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There are different fundraising ideas one can turn into a business. Since the beginning of time, there has always been a need to be met. Fundraising evolved in the 20^th century; money was being raised for multi-million dollar projects and professional fundraisers were getting hired to facilitate fundraising campaigns.

Just like in every other business, there are strategies, laid down laws that guide the industry, and a few tricks to the trade you must keep learning. In this article, you will be informed on what knowledge you need to start, what your clients would expect, and other important details on how to start a fundraising consulting business.

As a fundraising consultant, you will be called upon to run capital campaigns which could take months to a few years to complete, train other people, evaluate your client’s fundraising policy and procedure, plan events, manage their donors’ database, raise funds through different means -which will be highlighted shortly- and more. The average salary according to statistics is between $36,000 and $54,000, depending on different factors.

Fundraising Methods

Fundraising come in different forms and can be done in different ways. Even in 2020, we still use a combination of modern day techniques as well as old methods to have a successful fundraising campaign.

• Canvassing: this technique is as old as time. It reminds us of trick-or-treating, the major difference being funds are expected to be got instead of candies. This type of fundraising involves moving from door to door to solicit funds for a cause. The success of this venture hugely rests upon the manner at which a potential donor is approached.
• Events: this is another method that has been around for a while. It is easier to have more donations to help meet a need when there is a gathering of people who are willing to give. Organizers set up events in the form of gala dinners, concerts, marathons, art exhibitions and other fun activities that would appeal to their target donors. Fun activities like games, food and even entertainment will come into the program to ensure that potential donors are in a good mood to make donations.
• Online Crowd-Funding: in the day and age of technology and social media, fundraising has found its place on online platforms. One of the new ways of raising funds is by soliciting funds from online platforms that are dedicated to fundraising. It is the new way by which many charities and even individuals have been able to get financial assistance from internet users all around the world.  It was recorded that more than $34 billion dollars was gathered through crowd-funding online in 2015. In the U.S. the first company to start a crowd funding platform was ArtistShare in 2001. Today we have many others that have supported startups, professionals and individuals to raise funds for different projects.
• Direct Mail Fundraising: before virtual mailboxes came around, conventional mailboxes were the means of sending and receiving letters, posts, bills and making donations. Today, we still have people who prefer the traditional means of sending checks to charities. More detailed information about what the donation is meant for can be conveyed more effectively through this system but since most people prefer the electronic system of sending and receiving mails, this method has its restrictions.
• Email fundraising: this is the electronic alternative to the orthodox mailbox fundraising technique. Email induced fundraising is like email marketing. Organizations solicit donations from individuals and other organizations through messages they send to their electronic mailboxes. They are easy and they don’t burn a hole in the solicitor’s pocket. However, fundraising through email faces stiff competition from hundred s of other email marketing campaigns which makes it challenging for potential donors to respond to them.
• Donation requests through phone calls: by now, it is obvious that fundraising borrows from marketing techniques and phone donation requests are no exception. Organizations and individuals receive phone calls from fundraising facilitators, charities and even religious organizations to solicit funds. It is noteworthy that calling people and organizations that know close to nothing about the fundraiser takes a lot of people skills and salesmanship to achieve positive results.

Fundraising as a business is profitable and can be easy to love for obvious reasons.

It’s a win-win for both parties

One of the good things about giving freely for a good cause is the feeling of satisfaction that comes from it. Fundraising is where people spend money and feel good about it. At the end of the day the fundraisers achieve their goal and the donors have a sense of fulfillment. It is a win-win for everyone.

The causes are relatable

In most cases, charities solicit funds to provide for the less fortunate and these basic needs are often relatable. It is easier for a donor to contribute financially to a cause when they understand the importance of that donation. It makes it more transparent and it alleviates fears of foul play of any sort by the fundraiser.

Expectations sometimes get exceeded

In many cases, charity events organized to raise funds for relatable causes have ended up exceeding the sum hoped for. In an attempt to raise funds to provide regions all over the world with vaccines to combat the spread of COVID-19, Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, staged a virtual event in June to raise about $7.4 billion. They ended up raising a total of $8.8 billion on the day.

Read Also: How To Start A Financial Planning Business

Qualities of a Fundraiser

As a fundraising consultant, there are qualities you should possess or at least work towards. You must be or have these qualities.

