Fundraising

Get the latest news and insights on fundraising. Explore current trends, expert advice, and success stories to enhance your fundraising strategies and drive impactful campaigns.

Unlocking the Power of Outsourced Grant Work

June 15, 2023/in Empreinte News, Foundations, Fundraising, Nonprofits

Unlocking the Power of Outsourced Grant Work: Enabling Small Community-Based Organizations

Pamela L. Ayers, MSW | Sr. Director, Grants Management, Empreinte Consulting, LLC

In today’s increasingly competitive funding landscape, small community-based organizations often find themselves grappling with limited resources and staff. Striving to create positive change in their local communities, these organizations face a daunting challenge: securing the necessary funding to support their vital initiatives. However, there is a powerful solution that can help level the playing field and empower these organizations to achieve their goals—outsourced grant work.

Outsourced Grant Work: A Game-Changer for Small Community-Based Organizations

Outsourcing grant work to experienced professionals has emerged as a transformative strategy for small community-based organizations. By entrusting the grant-seeking process to skilled experts, these organizations can reap numerous benefits and maximize their chances of success.

Access to Expertise:

Outsourcing grants work allows small community-based organizations to tap into the expertise and knowledge of professionals who possess a deep understanding of the grant landscape. These experts are well-versed in identifying relevant funding opportunities, crafting compelling proposals, and navigating the intricate requirements of grant applications. With their specialized skills, outsourced grant writers can significantly enhance an organization’s chances of securing funding.

Time and Resource Optimization:

For small community-based organizations, time is a precious resource. But oftentimes, the CEO, Executive Director, COO, or Program Managers are tasked with finding RFPs and writing proposals for lack of staff designated to do so, which takes time and focus away from what high level leaders should be doing: strategizing, visioning, and managing operations. By outsourcing grant work, these organizations can save valuable hours that would otherwise be spent on extensive research, writing, and administrative tasks. Outsourced professionals streamline the grant-seeking process, ensuring that proposals are submitted promptly and efficiently. This allows organizations to focus their efforts on core activities, such as delivering impactful programs and engaging with the community.

Increased Funding Success:

Writing successful grant proposals requires a unique blend of persuasive writing, programmatic knowledge, and a keen understanding of funders’ priorities. Outsourced grant professionals possess the necessary skills to craft compelling narratives that resonate with grant reviewers. Their experience and expertise can make a substantial difference in the success rate of funding applications. By leveraging outsourced talent, small community-based organizations can significantly increase their chances of securing the funding they need to drive positive change.

Enhanced Capacity and Scalability:

Small organizations often face limitations when it comes to their internal capacity. Outsourcing grants work provides an opportunity to augment their capabilities without the need for additional full-time staff. By accessing specialized grant writers on-demand, organizations can scale their grant-seeking efforts in response to evolving needs and available resources. This flexibility enables them to pursue multiple funding opportunities simultaneously and diversify their revenue streams, ultimately strengthening their sustainability.

Learning and Development:

Collaborating with outsourced grant professionals can also serve as a valuable learning experience for small community-based organizations. Through this partnership, organizations can gain insights into best practices, develop their grant writing skills, and improve their overall grant-seeking strategies. This knowledge transfer empowers organizations to become more self-sufficient in the long run and better equipped to secure future funding independently.

Outsourced grant work represents a game-changing opportunity for small community-based organizations to unlock their full potential. By leveraging the expertise and skills of grant professionals, these organizations can optimize their time, increase their funding success rates, and enhance their overall capacity. Through outsourcing, these organizations gain a competitive edge, enabling them to make a more significant impact in their communities. Embracing this approach can empower small community-based organizations to thrive, transform lives, and create lasting positive change.

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What Are The Top 5 Things You Should Be Thinking About When It Comes To Fundraising Activities?

November 19, 2020/in Charitable Giving, Corporations, Foundations, Fundraising

This article was written and produced by Nancy Synder, Partner at The Bonadio Group, and Marc Misiurewicz, President and Founder, Empreinte Consulting, LLC.

Earlier this year, pre-pandemic if you can even remember back that far, our firm hired a consultant to look at the impact of our philanthropic activities. The consultant we hired was Rochester-based, Empreinte Consulting LLC, led by Marc Misiurewicz and Carrie Donnelly. Never heard of them and what is Empreinte you ask, let me briefly introduce them to you before we jump into our 5 areas to consider. The company name draws from Marc’s French, New Orleans, Creole heritage. Empreinte is the French word for footprint, imprint, or impression, and isn’t that what you want for your philanthropic endeavors, to have a lasting imprint? Empreinte is a team of consultants who provide outsourced development strategies to tax-exempt organizations and consultants to philanthropists on how to maximize the impact of their charitable donations. They provide a variety of services to tax-exempts including, but not limited to, functioning as the outsourced development team, teaching how to ask for money, prospect strategies, training development staff, and volunteer boards, and grant writing. I interviewed Marc so he could share some of what he has learned over the years and what follows will hopefully help your tax-exempt organization think differently about fundraising.

