Blog

As a nonprofit organization, your case for support is a critical tool to communicate the value and impact of your work, build relationships with donors, and secure the resources needed to fulfill your mission. But it’s not enough to write it once and assume it’s always going to work.

While you should dust off and evaluate the strength and validity of your case every year, sometimes you need a bigger reset.

Plans are important, but they’ll never work unless you take action.

This month, the DBD team will be sharing ways for you to jump start your work in 2022.

By Bruce Berglund and Jan Brogdon

Too often, major gift efforts are confined to the framework of a campaign. We ask for these gifts when we have a goal, but we really don’t work to cultivate those major gift donors between and before campaigns. In a time where capital campaigns were slowed or even stopped, some organizations used 2020 to grow a deeper connection with major gift donors. How can the learnings from their experiences, and yours, shape the way you move forward from here?

Any of you that have worked with us know that we believe Case, Leadership, Prospects and a Plan are the key elements of successful fundraising. Consider how you can use this structure as you analyze your own situation.

By Peggy Vinson and Bruce Berglund

Sometimes in the course of working with non-profits, we’ll hear a question like this from a key volunteer:

“Why do we need to raise more money? We do pretty well now.”

When we hear this question, it’s immediately clear that the organization, not just the volunteer, does not have a vision or clear path forward. They have a “foggy” case for support.  

In this series, the DBD Team is taking a deeper look at some of the axioms we use when working with clients. In today’s blog, Lora explores our idea of “The Blue Flame Case.” To read other axiom blogs,  click here. 

In our work with nonprofits and churches, we focus on four key areas: leadership, case, prospects and a plan. When those four areas are well-executed, a campaign is much more likely to succeed.

This blog recently appeared on the NAYDO (North American YMCA Development Organization) website. We thought you’d enjoy it too, if you’re a Y or any other nonprofit, school or church.

I believe I have the best job in world. On a regular basis I get to meet with amazing leaders who care about their communities and the world. Many of these leaders also have the capacity to make community dreams, programs and campaigns successful.

While we spend most of our time working on major gifts, we were inspired by this story of a grassroots fundraising effort done right.

Parents at a suburban-Chicago grade school were trying to raise $350,000 to renovate a local playground and create an improved outdoor learning environment for their K-4 school. (Read more in the Chicago Tribune) Although excitement around the project was high, the end of the school year was quickly approaching and supporters wanted to sneak in a student-focused fundraiser before school let out for the summer.