Feb 22, 2007

Wait Wait Wait… this should be called “Do Your Job, Tell Your Story, Ask for Money”.

I just met with someone that is in charge of donations for a hospital. The hospital has over 160 beds and they give over millions of dollars a year in free services. They provide the free services by donations given to the hospital’s foundation.

My new friend is in charge of raising money for this organization. And after visiting with him for almost an hour, I realized that he has the same problem most organizations have. He doesn’t have a problem with his internal operations. His problem, like most organizations, is they aren’t good at telling they’re story.

Fundraising is a three step process:

1. Do the work your customers expect and make sure they’re happy
2. Tell the success stories
3. Ask for the money

Like all the other great organizations that aren’t well known, my friend is good at number 1 and number 3, but they haven’t been telling their story. In essence, it’s a marketing problem. Remember, no matter what happens, if you rely on fundraised money, you have to be good at all three of these. If you’re bad at any of them, all three suffer.