Outsourcing Grant Writing– Has your organization considered the benefits of hiring a grant writer but thought you couldn’t afford it? It may not be cost-effective for your organization to have a full-time grant writer on staff but have you considered the funding you may be missing out on by not having an experienced grant writer? Without a grant writer, most tax-exempts look to another member of their staff to write grants without considering the full return on the investment (ROI). Is the staff member qualified to write the grants? Is that staff member’s time better spent someplace else i.e. if it is the Executive Director should he/she be running the organization rather than writing that grant? Partnering with Empreinte allows you to minimize your expenses and maximize your ROI from grant funding.
Interim Leadership During Times of Transition– When your development team has turnover, it can be easy to say that you can get along without that leader in position. Consider that a good search for an experienced, well-qualified candidate can take 3-4 months or more. How much is your organization missing out on during that time and how will that vacancy impact, not only current but, future fundraising capabilities of your organization, and for how long? Interim leadership can work with current staff, advise management and the board, develop efficiencies, and train volunteers. Best of all, interim leadership can keep your fundraising endeavors on track without skipping a beat.
Strategic Partner to Board and Management– Utilizing the expertise of a consultant can assist with strategic decisions related to a variety of fundraising activities. How do you have an impact on the donors and how does your message become compelling? How do you reach out to donors and how often? Is now the right time for a capital campaign; what should your goal be for dollars/donors; how do you begin? Do you have the right complement of staff on your team? Do you need a team of fundraisers? All these questions can be addressed, and you can utilize the expertise of someone who has years of experience in this space and learn from other organizations missteps and successes.
Shift from Events Being Your Sole Source of Fundraising– The last 6 months have pointed out some reasons not to solely rely on events, but there are other reasons to consider alternatives to planning events to raise much-needed funds for your organization. Consider a holistic development strategic plan and how you get started down that path. A consultant can help direct the organization’s fundraising success in the future. Focus on a three-part giving philosophy of annual giving, aspirational gifts, and planned gifts. Having a plan on how to approach different donor audiences and knowing what will cause them to give is intentional not a chance event. What will motivate people to give of their time, talents, and treasures because your organization needs all three to survive.
Leveraging the Strengths and Passion of Your Volunteers– Boards and committees can be an incredibly valuable tool in your fundraising efforts if trained and directed properly. Many volunteers are intimidated by the thought of fundraising and do not want to participate in a meaningful way. Imagine if your volunteers were trained properly and supported to help in donor outreach and solicitation. Selecting and involving passionate, mission-driven volunteers can make all the difference. They can function as an extension of your professional staff and open doors to funding sources that previously did not exist.

All these services and more are available to you by partnering with a consultant like the exceptional team at Empreinte Consulting. We have seen the benefit in relation to our own philanthropic activity. Hopefully, this article has sparked interest in how these services may help your organization.

Looking to get in touch with Nancy or Marc? Reach out today: [email protected], [email protected].

Corporate and Foundation Philanthropy Programs – Giving with Impact

August 3, 2020/in Charitable Giving, Corporations, Foundations, Fundraising

Corporations and Foundations can have a profound impact on nonprofits through philanthropy. With all that is happening in the world today, this is a perfect time to build, reevaluate or expand philanthropic giving programs. Corporate philanthropy (corporate giving or corporate social responsibility) are becoming increasingly important—companies that haven’t given back in the past are taking a hard look at how to change, while foundations that do have a history of philanthropy are reevaluating their programs to make social responsibility more of a thoughtful process and priority.

Corporate philanthropy is a voluntary investment in social causes, issues or nonprofits. “Doing well by doing good,” is certainly a good start when positioning a program, but to see genuine change, corporate giving should be so much more.

Philanthropic giving programs must be strategic, cost-effective, value-enhancing and deliver a meaningful impact. It should never be treated as a “check the box” program. It must be executed just as professionally and proactively as any other core business plan.

In our experience as philanthropic consultants, we’ve witnessed a majority of giving program as being scattered and unfocused—an occasional donation made to a random gala, university or hospital; an in-kind donation to a golf tournament; or a haphazard sponsorship budget that is given out here and there without regard for a company’s mission, vision or goals. When there is no genuine, cohesive plan or consistent community investment, there’s no community impact.

