Six Websites to Solve Your Fundraising Problems

By Katherine Wertheim, CFRE

I know how it feels to have to raise money and run an organization. Sometimes, it can be very lonely. However, most of the problems you have are quite common, and there are a number of websites set up to answer your concerns. I have a few favorites that I’ll share with you, but first, take a look at this list, and click the problem(s) you face (it’s okay to click a number of these: be honest, no one’s looking!):

• My board is too small, too large, terrible, mediocre, ineffective, meddling, and/or not diverse
• My board won’t ask for money
• How do we find people who want to be on a board of directors and will contribute money?
• I need to see how we compare to other organizations
• I think we spend too much on special events and don’t bring in enough
• I’m underpaid, but I don’t know how to prove it
• I need more information on funders; I don’t know how much money to request from them
• I don’t know how to write proposals or I wish I could make my proposals better
• My proposals aren’t getting funded
• I need to find new foundations
• I need to find government funding sources
• I’m working 50-60 hours a week, and it feels like I’m swimming in molasses; nothing’s getting done
• I feel disorganized; I feel like I don’t know the first step to take in order to tackle everything that needs to be done
• I need a plan for a new project, but I don’t know how to write it
• We need a mission statement that works
• I need to motivate my staff/volunteers to take the initiative for their work
• A foundation wants an evaluation, but I don’t know how to evaluate our work
• I feel that we should be able to prove how we’re helping people, but I don’t know how to show it
• I NEED HELP!

Fortunately, the web is here to help you. There are six sites that are so crucial to my work, that I find I recommend them all the time. They’re all free or cheap, and incredibly useful. Here are the answers to your questions:

My Board Needs Improvement
My Board Doesn’t Ask for Money
Try BoardSource. They used to be called the National Center for Nonprofit Boards, but BoardSource is a better name for them. They run a great website. There’s a question-and-answer section where you may find the answer already written, or you can ask and have it answered. They are very quick to respond to questions.

I think the BoardSource publications which they have for sale are highly useful if you want to draft a better board, or if your board interferes in your work and doesn’t spend enough time on policy making and fundraising. Many of their publications are very cheap and very effective. I especially like Ten Basic Responsibilities of Nonprofit Boards for $20. Too many boards have never received a single day of training: this pamphlet is quick reading and very useful.

I LOVE the BoardSource video Speaking of Money which you can view with your board. It has real-life board members talking about how to ask people for money. Spending about two hours with it, including discussion, at a cost of $62, is well worth every cent, and you can use it to inspire people to raise thousands of dollars.

BoardSource has materials on how your board can evaluate itself, and how they can change their nominating process to get more effective board members. BoardSource gives occasional conferences: I’ve attended and recommend them highly.

BoardSource has a great catalogue. If you fax them your list of board members with their addresses, they’ll be happy to see that everyone gets a list of their publications. You’ll be doing your board a favor.

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I Need to Find Board Members Who Will Give Money
I Need to See How We Compare to Other Organizations
I Think We Spend Too Much on Special Events
I’m Underpaid But Can’t Prove It
I Need More Information about Funders
I use GuideStar all the time. Every nonprofit that makes over $25,000 a year must file a report to the IRS, called the 990 (pronounced nine-ninety). This information is online through Guidestar, a nonprofit organization, and it’s free. Once you learn how to read a 990, there’s a wealth of information at your fingertips at any hour of the day. Here are just some uses for it:

• Do you know who is serving on other non-profits’ boards? The 990s list the board members of other organizations, sometimes with their affiliations. I look at the 990s of organizations similar to mine, and look to see who’s serving on multiple boards. I coordinate this information with annual reports, newsletters or websites from those organizations. If I see that a company both gives money and has board members, I’ll call those companies or board members and ask for some recommendations of people to serve on my board of directors. It’s a great way to get people who understand board service and come with money and connections, and it gives me entree to people whom I wouldn’t know otherwise.
• Compare yourself to other organizations. What are their fundraising costs, and their ratio of administration expenses to the entire budget? Do they have staff on their board? (They shouldn’t.) All of this information is available in the 990.
• Personally, I think special events take a lot of work and the large ones cost too much for what they raise. If you want to see how others are doing, the 990 will give you the exact figures for what they raise and what they spend. You might find their numbers appalling, but it will also give you information to compare your own efforts against others’ figures.Want to argue that you’re underpaid? The 990 lists the salaries of the top five staff members at other organizations if they make over $50,000 a year. Use the 990 to show your board that other nonprofits in your area, with similar budgets, are paying their top staff more money. There’s nothing like proof in writing.
• Need more information about foundations? Each foundation has a 990 that lists their entire budget, how much they’re giving, and what nonprofits they gave to, and there are 990s for the past several years, so you can see if they fund the same people every year or add new charities. Usually, they list the amounts given as well, so you can ask for a gift that’s in their range.

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I Don’t Know How to Write a Proposal
I Need to Write Better Proposals
My Proposals Aren’t Getting Funded
I Need to Find New Foundations
The Foundation Center, with offices in New York, San Francisco, Washington, DC, Atlanta, and Cleveland, runs a marvelous website. If you have a chance, it is well worth visiting their offices as well to conduct free research, but the net gives everyone access to everything.

If you need help learning to write proposals, or writing better proposals, the website offers free help called, The Proposal Writing Short Course. There’s also daily news and features about nonprofits and foundations which will give you some great ideas.

You can do some research on foundations on the site for free. One way to use it would be if you know the name of a foundation but not where they’re located or how to contact them. There’s also a fairly cheap service — $19.95 a month at the basic level — where you have more access to information about foundations and can search on key words. It’s well worth the money. If you have more to spend, you can pay them about $495 a year and they’ll do all your research for you, but you can probably do it yourself for less.

