Have you ever felt like your organization’s fundraising is stuck in a rut or riding a roller coaster? Well, the truth is, you’re not alone. And the path to growth and fundraising can look very different. And I’m asking you to consider the path of growth as something that’s equally important to the rate or the amount of growth.
So let’s look at some common path for fundraising growth.
First. There’s the slog. This is the long and slow grind. Progress comes in tiny incremental steps. You might take two steps forward. One step back, one step forward, three steps back. But every dollar feels hard fought. And every year seems harder than the last year. Well, that is one particular path. Another common path is the spike. This is where you launch a big capital campaign or a special event and suddenly, well, fundraising is shooting up and it feels like a huge victory.
But what happens next is there’s a recovery period where it may dip and go lower than where the average effort might take you. So you get stuck wondering what’s the momentum? Or you have to up against that really big increase. That may happen only every few years. And the final way or path to growth is the staircase. So this approach is different because it’s all about making changes or additions that feel maybe small in the moment, but can have immediate or near immediate growth
And that growth is sustainable because you’re improving a process. The content, an offer, you’re making a substantial change, but not requiring a substantial amount of effort. It’s a change that punches above its weight. So each little victory builds on the last. And because of the lessons learned, you’re able to keep that momentum and it’s continual steady growth.
And over time, you’ll look back and see not just progress, but what why did it take so long to make some of those changes?
Here’s why the staircase approach is so effective. Not only does it sustain motivation for your donors, your staff, and yourself, but it also fosters a culture of success.
Those small, incremental wins are encouraging, and they don’t exhaust everyone with the effort they show your supporters. Their contribution matters, and it moves the needle and the mission forward one step at a time. So how do you start building a staircase of growth? Here’s three quick steps to get started. First, evaluate the status quo. What is the cost of not making these types of changes?
Review your communication touchpoints, the data trends and find areas in your process or your content, or your outreach where you can make significant impact. For example, if only one out of every ten new people that you meet are interested in continuing the conversation, what would you have to change to get that number to two out of ten, three out of ten, or possibly even five out of ten?
That’s the type of stair step increase we’re talking about. Second step is inspect what you expect. Track your effort. Not just the donors and dollars, but where is your time spent and where is that time most effective? And where are the time socks that take away your time from better opportunities? And then third, share your progress. Just like when you’re trying to lose weight, having a team around you for both accountability and support.
And believing you can do the challenge. Share what you’re up to and what you’re planning to do with your coworkers or peers and other organizations so they can both hold you accountable and support you. So remember that the small wins really matter, and over time, they stack up in a way that’s sustainable far more than the slog you’re going through every day or the spike that comes around every few years.
So keep climbing. And for more Mission Multiplier videos, visit wearefieldtrip.com/nonprofit.
