“Give money!” or ten questions about donations and fundraising
1. What is fundraising?
Fundraising (or fundraising) is the search and attraction of money and other resources for social, educational, and cultural projects and charitable foundations. In Russian they say "collection of donations", but such wording is associated with requests, prayers, and "an outstretched hand." Fundraising, on the other hand, is a whole system of relationships, a full-fledged partnership, where both parties - the one who donates and the one who is donated - are moving towards a common goal. Even in the wording "attraction of resources" there is something consumer, not value.
A fundraiser is a “search engine”, he is looking for new opportunities. And not only outside, but also inside the project. Maybe if no one wants to support your social project with money, then the project needs to be finalized? The fundraiser may suggest adjustments (sounds idealistic, but sometimes people really do work as a team). And the fundraiser is also included in the evaluation of the results of the project because it is he who then reports to partners, donors, or sponsors.
2. How is this different from begging? Are there fundraisers with a hat at the church too?
Fundraising is always aimed at solving either someone else's or our common problems. On the porch are those who are looking for money to solve their own problems.
Feel the difference: somewhere a flood flooded the village. The charitable foundation helps these people restore their homes, you are invited to make a donation to the foundation. You make a donation, and when a house is restored with your money, you receive a report. This is fundraising.
The same village, same flood. The owner of the house personally addresses you: “help” is a request for help. If you give money, you cannot be sure that it will be spent on a house, you will most likely not know their fate at all.
This does not mean that you should not respond to requests for help at all. You just need to be aware that "professional fundraising" is equal to "professional assistance". So your donation can be called professional. And charity is an emotional act.
3. How to distinguish a fundraiser from a fraudster on the street?
Fundraisers never (!) walk with a donation box down the street or in public transport. There is even a "Declaration of Integrity in Collecting Funds Through Piggy Banks", which was signed by almost all serious charitable organizations in Russia.
But there is a kind of fundraising - face2face or "direct dialogue" - when a fundraiser approaches a person on the street. He talks about the project and may offer to make a regular donation to the fund online.
Such a fundraiser is always in the fund's clothes/shirtfront;
You can go to the website of this fund and find the addresses where such fees are held. Everything is transparent;
He never calls himself a "volunteer" because his work is paid;
The goal of such a fundraiser is long-term cooperation. He will calmly accept the refusal and will never try to outwit you by demanding a donation for a balloon, ribbon, or incense stick.
As for piggy bank boxes, they are in themselves a legal means for collecting donations, but there are also a few rules here:
The box is sealed;
It contains all the information about in favor of which organization the collection is being collected;
This can be checked on the organization's website. Conscientious funds always have a list of "piggy banks" on their official pages. In the administration of a cafe or shop, there must be an agreement for the installation of the box, the charter of the organization, and other official documents. If in doubt, ask them to show you.
4. Who is who on the Internet? Which collection is professional, and who is better to bypass?
Professional philanthropists never collect money for personal cards. Organizations always have a website, on the website, there is a page for secure online payments, details, and a donation agreement.
Of course, not everyone who asks to transfer some money to a bank card is a scammer. It can be just private initiatives to help loved ones. "Close" is the keyword. So it is better to help people with whom you know personally and are confident in their good faith because it is impossible to trace the fate of such donations.
Tearful stories about an urgent fundraiser for a unique operation for a child far abroad are most likely a hoax to one degree or another. For example, surgery may be needed but costs less than what is said. Or the child is sick, but the diagnosis is not so terrible. Such situations are described by the term "toxic charity" - emotional messages, especially in large quantities, "corrode" the reader's empathy. Anyone who was previously ready to sacrifice ignores, ceases to trust, and is irritated.
Franchising, or volunteer fundraising, is a donation collection technology when supporters of an organization invite their friends to support it. For example, you have a birthday, you are having a party, but instead of gifts, you ask guests to make a donation to a charitable foundation. In Russia every year there are more and more platforms for such fundraising. The most famous ones are “Good Day” from Mail.Ru Group, “Taking the opportunity” of the “Need Help” fund, and “Good Reason” of the “Change One Life” fund, Hooray! Event from the Mercy Foundation, volunteer fundraising section on the website of the Blago Foundation.
5.I have my own business, can I hire a fundraiser, or is it only for charity?
Fundraising as a term is mainly used in relation to those organizations and projects that have a social mission - charity, education, culture. Now fundraisers have begun to appear in startups, they are engaged in attracting investments.
In business, there are people who perform the function of fundraising, but usually, their positions are called differently: partner manager, sponsor manager, development manager, key account manager, or investor manager - it all depends on the specific tasks.
6. Do fundraisers receive a salary or a percentage of the funds raised?
Fundraisers are often compared to sales managers, hence the assumption that both work "for a percentage". But attracting resources to a social project is a team effort, the purpose of which is not to make money, but to solve a socially significant problem. Therefore, fundraisers receive a fixed salary. This item is spelled out in the Fundraiser's Code of Ethics.
7. We want a grant, but we don't need anything else. Who will help us with this?
Grants are attracted by a grant manager or a grant writer. This is one of the varieties of fundraising. In order to receive grant funding, it is not enough just to make an application, you need to look at the project as a whole, and sometimes adapt it to the conditions of the grant competition. It is necessary to draw up a budget, think over the criteria for evaluating the effectiveness of the project in advance, analyze the work, and prepare a report. Obtaining and servicing grant money is a time-consuming task.
8. What other types of fundraising are there besides grant writing?
There are two main areas: attracting donations from individuals and working with businesses. Within each of them, there are subspecies that require specific skills and competencies.
Private donations can be massive - you need to draw as much attention as possible to the problem of as many people as possible. To do this, actions, concerts, races, and so on are held (this is event fundraising), materials are published in the press, videos are shot, and stories for television (this is media fundraising).
Working with large private donors is a separate area.
To interact with companies, you need to understand the corporate culture and integrate it into the tasks of the business.
9. I want to become a fundraiser. Where is it taught?
There is no secondary and higher education in fundraising yet, but sometimes universities have advanced training programs. For example, there is a fundraising module within the framework of the Moscow School of Professional Philanthropy of the Friends Foundation and the National Research University Higher School of Economics.
There are many educational courses and materials on fundraising available online. A whole specialization from the University of California at Davis is available on the Coursera platform, volunteer fundraising technologies are taught by the Need Help Foundation, several training programs in the Academy project, and a free course by Anastasia Lozhkina on YouTube, and so on. Use Google or Yandex - there is a lot of information.
Experts from the fundraising community actively share information, hold meetings, run telegram channels (“Fundraising Lifehacks”, “Fundraising and Cookies”), record podcasts, and webinars — much can be found on the website of the Fundraising Club.
Fundraising in Russia is now in many ways more of a craft that is taught “from hand to hand”.
10. We need a fundraiser. How to search and choose it?
The demand for fundraisers is growing, but there are still few professionals on the market. The first piece of advice is to look among your employees for those who you can educate and teach, "grow yourself." The second option is that people from the business who were engaged in sales, worked with sponsors and partners can suit this role. Third - post a job on the Valera platform, try to invite an experienced fundraiser to a project or part-time job.
Experts:
Sofya Zhukova, Fundraising Director of the Need Help Foundation, member of the Fundraising Association
Anastasia Lozhkina, mentor and fundraising consultant, co-founder of the Fundraising Club project, and author of the Fundraising Life Hacks telegram channel.
Andrey Savik is a fundraiser for the Tradition Charitable Foundation, winner of the Golden Cat 2020 award in the Fundraiser of the Year nomination.
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