Non Profit Development Strategy

Transposing product ideas to not-for-profit development is easy once you free yourself from preconceptions. First change the viewpoint. For example there are spectacular new cell phones offered when consumers buy, not an annual cell phone upgrade drive.

Fundraising can feels repetitious because your target audience may be shrinking. The answer is to find a larger audience! Bring people together to fund your spectacular mission. There are ways. Here are two basic concepts which, when executed well, can drive development.

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1/ Develop a community around your mission. Every not-for-profit organization has a natural audience for its message. That's the easy part, because that's the mailing list of donors, alumni, friends, family, interested persons.

In addition there is usually an untapped community, which when organized can be a powerful force for development. This community consists of people who have a parallel or tangential interest in some facet of your organization.

For example, if you are selling home furnaces, you need to build a community among repairmen, HVAC contractors, city planners, architects, homeowner groups, etc. The same is true for the non-profit organizations, there is a community to waiting to be organized.

2/ Is there a natural PR opportunity? The racehorse Barbolo went from admiration by among a small group of racetrack fans, to celebrity to millions of people in weeks. And these people sent massages, cards and bought flowers for the horse. Your organization may not save a beautiful racehorse, but you do have success stories.

Note: In many areas there are fewer newspaper pages to print the story. The solution is to take your story to new media. Ask someone under 25 for help. There is a whole online infrastructure that knows how to distribute a good story.