• 2022 Political Donor Survey Debrief by Donor Organizer Hub and Blue Tent

Treasure Troves of Resources

• Blue Tent: donor advisory site that provides recommendations grounded in research and due diligence to build an inclusive and enduring progressive majority

• Bolder Advocacy: free hotline and resource library on nonprofit advocacy and compliance

• Grassroots Fundraising Journal Archive: journal for social change fundraisers on creative ways to raise money in alignment with their mission and values

• M+R Benchmarks: benchmark data on results from emails, SMS texts, social media posts, and website visits from hundreds of nonprofits