Fundraising Update

Welcome to Fundraising Update. This week, with government funding feeling uncertain, we look at ways to create an outreach plan to keep your donors close. Plus, advice to help you chart your career path.

I’m Rasheeda Childress, senior editor for fundraising at the Chronicle of Philanthropy. If you have ideas, comments, or questions about this newsletter, please write me.

Thanks to our sponsor Blackbaud for supporting Fundraising Update.

As many nonprofits worry about federal funding, fundraisers are looking to shore up relationships with supporters. So, this week, we’re leading with a story written by my colleague Lisa Schohl on how to keep donors close through an outreach plan.

Staying in touch with donors all year long is crucial to keep supporters connected to the mission, make them feel valued, and lay the groundwork for strong year-end giving. But it can be hard to know how — or to find time — to build a 12-month outreach calendar, especially in a year that promises to deliver change and uncertainty.

The main thing is to have a plan in place, and make that plan flexible so you can adapt if the landscape shifts, says Lori Woehrle, editorial director of Leapfrog Group, a firm that helps nonprofits with fundraising and marketing.

“No plan, more or less, equals no map going forward,” she says. “So if you want to end up somewhere, you need a map.”

Chronicle Illustration/istockphoto

The Chronicle spoke with several experts who outlined key steps to take and things to consider when crafting an annual outreach strategy. Here’s what they suggest to get the best results.

Plan according to your capacity.

Start with the end in mind, Woehrle suggests, including what you want to achieve and by when, which audiences you need to reach, and what milestones you should hit along the way. Plan at least 12 months ahead, she says, but you could look as far as 18 to 24 months out if you have the capacity.

If you’re a one-person shop and can plan only for the next six months, then do that, says Debbie Sokolov, deputy director for development and communications at the James Museum of Western and Wildlife Art in St. Petersburg, Fla. “Don’t put pressure on [yourself], because the most important thing is that you’re communicating,” she says.

Set realistic expectations.

After several years of unexpected challenges that hit the museum hard — including Covid-19 and two hurricanes — Sokolov says she tried to be much more realistic and conservative when projecting fundraising revenue for 2025. Uncertainty is just part of life now, she adds, so you must be nimble and flexible. But the more you plan, the easier it will be to adjust because you’ll have choices.

Your outreach goals should be aligned with your organization’s strategic priorities, she adds, to ensure consistent messaging throughout the year.

Define your goals and tie them to your nonprofit’s strategic priorities.

To start planning, identify your top three priorities for donor engagement so you can build tactics and messages that feed into them, says Chrissey Nguyen Klockner, a veteran fundraiser and consultant. For example, these might include increasing awareness of your cause, deepening key donor relationships, expanding your pool of support, or raising a specific sum.

For more, read the rest ofLisa’s article.

— Michelle Flores Vryn, a fundraising consultant

Caitie Deranek Stewart’s former boss at the Indiana University School of Medicine was, in her words, “the best supervisor on the planet.” When Stewart shared that she wanted to be a major-gifts officer, her supervisor replied, “Let’s see how we can get you there.” And then she helped make it happen.

Stewart considers this mentoring a big part of how she was able to progress to her current position as the senior director of development for the University of Florida McKnight Brain Institute. For her, guidance and help were readily available. But many young fundraisers struggle with figuring out not only what they want to do in the fundraising world, but also how to get there.

As part of my reporting on next-gen fundraisers, I asked both early-career and experienced fundraisers for their best advice on how young fundraisers can chart their careers. Here is some of their hard-earned wisdom:

Get Broad Experience

Veteran and new fundraisers alike say it’s important to explore different kinds of fundraising early in your career, everything from grant writing to major gifts to back-end data crunching.

“Learn a little bit more about fundraising, and figure out which area you want to do,” says longtime fundraiser Vicki Pugh, co-CEO of Advancement Experts, a consultancy.

