Advance Fundraising Techniques, Essay Example

Our Organization Mission

The mission is to positively impact girls’ lives by working with their parents and local communities to enhance the realization of their skills and capabilities through football. We aim at ensuring that values and principles of protecting girls and young children are upheld at local and community levels.

Our Vision

This organization aims to empower girls through football, help them understand their basic rights, eliminate domestic violence and promote peace and self-realization through girls’ football in the local area.

Values in Achieving the Mission

• Develop the organization and young girls, especially through football
• Make decisions that have a research background to ensure the realization of the objectives
• Focus on highly vulnerable girls to enhance their self-realization
• Build new partnerships with same interest organizations and governments
• Improve modes of communication to expand the organization’s reach through the use of the most effective communication tools
• Deliver high-quality empowerment programs for young girls through football activities, and the invitation of mentors who would teach them human rights, desired health behaviors and realized personal skills and objectives.

 The Management

Our organization was established in 2001 by Martha Smith, whose aim was to improve the living of young girls coming from poor communities in a West African country, The Gambia. The organization gained significant growth, and by 2005, it had over 1000 young girls registered for the mentorship and football programs. In June 2006, the organization implemented the board of management amendment, which allowed girls’ football matches to be overseen by male referees. After realizing that young girls need protection and support from men to realize their potentials, most of them effectively are looked down upon as minority and incapable due to cultural beliefs and societal stereotypes.

The management for the organization includes:

• Marth Smith (Chief Executive Officer)
• James Adams (Communications and fundraising officer)
• Ruth Green (Human resource and customer relations officer)
• Joseph Cole (Community engagement officer)

Our services

We offer mentorship programs for young girls from age 7 to 17 years, football games, and civic education to girls about their rights and desirable health behaviors.

Strategies I used in managing people to realize successful fundraising

I used the following techniques in managing people;

• I adopted common organizational values by asking the team members what they value the most.
• I embraced realistic fundraising goals presented by the team and other stakeholders involved in the fundraising process.
• I also acquired skilled personnel to enhance the success possibility of the fundraising.
• I assessed and made changes to the organizational format, mixing team members to increase teamwork.
• I improved the communication systems to ensure that team members can share information quickly and on time.

Question 2

According to Maqbool et al. (2019), fundraising is how an organization pulls financial resources to enhance the implementation of their projects that benefits communities or maintain their day-to-day activities. Weinstein et al. (2017) argue that the key concepts to fundraising include identifying the organizational needs. I used this technique in the fundraising process by organizing meetings, implementing development projects, and conducting feasibility studies before implementing actual projects to establish the amount of money we needed from the fundraising. Freundlich (2019) argues that the organization must understand the target group, the available budget, and the deficit, the problem is solved, how long the funding is needed, and when the money should reach the organization. Also, government policies are essential in managing to fundraise and implementing the projects using the collected financial resources; therefore, I educated my team through all the legal requirements before establishing the fundraiser. Maqbool et al. state that organizations should conduct research on potential donors and what factors they consider before investing in a non-profit organization, their vision and mission, and how often they provide funding for various projects. We conducted collaborative research on potential donors after a collective discussion and suggestion of possible donors by various team members. Networking and the development of applications are significant parts of fundraising concepts because our organization aims at improving girls’ lives by enabling them to realize their potential. Networking with potential donors and similar non-governmental organizations allows our organization to introduce the current girls to new skills and challenges, expanding their thinking and knowledge on issues that affect them at local and national levels. The target is to minimize domestic violence cases against girls, eliminate school dropouts and improve the economic development of young girls who have completed school and business mentorship from various coaches.

I also noted that effective communication is the most vital part of fundraising. As the team leader, I have to explain to the donors what we do and why they should support our organizing and the project’s potential impact. Also, internal communication was essential in ensuring team members agree on various aspects of the planning. Following up and providing feedback to questions asked by potential partners and team members was an essential part of realizing the target fundraising goals. Additionally, meeting the organization’s fundraising targets was to boost our morale as a team towards realizing the objectives.

Question 3

Wooddell (2020) states that success in fundraising needs an effective strategy. For example, leadership must have skilled and connected individuals who can solve time and minimum effort. I knew that I needed information technology effort; that is why I recruited two new members of the IT department to ensure consistency and security of confidential information. The study argues that most non-governmental organizations ignore thanking their donors even though thanksgiving may motivate the donors to contribute the next time the organization organizes a fundraiser; I ensured that our communication team followed up with the players and appreciated their efforts in coming to see how our organization is progressing. Also, employing connected and skilled fundraisers increase success since they know the strategies and elements that would lead to success quickly.  The study further states that our organization can easily succeed in fundraising by presenting a good course to potential donors. Most institutions that donate to organizations consider the impact a project would have on the target group and the viability. A persuasive course of action is likely to bring desired results. Previous success is essential but selling the vision to the potential donor is equally significant for realizing the funds (Tempel). Therefore, the provision of specific, concise, and achievable goals to the donors can persuade them to fund the organization and ensure the realization of the targeted vision.

