Joanne Oppelt
Find new donors! Improve donor loyalty! Influence funders! Build enduring funding partnerships! A new paradigm for finding sustainable funding for: Fundraising Professionals Development Directors Grant Professionals Executive Directors Raising money is about forming partnerships with people who add to your organization's bottom line. Power Your Organization's Fundraising defines a partner as any person or group of people who is interested in the success of your organization. Partners can be not only collaborators, but also staff, board members, volunteers, donors, and vendors. They usually have one or more goals similar to yours. Sometimes, though, partnerships are based on common market bases and your partner seems quite different from you. So different that it seems you have nothing in common with each other. You might have to dig very deep for commonalities. Defining partnerships in such a broad way allows you to accept all kinds of contributions - contributions that go beyond money. There are an almost infinite number of ways that a potential partner can give to your organization. Limiting the contribution to a monetary one is reaping only a fraction of what can be gained. Power Your Organization's Fundraising will help you: Identify new donors Relate to different types of donors Meet your donors' needs Acknowledge and validate your donors Affect the greater funding environment Form win-win funding partnerships Ensure maximum profit for your agency Power Your Organization's Fundraising will tell you how to broaden your base of partners by understanding and meeting both your needs and theirs. You will learn about good communication and relationship-building skills. You will explore the role of values and how connecting on the basis of values improves the strength of your partnerships. You will understand different types of revenue streams and the tools needed to accept and receipt them. You will also find out about the larger partnership context and how to influence the larger environment such as the effects of culture, the economy, political systems, and the media. You will then learn how to analyze your partnerships using financial concepts, with plenty of examples of how to predict whether your partnership will be profitable or not. The topic then turns to actually making the deal, both through fair process and fair outcome. The book ends by briefly discussing how to maintain partnerships once they are formed. Partnerships help your organization further its impact. Furthering your impact only helps your organization become more financially stable. Strong organizations that make substantial impact with leveraged resources are attractive to all kinds of funding partners. So your bottom line soars. About the Author Working with nonprofits since 1993, Joanne Oppelt, MHA, GPC is currently an executive director, having moved up through the ranks of program and resource development. She is an expert fundraiser, having personally raised $10 million in 10 years. Joanne also teaches nonprofit management and fund development courses at Kean University in Union, New Jersey. About CharityChannel's In the Trenches Series You'll know an In the Trenches book not just by its cover, but by the author's fun, upbeat writing style. But don't be fooled by its down-to-earth approach and ample use of sidebars. In the Trenches books are authoritative and cover what a beginner should know to get started and progress rapidly, and what a more experienced nonprofit-sector practitioner needs to move forward in the subject.
