How to Fundraise During Turbulent Times

We’ve all been anxiously waiting for the other shoe to drop on the looming economic recession that was predicted for 2023 — except now that prediction is running out of time. But, that doesn’t mean similar projections aren’t being made for 2024. 

That’s why on the final day of Nonprofit POWER in Baltimore, Maryland, Bill Stanczykiewicz, senior assistant dean for external relations at Indiana University’s Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, led the keynote session, “Fundraising in Turbulent Times” to help the nonprofit professionals in the room make sense of data and the wealth effects of charitable giving as they prepare for multiple scenarios in 2024.

Stanczykiewicz said that, as nonprofit professionals, no one should be strangers to turbulence. 

“When you first agreed to be part of the philanthropic sector, you have decided to step into the gap of that child who needs a mentor and an awareness of the sense of opportunity,” he said. “You've decided to step into the turbulence of a family that's been victimized by domestic violence. You've been choosing to be part of the turbulence of job training, workforce development and economic development for a broad range of our society, especially those who've been marginalized.” 

He continued, “You've been advocating for justice, promoting the arts, connecting people to healthcare, also promoting the environment, animal welfare. You have signed up for turbulence. And the turbulence that is in front of us with fundraising is no greater than what we're already signing up for in the work that we do.” 

To explain that things aren’t as bad or statistics aren’t as drastic as they may appear, Stanczykiewicz used news that came out in the summer from Giving USA that showed giving has been on a downward trend and declined by 10% in 2023, but that data was adjusted for inflation, not in current dollars. And when looking at current dollars, the decline is only 3%. 

“So, if you have factored inflation into your budget, established your fundraising goal and you met your fundraising goal, then the inflation-adjusted number is less relevant,” Stanczykiewicz said. 

Be Careful About Your Definition of Generosity

Stanczykiewicz also explained that a decline in charitable giving actually may be the fault of fundraisers. Not because they’re not doing a good job or trying hard enough, but because their idea of generosity is skewed. 

This means that if you’re only going after those on the higher rungs of the economic ladder, then there will be a decline in charitable giving because fundraisers are not considering all walks of life. 

“It is not just MacKenzie Scott or Robert Smith,” he said. “It's people like my mother-in-law who was on her fixed income in retirement before she passed away and was still donating $20 to public television and $25 to the humane society and putting in a little bit of money on Sundays at mass — that was generous based on her income for retirement. Let's make sure we're being fully inclusive of all of our donors and making sure they all have an opportunity to participate and not just pursue for understandable ROI reasons.”

Stanczykiewicz also used Buffalo Bills’ safety Damar Hamlin as an example. Saying that after he’d had his near-death experience on the field during a game, his crowdfunding campaign, which was only designed to raise $2,500 to buy toys for kids in low-income neighborhoods, raised $10 million — and the average donation was just $40. 

And why was that? Stanczykiewicz explained that people simply wanted to feel like they were a part of the solution. 

“Make people aware of how they can be part of the solution,” he said. “Show them ways that they can have an impact, and make it easier to donate to that level that is generous to them. That's why you can have a sense of the possibility of a growth mindset. Even in these turbulent times.”

Maintain Your Donor Relationships

When it comes to fundraising, Stanczykiewicz emphasized that your donor relationships should always come first. 

“The most important factor your fundraising is always going to be your relationship with your donors,” he said. “I can't tell you how many donors say ‘I give the gift and then I never hear from the fundraiser again until it's time for the next gift.’ Let's stay in touch with our donors in ways that don't always involve asking them for more money. It can be simple direct meetings, big events or whatever the case might be. Stewardship is essential with your donors.” 

It’s important to maintain this stewardship because during a recession, the hardest donor to attract is the new donor. He said that donors will support the nonprofits with which they have the closest relationship during a time of economic downturn, yet another reason for stewardship. It's just hard to get those newer donors during an economic downturn, but if you maintain good relationships with your current donors, new ones will come. 

Overall, Stanczykiewicz emphasized that during a recession, giving doesn’t drop to zero. 

“Keep that in mind,” said. “It doesn't mean you don't need to do some cuts and belt-tightening, and it doesn't mean it's going to be easy, but it also does not need to be a calamity.”

Also at NonProfit POWER: Adapting to Ever-Changing Technology

Greg Harrell-Edge (from left) of the nonprofit CoachArt and Mark Becker of Cathexis Partners join together for the session, “Tech for Good: Navigating the Nonprofit Frontier.”

After the keynote session, Mark Becker, founder of Cathexis Partners, and Greg Harrell-Edge, executive director of CoachArt, spoke on the technology that is transforming the nonprofit sector in a session entitled “Tech for Good: Navigating the Nonprofit Frontier.”

The speakers opened up the floor to allow a free-flowing conversation with audience members. In response to an audience question about whether the innovations will become more intuitive — like connecting your phone to a Bluetooth speaker with a “boop” — Becker said it will happen.

“There’s a lot of great point solutions out there, and they do what they do really well,” Becker said. “But at the end of the day, you need to connect them with other point systems — your donation forms need to go to your CRM, and your CRM needs to communicate to you that email marketing, social campaigns, and text messaging, and all of that needs to flow in the right directions at the right times. And I think those ‘boops’ are happening more and more often because of the innovation happening across all industries.”

Another attendee brought up the experience of technology being “an afterthought” rather than a priority, and asked how to reverse that.

“Give it a shot,” Becker advised. “It’s OK to fail. Try it, and with technology these days, you can try it quickly. Many times, you can try out different platforms or services without a long-lasting contract.”

Harrell-Edge said that for several years, he has anticipated a breaking point in technological innovations for nonprofits, and he believes that moment is now upon us.

“The last few days, the conversations here — it feels like it’s happening, and it is exciting and interesting,” he said. “It’ll be really interesting to see where everything goes from here.”

Although we have many pieces of the technology puzzle, there is a need to develop a comprehensive vision that spans an organization.

On this point, Harrell-Edge gave the leaders in the room a call to action for when they return to their teams: “Say, ‘Here are the great fundraising tools and ideas that I came back from this conference with, and here’s the programmatic stuff — and we’re going to build a holistic vision and methodology, and talk about how to pull it all together.’”

The day ended with 1:1 meetings between attendees and sponsors, followed by closing remarks and short rib, mashed potatoes, and carrots for lunch. Take a look at the gallery below to see photos from day three of NonProfit POWER.

After the third day of the event came to a close, attendees departed NonProfit POWER.

A nonprofit attendee meets with GrantWorks.

Funds2Orgs meets with a nonprofit attendee during one-on-one meetings.

Nonprofit attendees get facetime with a variety of organizations that serve the nonprofit sector.

Save the Date for NonProfit POWER 2024

Next year's NonProfit POWER will take place in December 2024 in Baltimore. If you're interested in attending in 2024, fill out the NonProfit POWER inquiry form.