Six tips for fundraising during the COVID-19 crisis

General trends

1. The unique and thought-through fundraising pitches still win. We have all witnessed a deluge of copy-paste emails that start with “In these difficult times…” and then proceed to sell us things we are not interested in. To fish this way and play the numbers game is tempting but targeting remains way more efficient. Our members disburse funds on a daily basis to successful grantseekers. The machine is still working. There’s just more noise around, making the signal that more precious.

2. The crowding is immense due to new types of organizations looking for private funds. That smaller NGOs are suffering has been well documented. But the big international organizations, typically dependent on government contributions, are going through a scare right now as their commitments might become uncertain. They are rapidly ramping up their private sector teams from Switzerland to the Middle East to the US and beyond. The short-term effect of this crowding will be unpleasant; the long-term effect of iNGOs facing the private market and having to adapt to it will have some positive consequences.

3. The societal “exit” narrative of the crisis is still completely up for grabs. Do we forget about fighting climate change as we restart the economy, or do we redouble the efforts? Is government surveillance a temporary necessary evil or a fundamentally good thing here to stay? Are our politicians doing a good job overall and what’s the yardstick? More on this in a piece we wrote to our activists.

Tips for fundraising organizations:

1. Reinforce relationships with the market nodes – umbrella organizations for foundations, research institutions at universities, companies that own and put to use valuable datasets. Try to offer these people value. Such connections can help understand market dynamics very quickly. With the market shifting so dramatically understanding its movements is more important than looking at static data from a year ago. For example, on the Swiss market, the League has spent time building a relationship with the likes of Fundraiso, Geneva Centre for Philanthropy and others.

2. You must have an attitude towards the prevailing issues of the day (virus aside) – notably economic inequality, climate change and the growing threats to democracy. Even the Swiss philanthropy market is slowly seeing a shift towards these questions (see Swiss Foundation Report 2020). It’s no longer enough to claim that you only do malaria, refugees, or hunger – Millennials and Gen Z folks trust philanthropy less and less since it is hesitant to tackle systemic issues (e.g. see Deloitte’s 2019 Global Millennial Survey). Tackle systemic issues.

3. Target beyond the usual suspects. In most philanthropy markets most grantseeking targets the top 1% of donor organizations, leading to an enormous overcrowding. This misses opportunities. In Switzerland, there are 13,000+ foundations, many of which have a yearly giving in the modest CHF 100,000-250,000 range but often split that giving to no more than 2-3 grantees, making individual donations very substantial. Often such donors, typically family-run offices, are able to make decisions quickly and tend to be low on bureaucracy, in contrast to some of the bigger names. Finding these organizations takes research – many don’t have a website or accept postal applications only (see this report) – so this is an opportunity for seekers willing to go a step further than the competition in understanding their environment.

4. Once you’ve done your research, and feel like you can contribute to the donor’s portfolio, make the ask early. This is counter-intuitive, but in this climate much courting is ill-advised – things are moving too fast and portfolio priorities change. The best donors will come out and meet you halfway with a simplified process and shorter reaction times as response to the crisis.

5. Only say you’re working on Covid relief if you really are. Trying to massage the narrative of your business-as-usual to show your organization at the vanguard of the virus fight is something thousands have tried already and it’s starting to look bad. The League’s contribution to our portfolio movements’ recruiting volunteers for the Covid fight has been less than zero – we actually discouraged them from doing so due to health concerns, and in general bungled our initial guidance. Credit where credit is due.

6. Begin developing your AI dataset. Now is the time. Machine learning is still a buzzword, in particular in nonprofit circles. Many of us neither understand the technology nor have seen any value from it. But the technology, slowly entering post-hype and maturity, is secondary. Think about your business question (donor sourcing, portfolio social ROI, grant allocation…), think about what kind of data could answer it, and then go out collecting and cleaning up that data. An army of smart freelancers, aching for work in the Covid vacuum, is out there to help at bargain prices. The dataset might very quickly become the differentiator in your quest for funding.

Crises often shake things up and hurt the positional advantages of incumbents. As such they present a number of opportunities for disruption to organizations willing to adapt quickly. Following the crowd or abandoning any focus or strategy is not the way to go. We need disciplined leaders to step up, leaders willing to lead bold change while uncompromisingly protecting their staff wellbeing and morale.