Be credible to major donors
Howard Lake | 26 November 2008 | News
We must be credible and transparent to our major donors to attract their donations, delegates were told at a recent conference.
Caroline Underwood, director of philanthropy and partnerships at Save the Children said that many organisations are still not prepared to show donors the overall financial situation of the organisation. “Be honest about any financial problems,” she advissed, “because donors will find out.”
“It is not new that donors want to know how the money is spent,” she said, “but what is new is that we have to tell them and to be transparent.”
She said a major donor might ask about your reserves, what percentage of your budget is spent on fundraising, what your CEO is paid and what your total expenditure is on programmes. Prepare a fact sheet of Q&As and keep it as part of your ‘tools of the trade’, she advised.
And major donor fundraisers should show ‘innovation and flexibility’. “Do look for people who are creative, innovative, bright, personable and able to adapt to different situations. I propose that in tough times donors will be looking for organisations to be more creative too.”
Underwood was speaking at the first conference organised jointly by the Institute of Fundraising in the UK and the Association of Fundraising Professionals in the US. More than 200 delegates attended the ‘Global Perspectives on Major Donor Fundraising’ event in London.
www.institute-of-fundraising.org.uk
www.afpnet.org
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.