A corporate philanthropy program must align with philanthropic pursuits that best match the existing corporate culture of your business, mission statement, products, services, social and economic goals. Most importantly, you need to understand how to make those pursuits mean something. At its core, those pursuits can consist of:

Employee & Community Engagement

Corporate giving programs help deepen the relationship with employees, customers and community. It can also increase employee and customer happiness and retention.

Recruitment

Make a name for your business and help to shape the values of the next generation workforce. Additionally, giving programs can be used as a benefit to attract employees and top talent.

Impact

Fostering meaningful partnerships with nonprofits, making a difference in the local community where you live, work and play. It’s important to measure your giving programs and communicate impact, celebrate success and evaluate on how to continuously improve.

From the ground up, strategic corporate giving programs must involve your employees, your customers and the community to ensure that your actions will harvest maximum change. If done right, philanthropic efforts can be a success for the communities you support, engage your employees, enhance your brand, build relationships with customers and improve your bottom line.

The Consultants at Empreinte Consulting, LLC help businesses and foundations enhance the impact of their philanthropy. We can help you establish a philanthropic plan or enhance your current corporate giving program—making your charitable dollars work smarter and reach further. We look forward to talking to you about how that can help your organization and the communities you serve.

How Nonprofits Can Manage the Post-COVID Impact

June 3, 2020/in Charitable Giving, Fundraising, Industry, Nonprofits

As fundraisers and nonprofit consultants, we have learned very valuable lessons from the COVID crisis. Nonprofits were under extremely trying circumstances as they attempted to quickly adapt their systems and programs and were forced to stretch their already limited resources and funding. As nonprofits continue to adapt to the ever-changing landscape, the question remains: what’s next?

Over the past few months, we have spoken and worked with many nonprofits that are worrying about how they will continue to sustain important programs, services and funding sources. These organizations foresee deep scars and a struggle to return to pre-COVID strength. We continue to advise organizations that adaptability and agility will be important in navigating the economic and societal uncertainties, shifting priorities and in building a strong organizational foundation to tackle the post-COVID future.

As nonprofits begin to transition and plan for life after this pause, here are some key takeaways and tips in helping nonprofits to adapt to the impact of the crisis while building the future.

Realign Your Strategy & Fundraising Plans

If your organization has not already done so, now is the time to step in and temporarily realign your organization’s strategy and fundraising plans. Instead of looking at your plans on a one, three or five-year level, refocus and reevaluate at the one, three to six-month mark to rethink and refine your nonprofits goals, objectives and metrics.

Review your organization’s funding needs and how the crisis has resulted in changed priorities. Conduct funder research to find good prospects for new and emerging services. Emphasize donor engagement and retention.

Reevaluate and continue to review your organization’s annual grant proposal and development calendar and update it frequently. Additionally, consider mimicking a year-end appeal now instead of year-end. Donors that intend to continue their giving are concerned about the increased need in their communities. Explain how your organization’s mission addresses these needs through personal stories, if possible. When you work to retain your donors while broadening your network of supporters you position your organization to withstand hard times.

Reexamine Your Mission & Vision

Reexamine how your organization frames the value of your work and why your mission matters now. Revisit your vision and how it relates to social impact—the impact you’re trying to create and how you plan to create it. Then share this messaging with your donors, volunteers, partners and staff to educate, rally and motivate.

Communicate, Communicate, Communicate

Continue to prioritize outreach and have honest conversations with your volunteers, donors and stakeholders about the status of your organization to make sure they understand your needs. Ask them direct questions about their plans and intentions so that you can get some sense of the reliability of your revenue streams. If you are finding volunteerism is declining due to health concerns, brainstorm and communicate ways for regular volunteers to be of service, particularly if they can assist from the safety of their homes.

Additionally, ensure that your organization shows appreciation often. Plan for the long term by creating new ways to communicate and engage with your supporters. Use video acknowledgements, hand-written thank you notes, text updates and phone calls from board members to recognize donors, key prospects and volunteers.

Rethink Event Planning

Don’t cancel summer or fall events…rethink them. Events can be a large percentage of annual fundraising plans, consider hosting virtual events, auctions and holding flash fundraisers to replace them.

During this challenging time, Empreinte Consulting, LLC continues to offer our perspectives and lessons learned from years of experience working in nonprofit advisory leadership and consulting positions. Please contact us to learn more about best practices and optimal strategies to help your organization build a path through this crisis and beyond.

