What are your reactions to this donor fundraising plan?

SoFA Members Discussion
1

Context

The fundraising circle is rolling out a donor fundraising plan! We’re in the research and strategy development phase and need member input.

  1. What are your questions about and reactions to the current donor fundraising plan below?
  2. Would you be interested in being more involved in fundraising work? For example, would you like to see drafts of communications to donors, want to learn how to fundraise, or have advice to share?

Donor Fundraising Plan

Principles

  • Repeatable: no one-off campaigns, instead build a repeatable system
  • Relationship oriented: we’re about people
  • Iterative: donor personas, data dashboard, good enough for now safe enough to try
  • Equitable: $10 means the same as $100,000 in terms of how we steward a donor relationship

Goals

  • $25,000 in revenue from donations by March 31st, 2022 (end of Q3) (review overall SoFA budget for context)
    • Member donations
    • Event donations (for example: donations for webinars, book clubs, etc.)
    • Donations that are not tied to any of the above
  • TBD% donor retention rate, the number of donors who give again the next year (average donor retention rate in the nonprofit sector is around 40%, we need to find out what SoFA’s current donor retention rate is)
  • # of new donors by Dec 31, 2021

Activities

Annual Campaign (October to December 2021)

Run a social media and email campaign. Call anyone who didn’t donate.

Question: What do the donations fund? Specific program? General operating? Scholarships? Innovations / Participatory Budgeting Fund?

Prioritize

  • Learning (e.g. ask people why they donate or why they don’t donate)
  • Data systems (e.g. make it easy to find out when someone has last donated and at what amount)
  • Building habit of donating (e.g. recurring donations, annual campaign)
  • Speed

Do Not Prioritize

  • One-off content creation (e.g. video)

Donor Stewardship (Ongoing + TBD for First Jeffersonian Dinner)

Continue Donor Interviews to build relationships.

Ask donors for advice and volunteer time, potentially leading to an official Fundraising Advisory Committee (name TBD)

Host Jeffersonian Dinners (name needs to change because Jefferson was really problematic) where small groups of people come together with a carefully curated invitation list to discuss one central theme. Someone then follows up from the Jeffersonian Dinner with a call to build relationships and explore how people want to continue being involved, thus starting a conversation that may lead to donations.

Empowered Fundraising (TBD)

“Empowered Fundraising is a technique that concerns itself with transforming our relationship with money. Empowered fundraising as an alternative, in the words of Lynne Twist, aims to inspire, educate and empower you to realign the acquisition and allocation of financial resources with your most deeply held values.” —John Croft and Dot Green, Empowered Fundraising: Radical Generosity - the Power of Radical Philanthropy to Change the World

Educate Members

  • Capitalism
    • How it works
    • Finding our balance point
    • Our dislike, shame, or avoidance of money is a feature of capitalism so if we’re going to be against systems of oppression, doing money work is part of it!
  • Fundraising is fun! Fundraising is a skill! Fundraising is about relationships! (Past experience was members didn’t want to do marketing or pitches or fundraising, so let’s change that)
  • Money is energy and making requests of it is the same as making requests of emotional support, or time, or space — they’re all resourcing the mission

Host Empowered Fundraising Workshop

  • Give as self
  • Ask others to give

Build in Public (Ongoing)

Write about how we’re approaching fundraising in an ethical, anti-capitalist, gift AND sustainable way.

Support related SoFA efforts in community of practice on solidarity economy.

Related Topics to Explore

Solidarity Rates for Webinars and other Trainings (Send to General Circle)

Example from A Bookkeeping Cooperative

  1. At least one of the following describes me:

· people of color

· immigrants

· people with disabilities

· LGBTQIA2+

· working class

· poor

  1. I have not inherited wealth or property and do not expect to inherit in future.

  2. I do not have savings and am unable to make payments on debts.

  3. I have not had access to higher education (e.g. college, graduate school).

  4. I struggle to meet my basic living expense needs.

  5. My income supports people other than myself.

  6. I have had difficulty accessing healthcare for myself and/or family.

If your answers are:

All Yes - Level 1 Free: $0

More Yes than No - Level 2 Solidarity: $50

More No than Yes - Level 3 Full Cost: $125

All No - Level 4 Redistribution: $275

Profit First model for budgeting + Participatory Budgeting (Send to Finance Circle)

An Accountant’s review of Profit First. | by Jason Andrew | Stark Naked Numbers

Participatory Budgeting Project: Home

Challenges

  • How do we know what’s working?
  • How do we prioritize where time/energy is going?
  • How do we meet the needs of Deborah, the fundraising circle, at SoFA as a whole?
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