“People want to support a winning organization not a whining organization.”
7. Develop an endowment fund option for long time donors
When an organization can build a large endowment fund, it can gradually reduce the stress of annual giving needs considerably, but this does take a long time to develop. With an endowment fund, only a set amount of income from the fund is available for operating funding for the charity on an annual basis, (often 4-5% of the value of the fund.) When endowments hold millions of dollars, the annual contribution can become substantial, and it does provide the organization with some funding stability. In most organizations it can be beneficial to establish a legacy giving program to encourage people to become members and leave a portion of their estate to the charity in their wills. There is much information available about these types of programs that provide good tax benefits to the estate and also support charities that an individual cared about during life.
8. Find ways to up-sell people when attending your events
Add a special event, class, dinner, lecture, or cocktail party to an event that the donors are already attending and ensure that the ticket price does significantly more than cover your costs. This can be enjoyable and good for fundraising. If you have contacts in the business community that would sell you products at a commercial rate that you could sell at your events this can be a good ongoing source of funding. You can sell chocolates, cookies, flowers, cards, CDs, clothing products and many other items through your organization. This can become a very positive annual support for the organization.