Keep up your great work!

-Traci

One of the challenges for all nonprofit organizations is defining “community.” Another challenge is making people feel like a valued part of that community. With colleges and universities, core “community” is easily defined, as you’ve noted. So, the challenge becomes how to manage those community relationships. Effectively communicating values and the rationale behind actions is important. During the Great Recession, many well endowed universities came under fire from the mainstream media for raising tuition rather than tapping “rainy-day funds.” The media rightfully questioned what the purpose of such a fund is if it’s never touched.

The questions you’ve raised are good and valid. All colleges and universities should reflect on those questions periodically. The answers will help ensure that the best is being done to effectively manage relationships.

This post was shared with our Major Gifts team and it was interesting to read comments about the aspects resonating with the various team members. We all agree it’s important to treat our donors as insiders-providing them with access and information to make them feel valued and a part of the team. Working for a University, it may be a bit easier to engage donors as part of the community, they invested in an education with us, spent transformative years on campus, and are proud of the degrees earned. However, I wonder if we are providing the appropriate information to instill confidence in leadership? When tuition becomes the topic of discussion, are we reminding the audience of the due diligence to raise the price only when absolutely necessary, and the hard work of the Board of Trustees, President and fundraising team to off-set those costs? Are we remembering to fit our needs with the donor’s identity and connection, rather than simply stating a need? Are we stewarding as we would like to be stewarded?

I like the perspective you have, and “Daniel’s” point of view is typical to many donors in the US. Now, what I’m concerned about is that most of the above points are only valid in the US context where there is tax exemptions and overall support for non-profits.

What I’m trying to work on is to support NGOs in the Middle East to raise funds in countries where there is no tax exemption on personal or corporate donations/gifts. This means people and companies have less of an incentive to donate and, if they are going to donate, it will have to be either a cause they deeply believe in and they have very good faith in the leaders of the NGO OR for propaganda/marketing purposes.

So, for example, a company in the US might donate a certain percent of annual profit to have tax exemptions…that’s motivating for them and produces a win-win situation. Whereas in the Middle East, a company that chooses to support an NGO will be doing so mostly for marketing purposes to have their logo/name on the posters, merchandise, roll ups…etc.

In this context, and from your experience how do you suggest NGOs fundraise in non-US context?

Awaiting your feedback,

Afif
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http://www.AfifTabsh.com