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July 29, 2008

Tips for Raising Money in a Recession

As fund raisers think about how to handle tough economic times, they should ask themselves how their plans would change “if you knew for a fact that there’d be no recovery until 2010?” says Steve Meyerson, a Washington fund-raising consultant.

The answer, he told a group of charity fund raisers and marketing experts last week, should drive planning now.

Mr. Meyerson also offered other tips for raising money during a recession:

• Communicate to donors how the charity changes people’s lives. “Donors are not that interested in numbers,” he said. Rather, they want to hear that they’re helping to make a real difference in someone’s life.

• Be open. Cautious donors are going to be even more cautious during a recession, Mr. Meyerson said. The only way to deal with that is to share all information with them, including fund-raising ratios, budgets, and other details that charities might fear to disclose.

• Offer donors more flexibility in making a gift. Let a donor fulfill a pledge over six years rather than five, for example. Be prepared for donors of small sums to say they can’t afford to give as much as they did in the past and offer other options.

• Take very good care of donors. Too many charities still don’t do a good job of following up with donors about how their money is used, he said, and in a recession, when donors on tight budgets may be thinking they could save money by not giving, stewardship is more important than ever.

• Craft extra warm appeals, the kind that tug at the donor’s heartstrings. If necessary, ask the marketing department for help, he said: They are experts at crafting human-interest stories that appeal to a broad audience.

Mr. Meyerson made his comments at a conference sponsored by the Direct Marketing Association of Washington and the Association of Fundraising Professionals’ Washington chapter.

— Elizabeth Schwinn

Tuesday July 29, 2008 | Permalink

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