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Are You Seeking Money or Belief?

Evaluating your organization’s fundraising performance often begins with financial metrics. Money is important, no doubt about it. To know where your program really stands you must first obtain the answer to an important but oft overlooked question, however: Are you seeking money or belief?

In the headlong desire to “do good,” leadership of our well-intentioned nonprofits often make money their focus when they seek the necessary revenue to fund projects and programs. Fundraising is about money, isn’t it? Well,. . .no.

Yes, fundraising does involve money or assets that can be monetized. It isn’t about money, however. Now there’s a unique fundraising idea—fundraising that isn’t about money.

Principle 1 of The Eight Principles™ is Donors are the Drivers™. Stated simply, donors drive or propel philanthropy. They don’t drive it with their money, however. They drive it with their belief.

The unique fundraising idea is to focus your fundraising efforts upon value not price. What value? Whose value? Of course, we’re all about “value.” The value we provide to the community is the value of our programs. True. The kicker here is that value is from the donors’ perspective not the nonprofits’.

Seek to convert prospective investors—philanthropists—to a belief in what you do not how you do it. Seeking to engender belief in the hearts and minds of those who, by their own values and visions, would naturally support you rather than simply extracting money is truly unique among fundraising ideas.

Try it. You’ll be pleasantly surprised. So will your investors. Everybody asks for their money. You’ll be asking for their belief.

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