Once you have set up your nonprofit it is time to get going. Time to start working for your mission. To make sure you obtain all the resources you need to get started and deliver your first successes to the community you aim to serve. Probably the first thing that comes to mind is money. And likely the first word you think of is donor. But what is a donor, in fact? What does it mean to deal with donors?

A donor is (1)

A donor is someone who gives to the organization. This can be anyone from the nonprofit: a board member, a volunteer, or a staffer. Or it can be someone from outside the nonprofit team itself.

Outsider?

The term donor is mostly used for people or organizations and institutions that are not part of the nonprofit. Therefore, the term can give the feeling of pointing to outsiders, whose only feature is that they donate money.

Beware

If you start looking at people outside your organization as walking wallets who may (or should) give to your cause, then you are in deep trouble. Especially if you are in urgent need of money. Because this idea will impact how you approach possible donors. You can be sure you will meet very few people, if any, who are interested in donating. Just imagine for a second that someone would depersonalize you and only think of you as a handy pair of hands to do odd jobs for them in your free time. How would that make you feel? Would you be happy every time you would see that person?

There is a person there

Never forget that any donor, whether an individual private person or an institution, is a person, a human being, as well. Someone with their own ideals, values and objectives. With dreams and hopes and needs. An individual looking for ways to fulfill their dreams and hopes.

A donor is (2)

The better definition therefore is a donor is someone whose dreams might be fulfilled through your nonprofit. And if he or she feels they could be fulfilled by your work they may give to your organization.

A donor is (3)

A donor is not just defined by the fact that they give to your organization. They have their own dreams they are looking to get fulfilled and they feel you can be helpful in that. In that sense, you are their partner. And they can be yours.

From outsider to insider

It is therefore not helpful to see a donor as only money and as an outsider. A donor is a stakeholder in your work, as they want to support that work so that they can work towards fulfilling their own dreams. If you look at it that way, a donor is an insider. And you and your team should treat him or her as such.

But how?

Key is of course to figure out what the dreams and hopes and ideals of your potential donors are. So that you can assess whether there is a good match with what you are doing. So that you can think of how your nonprofit can contribute to fulfilling the dreams and hopes of your donors.

Your very first step in fundraising must therefore be to find out how you can meet with possible donors and spend your whole heart, body and soul truly listening to them.

How I can help

Want to receive my Monday Motivations & Tips? Make sure you’re subscribed to my weekly Monday Motivations and You will receive an email from me every Monday with a story or a tip about nonprofit management issues and a link to my latest blog post: https://www.changingtides.eu/newsletter-subscription/

Check out these free resources I crafted for you:

• A free mini course Build a Solid Base for your nonprofit: https://www.changingtides.eu/3-steps-to-a-solid-base-for-your-nonprofit/
• Ten Esssential Strategic Documents Your Nonprofit Needs to Have: https://www.changingtides.eu/essentialdocuments

Here is how I can help you set up your nonprofit finance and admin professionally so you can stop worrying about this:

• If you would like to know what admin steps you need to design and implement for proper donation management, my workshop Donation Received – Now What? Can help you. You can get that here: https://www.changingtides.eu/donationnowwhat
• If you have your donation policy and SOPs for managing donations, and you’d like my professional opinion, I create a personal video review for you: https://www.changingtides.eu/reviewdonationssops
• If you would like simple steps to set up and organise your finance & admin foundations guidance by me, you can get a bundle of six simple and short workshops here: https://www.changingtides.eu/financeandadminbundle

If you want to learn more about how you can design your own monitoring framework and budget in the best, practical way, join my course Project Design for nonprofits. You can learn at your own pace and ask me anything in our live sessions and in our members only community. Find out more and enroll via this link: https://www.changingtides.eu/projectdesign

If you want to learn about setting up and maintaining a good HR system for your nonprofit, join my course Practical Labour Law & HR for nonprofits

Want to know more and ask questions?

If you want to discuss this more – jump into my nonprofit support community and get input from a wide range of peers and from myself!

Here is how you can join my free nonprofit support community

You can join my free nonprofit support community on the Heartbeat platform here. This group is a safe space for open exchange and discussion on potentially sensitive topics like boards, nonprofit management, fundraising, etc.

You can visit the community via a browser or via an app. Here is the link to download the Heartbeat chat app in the Google Play store.

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If you want to support me without getting a paid workshop, course or review – you can donate me a coffee and speed up my thinking process!

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