How do you balance your passion and professionalism in fundraising?

Understanding the mission and vision goes beyond simply restating whatever language an organization has already adopted to describe its purpose and direction. To intentionally and effectively communicate the work and what success in it looks like to audiences, develop rich key messages that can be repeatedly shared in strategic ways (e.g., conversational exchanges, email messages, social media posts, direct mail) to consistently focus attention on the main thing. When you have clear messaging targets, you are aimed to communicate with greater confidence. Your passion for the cause shines through in ways that inspire the most ideal prospective donors to feel a personal connection with the impact the organization seeks to make.

Know your why and start with the end in mind, then work back to what the organisation requires to achieve the goals of what you are fundraising for.

Within fundraising you need to have flexibility in your objective setting. If you are only looking to measure one or two financial metrics, you are likely to fail. By measuring insight levers such as supporter satisfaction, intent and motivations to support will not only help you better understand your fundraising activity but lead to improving it, before cancelling something that didn't hit an income target. Purely income targets stifle innovation, growth and harm wider organisational understanding of your work.

The merging of professionalism and passion (in this case, assumed to be driven by personal affinity) can come together in expressions and actions of authenticity. Fundraising is not simply 'sales' - it is a partnership with philanthropists with the goal of making a positive impact in line with personal values, dreams, and interests. If fundraisers are transparent and authentic in partnering with philanthropists, their passion AND their professionalism can shine through. Self-aware professionals should know when their passion is a help or a hindrance in their work. Those who aren't self-aware? Well, that's a different post for a different topic.

Positive fundraising - demonstrating how your project will bring about change (and not always stories of gloom), demonstrating value for money, maintaining regular communication, meeting expected requirements such as reporting timelines.

Build evaluation into your project plans. Identify what you need to measure and how you are going to do this. Try and seek feedback wherever possible. Read blogs, news and reports from the sector.

"Invest in your capacity to earn" is how Brian Tracy, one of my favorite authors puts it. Don't stand still; keep getting better and better at building relationships, securing broad support for your mission and of course, unlocking financial resources for your nonprofit. Be aware of sectoral trends from localization, AI in fundraising to USAID CFR regulation changes; and take advantage of them.

I've discovered that having a network of peers in this field has been key. It can be hard to communicate the challenges of balance and self-care as a fundraiser to my partner, whose profession is very different. Speaking with other fundraisers provides an avenue to both celebrate each other and commiserate together!

This was a great read. In my experience it is impossible to overemphasize the importance of fundraising through relationships. Your strongest investments will come from people in whom you have already invested. That said, you must resist the urge to expect those same people to invest and fight the natural feeling of disappointment if/when they don’t.

It is also important to be Passionate. We cannot forget why we are doing this work. Your passion for the cause can be contagious and can inspire others to get involved. Just be sure to channel that passion in a way that is professional and respectful.