Holiday Giving Circles for Nonprofit Fundraising

Posted by Molly Schar Sep 9, 2009

I just wrote an article about how nonprofits can adopt the giving circle model to engage new donors and engage old donors in a new way. It got me to thinking that at this time of year, creating a giving circle with a specific "goal" might be a great way for nonprofits to rev up stagnant giving. It can also help donors think about an additional gift on top of annual giving.

As a development director or executive director, here's what I'd do --

• Brainstorm with program and fundraising staff. Can we identify three big needs at this time of year that don't usually get much attention? How could we make them interesting? What ties them together?
• Partner with marketing staff. Could we put together an attractive "menu" of these three needs?
• Talk with a donor leader. Would she be willing to spearhead this giving circle? With 20 people giving $1,500 apiece, we could do any of these three really important things. If she could work on getting the 20 people together, I can facilitate a social event, educational sessions on each of the three initiatives and voting -- all with a holiday theme.
• Produce the materials and work with the donor leader to identify prospects and support solicitations.
• Publicize the heck out of it.
• Probe along the way to see if this is a model that would work for year-round giving.

In another and slightly related fundraising campaign, Holly Ross, the executive director of the Nonprofit Technology Network gave donors to a special fund three options if they met the $10,000 goal. They could vote on what humiliating activity she would attempt and post online for their enjoyment. Recreating Beyonce's "Hey Single Ladies" music video got the most votes from donors and sure enough, Holly did it. Check it out.

Out of necessity, fundraising is requiring us to be more creative. And that's not necessarily a bad thing.