May 27, 2012

Small Charities Learn Lessons on How to Raise Big Money

Small Charities Learn to Raise Big Money 1

Rick Friedman

Jose Mateo likes to teach dance moves to visitors during tours of his nonprofit ballet company in the hope they will become donors.

By Holly Hall

Safe Shores, a Washington charity that works with abused children, welcomed 160 people to a breakfast this month at the posh Mandarin Oriental Hotel as the joyful sound of a children’s choir filled the room.

After a video and presentations by three speakers to explain the organization’s work, Cheryl Anne Boyce, a psychologist on the Safe Shores board, asked the audience to pledge at least $1,000 annually for five years, and many did: Donors committed more than