8 Ways to Diversify Your Fundraising Strategy

By Ellie Burke
www.classy.org

Similar to the way that a well diversified investment portfolio helps shareholders, it can pay off to diversify your fundraising revenue streams. If you rely heavily on one strategy, such as a large annual event, your organization’s overall success and growth becomes dependent on that single event and its outcome. Therefore, your mission and the people, places, and things you impact also rely on that one major event as well.

 Though you may do all that you can to plan for a big fundraiser, you can’t guarantee everything will go smoothly. What if a horrible storm prevents attendees from making it to your annual gala? Recently, the Academy of Music was forced to cancel their annual fundraising ball due to a state of emergency in Philadelphia. Their primary source of income was lost for the year due to something entirely out of their staff’s control. The success of your organization and its programs should not be left up to chance.
 

While we can’t always eliminate risk, we can mitigate it. This is where your expanded fundraising portfolio steps in. By investing in different areas, a downturn in one wouldn’t likely impact other components in your portfolio. Instead of breaking all the eggs in your basket, you’ve just dropped one.

 If you’re currently using a limited number of strategies, you’re missing an opportunity to employ other methods that can help expand your audience, increase revenue, and protect the health of your organization in the event of a downturn. Use the following suggestions to supplement traditional events, grant writing, and your standalone donation form. Each section includes helpful tips for getting started.

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