Don’t Panic, Project
Is your nonprofit facing a budget shortfall? Don’t panic, project. I got a tough question that I know a lot in our sector are dealing with right now. “My nonprofit is facing a budget shortfall. How do I reach out to donors and ask for money without panicking?” It’s a fact. Donors are holding back. Whether it’s due to the economy, concerns about the nonprofit sector, or just a lack of trust generally, a lot of donors are reducing their giving. So a lot of nonprofits right now have 5%, 10%, or more budget shortfalls. And you want to tell your donors how urgent it is without coming off as needy. The nonprofit that asked the question had an appeal letter going out to its core donors. Now, they had already been asked for money, and the response was – minimal. This nonprofit needed to get their donors to realize the urgency of the situation. The letter started off with a brisk thank you, and then talked about how tough the year had been, before going into the shortfall the nonprofit needs or bad things will happen (shuttering programs, closing facilities, etc.). Sounds good, at least honest, right? THE HONEST TRUTH Here’s the thing. No one wants to support a sinking ship. When a donor gets an outreach from a nonprofit they support and it’s desperate, you lose trust. You fall into the need category instead of the exciting category. If you do get anything, you’ll be operating at a deficit with that donor. More likely, they’ll just ignore your letter. You can only support so many needs at once. FOR PROFITS HOLD THE ANSWER So you need to do what for profits do. Advertising titan David Oglivy famously said “in a recession, those who stop advertising lose ground.” Smart businesses know that tough times are the time to cast vision the hardest, not pull back. When sales are down, you double down on ads. Explain your benefits better. Launch a new product. You get yourself out of the slump, don’t just hope it passes you by. WHAT YOU DO INSTEAD Instead of panicking, project. Instead of your letter or outreach stressing how much you need for your programs coming up, think bigger. What are your plans for the year? What is something incredibly exciting you can do? What is the gap you’ll be filling? What is the critical need of the people you serve, the incredible work you do, and how you can help even more people next year? Instead of a half hearted thank you and a cry for help. Project what the future holds if they give. And show your donors you are leading the charge towards that future. You’re not in a crisis because the need wasn’t clear. You’re in a crisis because your donors aren’t thrilled by the work you do. That nonprofit? They reworked their letter. Started with a genuine thank you. Talked about their accomplishments. And casted the vision for the future. They raised half their annual campaign goal in one week. Their budget shortfall is almost gone. And they put pluses in the relationship bank account for later. Lead your donors into the future, and they will follow you. If you want a copy of that letter the org sent, happy to give it to you. Join my email list and you’ll get resources just like this all year round.
This Book Will Change Your Life
I bought a book last week. Well actually, I bought 20 of them. If you’re my 1:1 client, you’re already getting this (Merry Christmas!) If you’re not, here’s why you should get it. There have been thousands of books written on fundraising. There have been very few books written on asking strangers for money. There have been even fewer that give the exact words to say to get the gift. And there is exactly one written by a major gift fundraiser who has raised hundreds of millions in the past decade. This book is it. And, it’s under 100 pages so you can read it in between Christmas dinner and presents. There used to be only one book I’d recommend to all my clients – Asking, by Jerold Panas. Now there are two. Mary has given you a discount until Christmas – a preorder link is here. Gift yourself with word for word scripts to ask for money – and you could be putting 7 figures under your tree. Join my email list and you’ll get resources just like this all year round.