Larger organizations offer an overview of how fundraising works, says Michelle Flores Vryn, a development consultant who started out in higher-education fundraising.

“If you start out in a big shop like a health care system or university, you see all these resources are designated to specific areas,” Flores Vryn says. “You see how the functions should interact. Ever since then, I’ve worked at smaller nonprofits, but I still took away that understanding of here’s the linkage between the different function areas and what you really need to be doing to be successful in fundraising.”

Pugh points out that the majority of nonprofits are small, with budgets of less than $1 million, and many fundraisers will work at those organizations. Having generalist skills that include many aspects of the profession makes fundraisers “very marketable,” she says.

Sean McCarthy found himself jumping around early in his career, trying grant seeking, corporate fundraising, and even some individual giving in a major-gifts program before coming full circle; he is now associate director of institutional giving at the Center for American Progress, a think tank.

“Some people identify immediately what they are most interested in,” he says. “And they may focus on that their entire career. But I experimented, because fundraising is such a dynamic industry.”

For more, read the rest of my article.

• Foundations Largely Mute as Federal Funding Is Cut. Amid a barrage of threats to federal funding, nonprofit leaders are begging funders to step in with additional resources and tap the trillions of dollars they hold in endowments and cash reserves. But private foundations have been slow to respond, reports my colleague Stephanie Beasley.

  So far, few foundations have announced plans to address the flurry of policy changes issued by the White House since Donald Trump took office on January 20. The Chronicle of Philanthropy reached out to more than a dozen major foundations — most with assets exceeding $1 billion — for this story. Some responded, but most declined to provide statements on the record. Many nonprofit leaders are panicked and worried about the future of their organizations.

  “I didn’t think the cavalry was coming, to be honest,” says Dom Kelly, CEO of disability-rights nonprofit New Disabled South, who penned an online post begging foundations to step in with funding. “I wrote that pleading for the cavalry to come.”

  For more on this issue, including why observers think foundations are slow to respond and the statements provided by the few who did respond, read Stephanie’s entire article.

Joan Yellen Horvitz left the Cleveland Public Theatre $6 million. It will be dispersed as follows: $4 million to establish the Joan Yellen Horvitz director fellowship and $2 million to help renovate the former St. Mary’s Orthodox Church on the theater’s campus.

Yellen Horvitz was a couturier who designed costumes and sets for dance and theater. She died in 2021.

For other notable gifts this week, read my colleague Maria Di Mento’s Gifts Roundup column. To learn about other big donations, see our database of gifts of $1 million or more, which is updated regularly and has data going back to 2000.

‘It’s Not Over’: Steps to Rethink Fundraising After Trump’s Spending Freeze. It will be especially important for nonprofits that rely on federal grants to communicate with their donors, fundraising experts say.

Amid Funding Freezes and ICE Raids, What Will It Take to Support Grantees? (Opinion). Grant makers need to reassure nonprofits that they have their backs during these tumultuous times.

Long-Haul Fundraising. The L.A. wildfires were devastating, and so far, $650 million has been raised for immediate aid and recovery efforts, according to The Los Angeles Times. But people who’ve responded to past disasters, including the Maui wildfires, say recovery efforts take a long time and need long-term funding.

“We want them to plan, really, for seven years of funding,” Jennifer Gray Thompson, CEO of the nonprofit After the Fire USA, told the paper, adding that she encouraged foundations to see recovery as “a marathon of sprints.” Charities will need to not only hold back on spending all they have for relief, but also be ready to make the case for additional funds. “You can’t really start up a program for an unprecedented disaster and expect it to fulfill its outcomes in a year,” Thompson said.

Additionally, groups should consider working together. In Maui, major foundations set up a collaborative to give out money, but there is no current plan for a charity czar or committee in L.A.

“I think there’s a lot of effort to share what folks are doing … so that duplication can be avoided,” said Jennifer DeVoll, president of the Pasadena Community Foundation. (Los Angeles Times)