SWOT Analysis for our Organization

Strengths

Our organization is experiencing increasing demand for girls from the surrounding communities and girls from the neighboring communities every year. The organization registers an increase of 5 percent in the population. A signifier that the community positively perceives the program’s impact. Additionally, we have signed two major donors who have signed a ten-year deal of funding, ensuring the security of the ongoing projects and the implementation of new projects soon.

Weaknesses

High illiteracy level makes it challenging for some parents and community leaders to allow their girls to participate in the projects, especially those that do not believe in girl empowerment. Additionally, some religious and cultural beliefs hinder girls from participating in football from the perception that it is a boys’ game, acting as a barrier to developing the organization’s programs. Inadequate staff is also a challenge due to the increasing population. As a leader, I give people the liberty to do what they want and feel is right for them and the organization.

Opportunities

We have partnered with local governments and manufacturing companies to increase civic education about the organization’s programs through radio and television advertisements. Also, the announcement of a tender to construct new libraries will help in accommodating the increasing girls’ population within the organization.

Threats

Inadequate funding and increasing population lower the quality of service offered by the organization. Poor technological access also leads lack of attendance to online mentorship programs offered during Covid 19.  The establishment of new similar organizations with adequate infrastructures is likely to lead to massive migration of the current population.

Question 4

Gunasekaran et al. (2018) define operations management as administrative practices that enhance efficiency within the organization. Some of the issues I experienced as the leader in my group by organizations in operations management include; listening to feedback where I had to act quickly and resolve negative feedback, especially if it is posted online and everyone has access to the information. Also, I noted that regulations by governments might be challenging, especially when they directly impact the organization. The competition was good because it leads to improved service delivery; however, when there is unfair competition between organizations, especially when seeking donors, it requires specialized skills to solve the challenge. Additionally, uncertainty such as covid19, inadequate staff and cyber-attacks are some of the biggest issues experienced by most organizations. For example, our organization had some of our projects stopped due to covid19, while those organizations with limited staff have their projects taking longer to be complete. Cyber-attacks may ruin the reputation of organizations by leaking confidential information to the public or creating a bad image online, leading to the withdrawal of funding by donors, therefore stoppage of operations (Tempel). It was my biggest concern, especially when [people were at home due to lockdown even though our organization was relatively safe from external computer attacks.

Question 5

Technology has led to the transformation of fundraising processes by various organizations. For example, our organization uses social media to attract potential sponsors and donors. According to Bhati et al. (2020) fundraising process of an organization begins by identifying the most promising and potential donors; this is the strategy I encouraged my team to apply. We researched the potential donors and established whether they would be interested in the projects conducted by the organization through teamwork. Secondly, as the fundraiser team, we cultivated the information acquired to ensure reasonable decision-making. The third step that followed was approaching the potential donor by giving details about what our organization does, the intended projects, the mission and the previous success and the current long-term and short-term goals. Finally, we built a relationship with a potential donor through communication and followed up, which lead to funding and continuous partnership.

References

Maqbool, N., Razzaq, S., Ul Hameed, W., Atif Nawaz, M., & Ali Niaz, S. (2019). Advance Fundraising Techniques: An Evidence from Non-Profit Organizations. Pakistan Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences, 7(1), 147-157.

Weinstein, S., & Barden, P. (2017). The complete guide to fundraising management. John Wiley & Sons.

Freundlich, M. (2019). Diversifying fundraising and marketing activities online in an NGO: Case: Dalit Women Forum.

Wooddell, M. (2020). Fundraising and resource development. In Teaching Nonprofit Management. Edward Elgar Publishing.

Gunasekaran, A., Dubey, R., Fosso Wamba, S., Papadopoulos, T., Hazen, B. T., & Ngai, E. W. (2018). Bridging humanitarian operations management and organizational theory.

Tempel, E, R., Seiler, T. L., Aldrich, E.E., Achieving Excellence in Fundraising, 4 th Edition

Danvers, MA: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. ISBN 9781118853825

Bhati, A., & McDonnell, D. (2020). Success in an online giving day: The role of social media in fundraising. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 49(1), 74-92.