Key Lessons from State of Fundraising (Februrary 2022)
Mid-way during our Little Big Bootcamp sessions we host a panel discussion. These panel discussions foster new ideas through conversation about the similar-and-different perspectives between the thinkers-and-doers in the fields of philanthropy and social change-making. Last month, the State of Fundraising Panel for the Resolution Fellows in our LBF Bootcamp were Caroline Kronley, President, The Tinker Foundation, Bhavik Muni, Director, Social Impact MSI Charitable Trust, and Abigail Lehman, Director, PhotoStart.
The panel discussion offered insights into the gap that can exist between those giving funds and those seeking funds for social change.
For funders and funds-seekers to work well together, alignment of story and goal matters a lot. When asked to talk about the gap that can exist between those who seek funds for their initiatives and those who give funds, we heard that the gap can be made smaller when the narrative themes for each are similar. What a funder aims to achieve through giving money and what the fund-seeker wants to achieve through receiving money need to form a practical and theoretical balance. If the goals of the two don’t fit together, the gap will be wide. When putting a proposal together, spend time learning about the origins, the history, the activities of a funder.
It also matters when the two groups can bridge the realities of certainty and urgency. Most funders have a certainty that funds will be distributed and they have a timeline and process for giving those funds. For them, funding proceeds less on urgency and more on a deliberative plan. Social initiatives on the other hand, “have a tremendous amount of urgency to solve a problem right in front of you” and face an urgent uncertainty about where the resources to solve the problem will come from. Gaps between funders and fund-seekers can potentially be made narrower if the two groups find ways to bridge their realities, timelines and processes of problem-solving.
Look at signals. The power of an image to communicate story and mission depends on mission—and who is looking at it. Likewise, understanding the social mindset of one another is important. What is the personality of fund-giver, from a digital and world wide web view? What prior organizations have been funded? What does the funder website look like and include? The internet culture, so to speak, of a funder might be the same or might be very different from the culture of the fund seeker. Understanding those differences will impact how conversations and connections between groups occur and develop.
Find ways to understand shared and separate strengths. A well-written proposal, whether long or short, can be an indicator of ability to execute a project. But not always. Similarly, a person can have be confident with getting things done on the ground, yet have challenges writing about those strengths. For both those giving and those seeking funds, think about a number of ways to understand and represent the work you each do.
