I'd like to remind you about the teleseminar we are doing on Sustainable Funding with Terry Axelrod from Benevon on August 24 at 1 pm Pacific (4 pm Eastern). Please mark your calendars.
As always, I'll send you call-in details when we get closer to the event, so it's at the top of your inbox. This session was requested by a NAPRP member and is sure to be informative.
I assume you all would like more money, right?
The Benevon model of sustainable fundraising focuses on contributions from individuals because according to studies, gifts from individuals comprise the largest percentage of donations. Developing relationships with your donors may not be as flashy as grants and big gala fundraising events, but it's the backbone of sustainable funding.
Benevon endorses the idea of creating a system for building a long-term, self-sustaining individual giving program from a large base of supporters. The model is a continuous cycle that flows from point of entry, to follow up, to asking for money, then to donors introducing others to your organization. You can see diagrams on this page that go into more detail:
http://www.benevon.com/resources/model-overview-3
Sustainable funding involves looking beyond day-to-day hand-to-mouth fundraising. Most organizations don't look past the next big event to figure out where the money is going to come from for the next five or ten years.
In Benevon's Eight Guiding Principles, they ask:
"What would life would be like at your organization if worrying about funding were no longer an issue? What would have to have happened to make that possible? How much money would be in the bank? How many donors per year at what levels? Would there be a big endowment?"
These are good questions to think about, whether or not you participate in the call on August 24. Will your organization be able to go on saving animals after you're gone? What is the legacy you want to leave behind? Odds are good that homeless animals will still need help, after all.