The Inside Out Method: How to Find New Donors

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The #1 question people are ALWAYS asking me is: “Jess, how do I find new donors?”

I’ve said it once - and I’ll say it again - I don’t think that is the right question to be asking BUT for today - I’m going to give the people what they want. 

Specifically, when clients ask me about finding new donors - I teach them what I call the “Inside Out Method”.

The idea here is that you start with your core and work your way out.

First up: Your board of directors 

One of the major mistakes I see nonprofits making - especially ones just getting started - is that they are hesitant to be clear on their expectations for their board of directors. Nonprofit leaders and fundraisers become frustrated when they get a new board member....and then that board member does very little (sound familiar?). 

A lot of times, nonprofits recruit warm bodies rather than do-ers, networkers, and fundraisers. 

Bummer - everyone ends up frustrated. 

I suggest coming up with your own list of expectations that you share with your prospective board members before they actually sign on. This way - they know what they are signing up for. Some ideas: 

  • Attending a specific number of board meetings each year

  • Attending a major fundraising event

  • Introducing X number of people to the organization each year

  • Make a personally significant gift annually

  • Recruit X number of new donors annually

  • Ask their company to match any gifts they personally contribute

  • Volunteer X number of hours annually

  • Contribute their talents (accounting, PR, 

I know that you want your board members to do any one of these functions on their own, but if you aren’t clear with them on what those wants are - they are not going to know. Unfortunately, they are not mind readers. 

One of the items that I highly recommend you listing out in your expectations is that your board members introduce new donors to your organization. Think of your donor pool like a wheel and each board member represents a spoke. 

But I digress…

IMO - one of the expectations that board members do is that they introduce new people to your organization. These might be friends and family, this might be from their professional network. The idea is that your board members, the closest people to the core of your organization - should know who and what you are looking for in potential new donors. 

Next: Volunteer & Major Donors

The next level outside of your board members are volunteers and major gift donors. Why? Because these people are already invested in you because they give you some of their most valuable assets: time and money. 

Additionally, these people *should* know your organization well, the impact you are making and the people you are serving. Long story short: they should be able to talk about your organization well. 

A few ideas:

  1. In addition to board members, invite volunteers and major gift donors to a cultivation event and ask them each to invite a friend. The idea is you are just expanding the potential donor pool network

  2. Gather testimonials from volunteers and donors - nothing spells credibility like social proof

Your volunteers and major donors are just one level outside your board members - use them to find new people who might be interested in your organization. 

Finally: Advisory committee members and low level donors

Just outside the volunteers and major donors are advisory committee members (if you have them) and low level donors. These might be people who donate $100 or less to your organization annually or who do a low level monthly gift. 

These are individuals who like your organization and who might be willing to tell their friends about you. Aka peer-to-peer fundraisers. 

Before you roll your eyes (I see you) - I recently spoke with Dressember who raised $2.5M using thousands of peer-to-peer fundraisers. So - it can be done!

Here are some ways you can make it easy for peer-to-peer fundraisers to fundraise on your behalf:

  1. Ask them to share on their social media accounts - you can even provide downloadable templates

  2. Make it easy for them to set up peer-fundraising pages

  3. As them to see if their company will match any personal donations they make

  4. Ask them to participate in your next giving campaign - you can provide them email swipe copy

Fundraising is very difficult to do using cold leads. To be successful, those are based on asking volume and if you are a small to midsize nonprofit, you likely don’t have the manpower or resources to do that level of asking. Using the Inside Out Method is based on warm, not cold leads. This means using people already close to the organization to help you expand your network. Try reaching out to any one of these three groups and steadily build out your network. Rome wasn’t built in a day and neither is your pool of donors.