Blog 2 1024x768 1

Book Review: How Your Organization Can Achieve Greatness

No Comments

Great Fundraising Organizations: Why and How the World’s Best Charities Excel at Raising Money by Alan Clayton

GreatFundraisingOrganizations coverA few years back, I worked with a nonprofit client, a large organization that you may have heard of, writing direct mail and other projects for their fundraising.

Nice, smart, interesting people.

But a real pain in the rear to work with.

Just about every project we did for them came back with some variation of the comment, “This fails to adequately explain how our programs work.”

My answer won’t surprise you: I argued that explaining the complexity of their programs was not good fundraising … that donors are interested in making outcomes happen, not in funding processes, no matter how excellent those processes.

They didn’t agree. Their processes were important. Too important to simplify.

On top of that, they really hated the emotional approach to fundraising. They thought it was manipulative and dishonest. As Clayton puts it, they see emotions as something that can “cloud judgment and drive hasty decisions, and they need rational, evidence-based, and precise decision-making to do their job well.”

So we would go back and forth around a few times, ending at some kind of compromise, usually an unsatisfying one.

Their fundraising on the whole was doing okay: Not great, but good enough to meet their realistic goals. The problem was that the organization had a HUGE mission. As good as their work was, they were miles away from achieving what they existed to do.

That is why the relationship with that organization eventually ended. We simply couldn’t get them over a revenue wall. Couldn’t bring in enough new donors, couldn’t get best-in-class retention of the donors they had.

At the time, I explained it to myself by saying they just didn’t “get” fundraising. I figured they just needed to hire people with more fundraising experience who would value simple and emotional messaging.

I now realize I was only half right about that, thanks to Alan Clayton’s foundational book.

He makes the point that probably should have been obvious to everyone all along: the reason so many nonprofits are not good at fundraising is not because they lack competence. It’s because their culture virtually outlaws effective fundraising.

The problem for so many organizations that struggle to raise funds is baked in to the culture. You can’t teach them to be better at fundraising, because what makes fundraising work runs against everyone’s basic beliefs and assumptions.

Here’s how Clayton puts it:

Most fundraising organizations believe they are one business with one mission. This mission is usually the reason they were established.

But … fundraising organizations have a second business: one that is focused on their donors. It’s the business of meeting a donor’s basic need to give…. Great Fundraising Organizations recognize they are two businesses in one, united by a common mission. One business is meeting the needs of their service users, and the other is meeting the needs of their donors.

Most organizations are founded, led, and staffed by people focused on the first business. Clayton describes them as “amazing people: very driven, very loyal, and highly ethical.” They have technical training and a scientific approach. As they should – these are qualities that make them successful in accomplishing their mission.

The problem is those qualities almost automatically lead to ineffective fundraising. You need a different kind of people to do the best fundraising.

Clayton describes fundraisers as “ambitious achievers” who work with emotions and strive to simplify everything.

Two different cultures.

Antithetical in their basic assumptions and approaches. Both of them are absolutely necessary for a successful organization that pursues its cause and raises funds to make it possible.

Once you realize this, you can see why this is so difficult.

Bringing two different cultures together for a common purpose – and encouraging both to be excellent – that’s a huge challenge.

In fact, it has become clear to me that almost all nonprofit organizations struggle with this basic challenge: They are in two different businesses (their programs and their fundraising), but they are only staffed for one of them.

This is why the nonprofit sector is a fraction of the size, scope, and impact that it should be – that the world needs it to be. It’s why so many organizations are trapped in the financial doldrums. They have big dreams and goals, but no realistic path to achieve them.

But there’s hope. It’s not easy. But it’s possible to turn any nonprofit into a successful two-business organization that succeeds at both.

And that hope is in this book.

Clayton describes the steps you must go through to understand and embrace both businesses and bring them into alignment.

And that can lead to explosive, accelerated growth.

The book has the case studies to show that it can and has happened.

Page 12 has a stunning grid of 16 bar charts. They show the 5-to-7-year income growth of Great Fundraising Organizations. The “weakest” of them grew 30%. Most grew 100% or more, including one that grew 1,875% in four years!

The book gives the prescription for change. Any organization that has the will and the leadership for change can do it.

I hope more will. We need Great Fundraising Organizations. (And I want to work with them!)

If you are a leader, you really must read this book. If you are somewhere in the middle of your org-chart, read it and do you very best to push it upstairs.

Your cause deserves a chance to seize the opportunity. The world needs it.

There’s a powerful fundraising tool that builds meaningful relationships with donors, helps you find the hidden gold in your file, and immediately boosts revenue. Have you tried our unique Donor Survey? It’s easier than you think! Find out more from our e-guide, 5 Easy Steps to Your Game-Changing Donor Survey. Free!

Related Blog Posts:

Author

  • Jeff Brooks

    Jeff Brooks is a Fundraisingologist at Moceanic. He has more than 30 years of experience in fundraising, and has worked as a writer and creative director on behalf of top nonprofits around the world, including CARE, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Feeding America, and many others.

    View all posts
Previous Post
The Best of the Best: Our Top 10 Blogs of 2024
Next Post
How to Make Your Fundraising Strong with Visual Design

Related Posts

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Fill out this field
Fill out this field
Please enter a valid email address.