How Nonprofits & Philanthropists Can Adapt During COVID-19

March 19, 2020/in Charitable Giving, Empreinte News, Foundations, Fundraising, Nonprofits, Philanthropists

This is a unique time in our history as we are all adapting to a new way of living with COVID-19 in our communities. Nonprofit organizations are living in a world of uncertainty as they must cancel events and limit their interactions with donors. Philanthropic revenue is such a critical part of every nonprofit’s operational budget and there is no question that this virus will put a financial strain on several nonprofits. During this temporary shift in activity, the organizations that plan and strategize will prove to be the most effective moving forward. Ask yourself, will you be prepared to fundraise effectively once this is behind us?

It is easy to panic during these uncertain times and question what steps to take as an organization. However, this may present the perfect opportunity to assess your operations, develop a thoughtful strategic plan and create a clear message of need that will resonate with your donors. Looking inward during this time will allow you to engage your donors in a meaningful way in the future. Nonprofits that are organized, well run and impactful when using philanthropic dollars will continue to be the most appealing to donors and have the greatest impact on our community.

When we council our philanthropic clients, the first thing that we assess is the organizational efficiency of the nonprofits they are looking to support. What is your cost to raise a dollar? How well are you able to clearly articulate the need for philanthropic support and the impact it will have on your mission? Are your nonprofit leaders strategic, thoughtful and mission driven? These are critical questions that will determine whether a donor makes a gift to your nonprofit or chooses another organization. This is especially true for major and principal gift donors.

As an altruistic philanthropist looking to help a mission that is important to you and your family, how do you decide where to allocate your limited budget? This is a critically important question that may not always be easy to answer without proper guidance.

The consultants at Empreinte Consulting bring more than 100 years of collective fundraising experience and are positioned to partner with you during this difficult time. Whether you are a nonprofit looking to develop your strategy and determine how to engage donors, or the philanthropist and corporate leader looking to impact your community, we are here to help. Taking the time now to develop a plan will make all the difference in the world and ensure the greatest impact on our community.

#helpingthosewhohelpothers

Marc Misiurewicz

President

Empreinte Consulting, LLC

How to Fundraise Effectively

February 27, 2019/in Charitable Giving, Foundations, Fundraising, Nonprofits

How Can I Fundraise Effectively?

Fundraising is often the foundation for many low- and non-profit organizations. It can be the difference between an entity thriving and folding. When done inefficiently, fundraising can be an utter waste of time and resources, but when done correctly, it can make all the difference. Here are five steps that you can take to make your fundraising a success.

1. Set clear expectations. One of the major issues businesses have when it comes to raising money is that not everyone is on the same page regarding expectations. In addition to knowing how much money you wish to raise (the amount you want after expenses are accounted for), it is important that you set up a well researched, thought out strategy in order to achieve your goals. These should be highly focused and take into consideration the organization’s long-term goals.

2. Budget. In order to keep a good hold on how much your organization is spending, every event necessitates a full budget, itemized by various expenses to be capable of holding the event. This includes things such as space rental, utilities, hired workers, food, and invitations. Your budget should also exist with your fundraising goal in mind. This is so that you end up raising more money than what is necessary to pay for the event. It is also good practice to budget for emergencies or other unforeseen issues.

3. Clearly define how the funds are to be used. No one wants to donate money when they don’t know where it is going, what it is to be used for, and how that use will help to propel the organization forward in light of its goals. Communicating an internal rate of return (IRR), which demonstrates how a donor’s money is moving the organization towards a sustainable lifespan, is effective for larger donors, who don’t wish to be approached again later on.

4. Define your target audience. Any plan is inefficient and often ineffective if it does not include a well-defined target audience. It is important to identify which group(s) of people you wish to attend. Your target audience could be anyone and everyone or a specific group of people (e.g. young professionals).

5. Assign the right tasks to the right people. There are several important roles that your team will undertake in order to make the event a success. These include:

Askers – These are individuals who understand the skill and timing associated with asking for donations.

Connectors – These are the individuals who are well-connected and can help to make valuable introductions.

Engagers – These are the relationship builders, who have the ability to communicate well and nurture relationships.

Stewards – These are the individuals who interact with, nurture, grow, and promote donor relationships.

It is most important to pair individuals with the positions that play most to their strengths and avoid their weaknesses.

While fundraising can be time-consuming and at times frustrating, when done correctly it can help to achieve goals and relieve financial pressures that may often arise. To learn how to most efficiently and effectively fundraise, it is a good idea to consider a consultant for your team. These individuals have the knowledge and experience necessary to make a huge impact on your organization, so that your organization can continue to make a huge impact on others.