Getting Advocacy and Fundraising Propositions To Play Nice

For some organisations, training phone or F2F teams on a proposition is comparatively easy. They have a simple idea which will work pretty much forever; give us $25 p/m and we’ll save someone’s sight each month or $30 month buys rations  for a family in an disaster area. Campaigning organisations however are often working on things that have a time defined outcome. Maybe they are campaigning to free a prisoner of conscience or stop a liquefied natural gas hub being built on one of the most beautiful parts of the world.  There are a number of potential benefits with mixing advocacy and dialogue fundrasing, increased media exposure and public knowledge, greater urgency in the ask, but there are just as many potential pitfalls.

So how do you choose what to get them to talk about?  Here are 5 simple rules to help you decide on what you should guide your dialogue fundraisers to.

Do People Care

The first thing to think about is how good the story is. There needs to be something in danger, it needs to be a thing that a lot of people will care about (no one would give to a campaign to save the plastic tags on loaves of bread) and the donor needs to be the hero of the story.

Simplicity

Fundraisers will need to explain the issue in simple terms and very quickly. I care passionately about the role new economics plays in creating a better future, but I can’t explain sufficiently to get people to care about it in less than half an hour. Ideally you want a story that can be told in 30 second.

Consistency

It’s common for advocacy campaigns have a lot of two-ing and froing, highs, lows, victories and setbacks all the way throughout their life cycles. Sadly for fundraising purposes this is a pain in the bum.  If a campaign is going to be evolving every month, the fundraisers will have to write a new script every month.  This makes it harder for them to hone it down and easier to loose track of what they’re supposed to be saying.

Time

A paradox exists that when campaigns come closer to their point of victory or defeat (hopefully victory) the greater the urgency proposition and the more successful it will be in winning people over. However, once the victory has been won, donor can loose a little of their anchor to the organisation.  If you’re looking for a long term gift then this presents a problem.  On top of this, you’ll have to largely tear up the script that your fundraisers have been using, which will frustrate the hell out of them and can hurt results.

Similarity to Other Work

If the topic you pick is similar to other projects your organisation works on then it should be easier to transition the dialogue teams and the donors to the new topic. Pick something that has transferable themes and aligns strongly with your core values.

Do The Fundraisers Care?

Perhaps above all else you need to make sure that the fundraisers care about what they’re talking about.  All dialogue fundraising works because the fundraiser is using their enthusiasm to build enthusiasm in the potential donor.  Your organisation may see one campaign as a priority, you may think that its something that resonates with donors, but if the people actually doing the asking don’t care, your fundraising campaign will be dead in the water.

Getting fundraising and advocacy to be nice to each other is possible and it can be very successful, but remember that the fundraisers priority needs to be raising the funds.