Fundraising doesn’t always mean identifying new organisations to approach for funding! In fact, a lot of successful fundraising comes out of pre-existing relationships. These relationships and networks are often an organisation’s greatest asset, but they are easy to forget about or take for granted!
By mapping out who you already know, how you work with them, what motivates them and what resources they have access to, you can identify a wide range of funding opportunities. You can look at individuals, partner organisations and businesses you work with to identify new ways to engage and turn existing relationships into funding relationships. Working in this way is a great opportunity to turn pre-existing awareness and trust into new funding. The key is finding the right thing to propose in order to add this dimension to the relationship.
For any organisation, existing relationships can be the gateway to new funding opportunities.
A great place to start is with your own board and volunteers – is there any way they would like to contribute that they are not already? Building a culture of giving within your own organisation helps to role model fundraising, as well as making it easier to approach others and engage them. Most people can give in more than one way, whether that is time, money, ideas or connections. Everyone should have the opportunity to give in a way that suits them and feel valued for it.
You could look for relationships with individuals who could become donors, for example individuals who have been previously involved in your activities. This type of fundraising is called alumni (ex-student) fundraising, and many schools and universities find this to be a successful and sustainable approach. When this approach works, it relies on successfully reviving a positive connection that a person has felt with your organisation at an earlier time in their life. It also relies on the idea that these people will now be in a wealthier position than when they first knew you, and will be able to make a donation. Previous Guides and Scouts could well be a group of people who could be engaged to support your organisation –through donations, events or volunteering.
Along with previous members, you can look at current members, their families and communities. Many parents and families are keen to support their daughters, and appreciate the value that Guiding brings at an individual and community level.
- How can you capitalise on the goodwill among families?
- Are there any wealthy families in your networks?
- Or lots that would happily give a small amount 1-2 times a year?
You could also look at organisations you partner with to see if there is any funding potential. You may have a strong operational partnership on a project or within a community with another organisation, and while your collaboration has not involved funding so far, perhaps it could! For example, the Greek Guiding Association collaborates on an environmental project with the World Wildlife Foundation. Could this be a route to funding? Potentially, it could!
For organisations to fund you they first need to be aware of you, value what you do and trust you. If you already have a partnership delivering a project with another organisation, you will already have laid a lot of the groundwork needed for a funding relationship.
By learning more about your partners – where they get their funding from, what their organisational goals and objectives are, how they allocate their budgets – you could identify whether there is an opportunity to add a funding dimension to your partnership. Much of the information you need to be able to do this can be found in annual reports, on websites – and if you have warm contacts with the partner organisation, you could ask them some questions directly!
You could also look at relationships you have with local businesses to see if there is any potential for a mutually beneficial corporate partnership. For example, are there suppliers that you always use to support activities, for example, printers or caterers or taxi firms? Does working with you help them look good to other local customers, or help them meet a goal they have as a business? Could they make a donation or offer a free service, which you could both promote? Even small businesses often have marketing budgets, and if you are already a known and valued customer, this could be worth exploring. There are sometime tax considerations to bear in mind if you do strike up a successful partnership with a business, you should get your treasurer to look into it or speak to WAGGGS to get advice.
Is this a resource intensive activity?
Looking at your networks and trying to investigate possible opportunities can seem like a lot of work. It definitely does involve work – primarily because you need to know a decent amount of information about the people or groups you might approach in order to get your request right. If you can tailor your request – inviting them to a local event for example, or asking some people to buy raffle tickets for an event and asking others to donate prizes – you are more likely to see a higher rate of success.
📈 However, the analysis and investigation is worthwhile, because you already have such a strong foundation to build off. Turning people and organisations that you already know (and that know, like and trust your organisation) into supporters and funders is much easier than recruiting strangers!