We can all read about how charitable giving and spending is down in this recession and not many non-profits are able to hit their fundraising goals. I have a few suggestions to make.
Yes, continue to send out your annual appeal or sell your wares. But consider shifting your organizational focus to two places until all your donors return to the fold: providing services and growing and loving your staff, customer, volunteer pool.
Since you probably won’t be spending as much time cashing checks, now is the perfect time to make your services more robust, efficient, friendly, or useful and to attend to your people as the assets they are.
If you’re an artist, it’s an opportunity to attend to your craft and the business side of your craft, like learning accounting or web design skills. If you’re a non-profit, it’s about recruiting and training volunteers and examining or designing systems. If you’re in higher education or even business, it’s time to re-inspire your staff and start cross-training, as well as taking a hard look at ways to improve contact with customers, clients or students.
I’m willing to bet my professional street cred that focusing on people and services will increase revenue when the economy revives after this recession, but also improve your organization in very meaningful ways in the mean time.
Photo credit: Stock Monkeys