If you want to save your money, the Foundation Center also has a program called Cooperating Collections where the searchable information is available at local libraries, either on CD or online. Check the list on their website for details.

(While you’re on the internet, don’t forget to also check the websites of organizations similar to yours in your area. Many list all their funders, and you can approach the same places.)

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Not a Website, But…
This is not a website, but here’s a special secret in getting government grants information: call your congressperson. The U.S. Congress has a little-known service called the Congressional Research Service, or CRS. Your representative, or a staff member, can ask them to help you find funding. You’ll need to write up something short and simple on your current programs and any programs you’d run if you could find the money. They’ll do a search of what’s available and send you a report. It’s a little faster if the representative asks personally, but they will still turn it around in a few days at the request of a congressional staff member. It’s a wonderful service, and almost no one knows about it. Find your representative.

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I'm Working Hard, But Nothing Gets Done
Try Franklin Covey. I love the Franklin Covey organizing system. It’s changed my life! For about $220 or so, there’s probably a class near you, and that’s the special rate for people who work at nonprofit organizations. That amount includes a day of training and a schedule book for the year. The class isn’t about how to write your appointments down in the book, it’s about deciding what values underlie what you do, and prioritizing your commitments based on your values and the relationships you cherish most. I promise that if you follow their system, you’ll get more done in less time, and you’ll get done the things that are most important for you to do. You’ll also spend less of your time putting out fires and tackling emergencies. (This is literally true for fire departments that use their system: they spend more time on training fire fighters and teaching people to prevent fires, so that they spend less time fighting them!)

Don’t have the time/money/desire to take a class? Use the website to order Stephen Covey’s book, Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, or just go to the library and get it. The book offers a completely different way of thinking about your life, about the things you do, and the way you interact with others. It truly will make a difference in how you go about your day, and how things get done.

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I Need to Lay Out The Steps to Take to Get Things Done
I Need a Plan for a Project
I Need to Write a Mission Statement
I Need My Staff/Volunteers to Take The Initiative for What They Do
I Don’t Know How to Evaluate Our Work
We Need to Show We’re Helping People
There’s a great nonprofit called Innovation Network. On their website they have fabulous, easy-to-use tools for nonprofits, and they’re free. All you need is an email and a password. You can use their site to write a plan for a project or for all of your work. You can use it to write a mission statement, and they have examples so you can see what they mean. They help you set goals. They define everything and they give you samples from other nonprofits of each item.

If you have staff members, a great way to do their yearly evaluations is for them to use Innonet.org to write up a plan for their work for the year. Your staff will often be much more ambitious for what they want to accomplish, and it helps them to be more responsible if they come up with the plan themselves. Or, you can show the site to volunteers who can then develop a plan for anything you do, whether it’s for a special event, public relations, or serving people in need.

There’s a terrific section that explains how to write an evaluation of your work. If you’ve never done an evaluation before, this site will show you how. It explains everything, and you just plug in the information. This is useful to show foundations what you’ve accomplished (and many are now asking for the information), and it helps you to figure out whether what you’re doing is accomplishing your goals. The best way to do it is to figure out how you’ll evaluate your work at the start of each project, rather than waiting until it’s in progress or finished. There’s also a newsletter with helpful articles on evaluation, to teach you more about it.

You can also sign up for a weekly email from Innonet that lists grant opportunities and upcoming conferences. It has articles about running nonprofit organizations that you might find quite helpful.

The Innonet site is private and free: you can use it to share your plans with anyone you wish by email, or keep it to yourself.

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I NEED HELP!
It’s okay to need help, in fact, I recommend it. If you try to do everything yourself, you’ll burn out, and you’ll never be as effective as when you draft more people. Having more people involved in your work is like that old saying in math class, that if you have a lever long enough, you can move the world. The more people involved, the stronger your organization and the more you can accomplish.

If you need fundraising and board development help, try the Association for Fundraising Professionals. They may have a local chapter that hosts luncheons and classes to help you learn more. You can go there and network with other professionals, most of whom are development directors, executive directors or consultants. You can connect with people who can recommend other people to you, or who may help you themselves. The people who do this work are in it because they want the world to be a better place: tap into that desire to get help for your work.

Some AFP chapters have offered a service to provide free coaching to small nonprofits. You can see if your local AFP can help you find some free assistance. Or, I’ve always found that people will be happy to help you if you buy them lunch. Chat up someone at a meeting, and if you think they can help, ask if you can pick their brains for a couple of hours over lunch. Most people will say yes. You can get a lot of ideas very quickly.

Most consultants will charge for a full board training session, but if you want a short meeting with them, they’ll often give it to you for free, in hopes of getting your business. Or, if you’re too small for them now, they’ll help you for a couple of hours, with the idea that you’ll eventually be in a position to hire them. It’s well worth checking out their website to see what’s available.

I’d also recommend the IABC, the International Association of Business Communicators, if you need help with PR. The local chapter may be able to recommend potential committee members or other people who can help.

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One Final Piece of Advice
Don’t be afraid to draft other people to help you. People like to help, they just don’t know how. Many people who are afraid to fundraise will be happy to do research for you, or write proposals or plans. If you can steer them to these websites, they’ll often be able to produce something that matches what you need, without your having to do the work.

The internet has made a huge difference in my life: I hope you find these websites as useful as I have.

A personal plug: CD audio tapes of my talks are available at http://www.CDPublications.com.

Questions? E-mail me.