Subject: Help! How do I.........
I am a volunteer and work with our fundraiser, mainly doing fundraising research. Our fundraiser is in a meeting next month, while we are having our volunteers coffee morning which leaves me to do a brief talk about fundraising, how we do it and why. I thought I'd open by introducing basic fundraising information, i.e. defining a project, costing etc. then moving quickly on to (and over) researching Trusts and grant giving foundations.
Then I want to find a way to involve all the volunteers in fundraising, from asking them for ideas for fundraising events to keeping a weather eye to the press to see if local companies are donating money for particular types of projects. Anyone got any ideas of how I can pitch this without terrifying the group? I'd be grateful for any suggestions. The meeting is at the beginning of September so it is very short notice too!!
This comment was last edited on Feb 12, 2010
hi glynisrose
I hope the presentation went well? I am very intrigued by your question. It seemed that you had a need to balance on the one hand getting support for your fundraising while at the same not conveying a message that wouldn't put off the audience.
Though September has long passed, I though I would add my thoughts as there might be other people with the same challenge.
Working through this challenge from a creative viewpoint, I would assume that your challenge could be reframed as "In what ways can I gently convey the need for fundraising support". I would suggest seeing this challenge from a different view such as a physiotherapy nurse who needs to gently guide a patient to exercise a poorly injured knee. The nurse cannot make the knee better, that's down to the patient, yet she needs to instil a sense of motivation and practical advice to get the knee better.
So, using this analogy, you could:
Explain to the audience the structure of the problem area (like a nurse would do to explain the bone and muscle structure of the knee. This could be done by showing the audience the interrelated parts of your fundraising challenge and how they work together.
A nurse would also demonstrate the movement of the parts by gently getting the patient to go through the exercises. With your audience, a tour of your projects would satisfy this and given your rich explanation of the structure of the need to fundraise, they will be more engaged and motivated.
Lastly, working through the exercises progressively which a nurse would do with the patient is the key to driving the motivation. In a presentation, one could split the audience into pairs or trios and conduct a stakeholder analysis.
By taking this approach, you have set the scene, demonstrated the need and enabled the audience to increase their motivation levels as they see at first hand how they can benefit the cause.
I hope this helps. I'm a creative problem solving facilitator with over eight years experience in fundraising so I enjoy rethinking ways of overcoming fundraising challenges.
I hope all went well? It would be good to know what approach you took.
Jensen Calleemootoo
Founder of LIFE Fundraising
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