You Thought Grants Would Be Easier
This weekend, I got to spend some quality time with my 3-year old son. As a millennial does, I decided to teach him my phone game. In it, you play a marble. Your job is to roll across the course, across obstacles, over jumps, and down narrow bridges… and get to the end without falling into the water. I watched him try it over and over again. He would drag the ball up a hill, only to watch it roll down again. Splash. He tried this approach over and over again. Drag up > splash. Every time. Eventually he got frustrated and put the game down. Well, he chucked my phone, but he’s working on his emotional regulation. Baby steps. I have tried telling him to swipe fast to get the ball to roll up. But he said no, he wanted to do it this way. Because in his mind, the game is to drag the ball. It got me thinking about how nonprofit leaders approach grants. To most small nonprofit EDs, grants are the way you play the game. You drag the ball up the hill with hours of funder research, long applications, and 6 month waits for a response. Sometimes you get lucky, sometimes you don’t. Often you just splash. When you splash, you just drag harder. Here’s the thing though. You can just swipe. You don’t have to spend dozens of hours writing an application and praying to the grant gods that it gets approved. You don’t have to apply for grants that aren’t quite a fit because you’re reaching. You don’t have to pay thousands every month for a grant writer. Right now, there are a “cloud” of potential donors surrounding your nonprofit – vendors who support you, board member connections, influencers, and community leaders – all of whom would love to support your nonprofit. And don’t require a 1,200 word essay to do it. In 2026, commit to looking at other ways to roll the ball. Build a reliable system for your individual and corporate donors. …end your feast-and-famine grant cycle… …and don’t keep dragging the ball up the hill. Like Shari, Glen, and Thomas, who raised $50,000 from individual donors this year and hired staff, Abby, who raised $15,000 and launched her nonprofit, and Bill, who doubled his corporate sponsorship for his event series. Individuals and businesses are ready to support you. You just have to let them. If you’d like to explore what that might look like, you know where to find me. P.S. Want your board to get active in 2026 too? My good friend Sarah is putting on a great class December 11 at 12:00 PM EST – how to get your board to take action in 2026. Check it out and get the help you need to fundraise: Registration link here. To a great 2026, Your fundraising coach, Join my email list and you’ll get resources just like this all year round.
The Numbers You Need to Know for Next Year.
Welcome back. Even as hard as I’ve worked my entire career, I’ve always taken Thanksgiving and Christmas off. There’s something about these holidays with family that allows us to rejuvenate, think, and remember the people we ultimately do this work for. Now that the food coma from the first one is wearing off, and you have a few weeks before Christmas, you might be asking “What should I focus on now?” There are, realistically, 21 days this month. Here’s how to make the most of them. If you’re running a fundraising campaign this month, send out your meeting requests this week. Add something to your message like “Something exciting I’m working on next year” and get those donor meetings in. With rare exception, any meetings set up after this week are likely going to be in January or February. Do it now or forever hold your peace. For the rest of you, and for the campaigners once you’re done with your scheduling, the best thing to do this month is get your numbers. And I don’t just mean your total revenue – you should already know that one. I mean the numbers that lead up to your total revenue number. Specifically, I encourage you to review 7 numbers for the last 3 months. Hours, Prospects, Outreach, Responses, Meetings, Donations, and Thank Yous. Hours = The approximate number of hours you and your team spent on fundraising each month. Prospects = The number of new potential donors you added to your CRM each month Outreach = The number of outreaches you made to ask potential donors for meetings. Responses = The number of people who responded to you. Meetings = Self-explanatory Donations = $$$ Thank Yous = The number of thank you messages/cards sent to donors. Review these numbers for November, October, and September, separately so you can see trends month to month. Once you’ve done that, it’s time to review. Here are your expected minimum targets for your nonprofit: Time: 6-10h per person for part time/volunteer, 20 for full time Prospects: Minimum of 10 new per weekOutreach: Should be 100% of prospects, so at least 10 per weekResponses: At least 50% of outreachesMeetings: At least 30% of outreachesDonations: At least 10% of outreaches If any of your numbers aren’t hitting your percentages, start with the topmost one. Congratulations, you’ve now identified the exact roadblock holding back your fundraising in 2026. If your numbers are hitting targets, but you’re still not raising enough funds, the problem is a lack of prospects. Your system works, you just need to feed more people into it. These numbers tell you exactly what you need to fix in your fundraising for next year. I.e. the number one roadblock holding your nonprofit back from fundraising next year. Identify that, and you can make the right changes for next year. P.S. Want my Super Simple Fundraising Tracker to make it easy to track your numbers all year round? Join my email list and you’ll get resources just like this all year round.