{"id":10518,"date":"2012-09-05T09:41:10","date_gmt":"2012-09-05T13:41:10","guid":{"rendered":"\/news_blogs\/john\/?p=10518"},"modified":"2023-12-22T08:58:24","modified_gmt":"2023-12-22T13:58:24","slug":"evaluate-your-fundraising-worthiness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cccc.org\/news_blogs\/john\/2012\/09\/05\/evaluate-your-fundraising-worthiness\/","title":{"rendered":"Evaluate Your Fundraising Worthiness"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Who is responsible for fundraising success<\/strong>? Most ministry leaders spend at least 40% of their time fundraising, so they are partly responsible. Some agencies have fundraisers, so they are partly responsible too. But the player with the most influence on fundraising success is rarely considered\u2014the organization itself. The best fundraiser will not be successful if working for a ministry that donors<\/strong> do not deem worthy of support. So before reviewing the performance<\/strong> of the fundraising staff, leadership should do a \u2018worthiness review<\/strong>\u2019 of the organization. In this short excerpt from a module I wrote for CCCC’s Advancing Stewardship II course <\/a>(being offered in November), I give\u00a0an overview of how to do a worthiness review.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two Vital Worthiness Factors<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

From the donor\u2019s perspective, there are two key questions related to the ministry as a whole:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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  1. Are your strategic statements clear and compelling and is the tagline motivational?<\/em> These statements form the core of your appeal to donors and they are the connection between what your ministry does and the cause your donors want to support. The statements must motivate prospective donors who are interested in your cause. They must be clear about the external change your ministry intends to make in the world and lead potential supporters to say \u201cI\u2019d like to get behind that and help.\u201d Your job is to connect your prospective donor\u2019s passion with your ministry\u2019s mission.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. Are you really making a lasting change in the world and how can you prove it, or at least demonstrate that you are having an effect outside of the ministry?<\/em> Donors don’t just want to see activity. According to Penelope Burk, \u201cA donor\u2019s prime needs are to know the gift was received, to know the gift was set to work as intended, and to know the project or program is having the desired effect.\u201d[i]<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    Proving Lasting, External Change<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    Some ministries have missions that are difficult to tangibly measure, but any measurement is better than no measurement. You can use stories to add the human factor to your statistics, but stories alone are not as convincing as stories and stats together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    If you find it difficult to provide hard data about your outcomes, another approach is to develop a persuasive theory of change <\/a>that explains why you believe that your work is accomplishing the mission. If you can develop a logical connection between your mission and your programs, donors will be able to follow each link in the connection and test it for reasonableness. The overall result is that even if you can\u2018t provide tangible proof of success, you can provide logical evidence that success should be the result of your work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Worthiness Review Questions:<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    Based on these considerations, here are some questions that will help you evaluate the organizational context for your fundraising program. Be sure to answer them from your donors’ perspective:<\/p>\n\n\n\n