Fundraising: Share with the community, and they will share with you

In the nonprofit behavioral healthcare world, government funding is never certain. This means that organizations, programs, staff and leaders are often forced to operate on the barest of financial margins. To create more stable and sustainable programs, many organizations have begun to emphasize fundraising and community contributions.

Typically when organizations think about raising funds or improving their funding, they think of several things:

• targeting individuals with a high net worth, including friends or acquaintances;
• involving them in one-time events that create pressure to give (golf tournaments, 5k races, dances, etc.); and,
• asking for gifts when donors have only a limited idea of the cause/mission of the organization.

For another type of fundraising – sustainable fundraising – the goals are to:

• invite people to learn about your mission;
• identify those who are sincerely interested, based on what they’ve learned; and,
• ask these potential donors to deepen their relationship to the organization over the long-term and to give from the heart.

The former method focuses on money and can be somewhat coercive, while the latter seeks and builds upon personal interest and engagement. It offers a sustainable approach that grows naturally as people become connected with the mission. When they become passionate about the cause, they will tell others, and so on.

One organization that is helping nonprofits on the pathway to sustainable funding is Benevon, which provides a sustainable funding model to nonprofit organizations. The key, says founder and CEO Terry Axelrod, is to reach out to the community to help them understand, then get involved in, the organization’s mission.

“It’s all about engaging individuals in the mission of the organization who ultimately will become donors,” she explains.

Getting inspired

Cindy Hart, development director at Bert Nash (Lawrence, Ks.) knows firsthand that a fundraising program led by this type of model is successful. Hart joined Bert Nash in 2009 and says that prior to her hire, the organization had done “pretty standard fundraising.” When CEO David Johnson heard about Benevon’s sustainable funding approach and suggested Bert Nash take a look into details, Hart wasn’t convinced. “I initially didn’t spend too much time with it because it was events, and I didn’t think it was really where we wanted to go. I was trying to work us away from events into more major gifts,” she explains.

As she tried to learn more, Hart spoke with the development director of a local theater who had adopted the approach. After she was invited to attend training sessions with the organization, she learned that the sustainable funding model wasn’t necessarily about major gifts and glitzy events, but more about connecting people to the mission. When she attended the theater’s ‘ask event’ (quite literally, an event the organization hosts to ask individuals and organizations if they will contribute to the organization) as an observer, to see how the event worked, she found herself so inspired that she ended up making a five-year commitment to the community theater.

She found that the biggest challenge in sustainable fundraising – for a community mental health center (CMHC) like Bert Nash, or another nonprofit organization -- is learning how to tell the organization’s story. Because of the stigma from others, and the reluctance (or so she thought) of people in recovery to tell their story, it was always a struggle to figure out how to make the community aware of the impact Bert Nash was making. However, the sustainable funding model provided a formula for developing and telling that story. Creating the story, a story that can be told to others, is the first step in the sustainable funding model.

Hosting a virtual tour

The second step involves creating an opportunity for people to learn about and interact with the organization – a ‘point-of-entry’ event.

Bert Nash’s point-of-entry event, “Discover Bert Nash,” is a one-hour virtual tour (using various displays and presentations) of the organization and the mission. Because of the scope of work and type of services that it provides – in the community, in other organizations, at schools, etc. – it would be “physically impossible” to take people on a physical tour. The event is open to anyone and people are invited to this tour knowing that it is not a fundraising event. The goal is to enlighten the community about “who we are and what we do,” says Hart.

Often people believe that CMHCs are fully funded by the government, Hart says. By following the formula in the sustainable funding model, Hart and her colleagues discovered that they had to help people understand and appreciate the Center’s challenges and needs. One challenge is that while the government provides some funding, the center faces an ever changing funding picture.

The event holds about 10 to 15 people per session and is organized by “ambassadors,” members of the community who commit to help in the Center’s outreach efforts. The “Discover Bert Nash” event is hosted by its board chairman, and features reflections from the CEO and staff members. The highlight is an individual’s story of recovery, before, during and after being treated at Bert Nash. “That really is the most moving for people—to hear from other people about their real experiences,” says Hart.

In the days following the hour-long event, Hart follows up with attendees to get feedback, answer questions, and see if they have interest in getting involved. Many times, this spurs conversations about getting people involved in mental health first aid classes, volunteering to help, or even learning how to refer a family member or friend to the center for assessment or treatment.

Making the ‘ask’

While point-of-entry events generate community relationships, increase awareness, and spark individual interest, they aren’t designed to generate funds. For that purpose, Bert Nash holds a free annual breakfast event.

Those in attendance learn about the organization’s accomplishments and challenges over the past year, the CEO discusses the vision for the coming year, a video is shared, and then the “ask” is made when the organization’s leaders explain to attendees “how vital these programs are to the community and how we can’t continue them without support from people in the community,” says Hart.

From the two breakfasts Bert Nash has had thus far, over a half million dollars in gifts and pledges has been raised. All of these funds go directly into operations. Hart says that the use of the sustainable funding model has helped to improve awareness of the importance of Bert Nash in the community and has influenced support.

“When people are thinking about where their philanthropic dollars go, it’s always a church or university,” she explains. “And we’ve been able to get on people’s radar so Bert Nash can be another one of those top priorities in the community.”

Sustainable funding can save organizations

The Council on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse (CADA) of Louisiana (Shreveport, La.) began using the Benevon Model in 2007 after having a successful trial run with it.

Over the six-year period that the organization has been utilizing the model, it has raised more than a million dollars in donations and pledges, says Jennifer Adams, director of development and marketing at CADA. One of the most important results was that, for the first time, the organization had a financial reserve.

And good thing it did. “It came just in time because the state changed their funding mechanism,” says Bill Rose, executive director. “They moved from state contracts to more of a managed care model and if it wasn’t for that reserve we had, we probably would have gone belly up in the last couple of years.”

He says that having that reserve in place helped CADA “fill the gaps” during this transitional period when payment for insurance billings could be 60 to 90 days.

Multiple-year pledges really help in planning, Adams says. “Some people have said they will donate $5,000 in 2016 and 2017 and that really helps us in planning for the future.”

More than money

Besides “filling the gaps” in funding, Rose says the outreach involved in its sustainable fundraising effort has had an impact on referrals, marketing, development, and community awareness. Although CADA has been around since 1958, many community members were unaware that the organization even existed, he explains. For a referral-based business, that lack of awareness of the programs and services that are offered was a problem.

CADA hosts a one-hour tour of the facility and mission as its point-of-entry event. This certainly has been a culture change for CADA, as people coming into the facility, clients sharing their testimonials, and staff participating as speakers, hosts, or ambassadors at each event.

“The whole goal of the Benevon model is to make your mission the message,” says Adams. “We have always had the same mission and we’ll continue to have the same mission but we’re really trying to spread the word and show people what we do. Rather than saying a program description for, we show results. How did we impact this person’s life? The model has allowed us to do a better job of telling our story.”

For CADA, the only event that the organization kept on their schedule was the annual meeting and dinner. The cultivation events for donors, which are all free,  “can be as simple as a reception at someone’s home where you have a couple of client testimonials, updates on any organizational changes, new programs that are opening or closing, and also volunteer events,” says Adams.

The community awareness part has other serious benefits for the organization as well. Some people may not have the funds to donate but they do have time and a desire to help out in some way – they will spend their time to volunteer at the facility or drop off items to donate.

“With addiction, I feel that people are either understanding or not so understanding. Either way is fine,” says Adams. “I’m just glad they know about us should they or anyone they know ever need our resources.”