• A people person: In fundraising, you are taking from people to provide for some other people; it’s all about people. Knowing about people, what appeals to their emotional side, what drives and what irks them is what will make or mar your career. Experience from jobs in data entry and customer service in general will come in handy at some point because they involve catering to the needs of people- including the “not so friendly” ones- and being in constant contact with them through different means.
• A leader: The first thing about leadership is setting an example. Being a leader also means being responsible for your team’s output. You will be dealing with people from different backgrounds with different things going on in their lives and that’s where your ability as a leader gets tested. You have to make them feel valued, understand them, make them buy into your vision and most of all, and you don’t always have to tell them what to do; show them how it’s done.
• Integrity: A good name is better than silver and gold. Be transparent. Let clients see how their monies are being spent and let them know they can trust you. People will be entrusting their hard-earned money to you and it shows just how much faith they have in you. There might come a time when you would be tempted to take a bite from the apple but you have to be disciplined enough to see funds as “forbidden fruit”. If you can’t take the pressure of handling other people’s money, you can delegate that to a trusted member of your team.
• A visionary: Your vision should be larger than life. You must be someone who sees way beyond what their sight can capture. Vision will drive you, it will make you hungrier for success and that attitude can be contagious. Visionaries are easily innovators. They do things that are ahead of their time and they clear the path for others to follow. As a visionary, your business will stand the test of time because you will have seen things and prepared for them ahead of time.
• A researcher: Research is vital to the relevance of your fundraising consultancy career. The quality of your research will give you an edge over others in the fundraising business and more importantly keep you up to speed with new techniques and methods that will improve your service as well as helping you realize what your priorities should be. Accurate data, relevant statistics, and a comprehensive knowledge of the needs of people will only come through proper research.
• Great organizing skills: It’s easier to get a lot of donations at once when you have a lot of potential donors gathered in one place. Events are a very effective way of getting funds for your project and how you plan or organize fundraising events is the key to getting those checks. As time goes on, and as your fundraising consultancy career grows bigger, you may need to hire someone else to organize your events but it has to begin with you.
• A good communicator: It is one thing to have a good cause to support but it’s another thing to know how to make people, especially potential partners, clients and donors, buy into the idea. Many contracts have been lost not because the idea was terrible but because the presentation was not convincing enough. You must know how to appeal to the hearts of people and not their heads, how to state intentions clearly without mincing words and how to listen as well, especially to your clients- pay attention to detail.

Duties of a Fundraising Consultant

It is not enough to possess all these necessary qualities, you should also be aware of what your duties will include. Here are some things your clients will expect you to do.

• Make research on new development, prospective partners, donors and clients.
• Find high paying donors
• Maintain inflow of funds with different strategies
• Help manage their customer relationship and database
• Understand the client’s business and the cause they wish to support
• Help client plan and form fundraising strategy
• Be available on request
• Survey all aspects of your client’s fundraising strategy to know what changes should be made
• Construct touching and appealing messages to raise funds.
• Contact partners, clients and donors through various means of communication.
• Explore and understand fresher platforms for fundraising.
• Organize fundraising events.
• Teach and train employees and volunteers on fundraising methods and practices.
• Have a record of staff members, volunteers, and donor information including the personal ones for future complementary messages and well wishes.
• Appraise team performance and achievement of campaign or event.
• Keep the books
• Recruit volunteers and staff

Read Also: How to Work as a Startup Advisor

To start a fundraising consulting business, you must possess the necessary skills to get the job done. All of these skills are important and your potential clients might demand you have some or all of them.

Get some fundraising experience

Nothing prepares you more for life in the fundraising industry as having firsthand experience in the field. Before you start your fundraising business, test the waters and know how the game is played from the inside. You will have to organize events in the future, manage funds, meet deadlines, lead teams, give speeches, draft proposals, write letters, request for financial support, collaborate with partners, manage budgets, do legal paperwork and documents, deal with setbacks and be responsible for driving causes bigger than yourself, so you have to know your way around the business.

Know how to use online fundraising platforms and fundraising software.

Your ability to research and know how online fundraising platforms work will be the key to your success as a consultant. There are a number of crowd funding and other fundraising platforms like Gofund me that will boost the chances of helping your clients reach their goal, you must know your way around them.

An equally important knowledge to acquire is utilizing fundraising software. They will help make the total process easy and your clients will be impressed. There are software that would help arrange donors’ data, keep track of their recent activities and schedules so that you know the right time to approach them. Every form of organization will be easily done with these software and some projects might require that you have a good knowledge of these tools.

Know how to charge.

There are different criteria for determining how much you should charge your client. Every business is always looking for ways to cut costs while they get excellent service. This does not mean you should under-charge, but you should be smart about it. Compare the average industry charge per hour or per project and make a rate card based off of it. Keep in mind that the budget is a huge factor in determining how much you charge, as well as the magnitude of the event or project, the location and your experience as well. If you charge too high, you might lose potential clients, and if you charge too low, you could end up not getting the contract because some clients might thing quality service should not be so cheap compared to what they’re used to in the fundraising industry.

Get certified.

While it may not be absolutely necessary, it would be a boost to have a degree in a related field. Fundraising has to do with how well you interact with people to make them give you a portion of their money without seeking for anything in return thus bagging a degree in fields that involve customer service, customer relationship management and public relations will prove that you have something extra to back up your skills. Top organizations in search of professional fundraisers for hire often look at degree and any other relevant certification from a reputable institution.

Know fundraising finance laws and governing bodies

The importance of being on the right side of the law cannot be overemphasized. You will be working for different organizations- religious organizations, non-profits, government owned establishments, individuals from different field etcetera- therefore the laws governing these organizations in different field will vary. Knowing a bit about finance laws will save you a lot of trouble because a few individuals with ulterior motives might want to use the proceeds for their own selfish interests under your watch. Apart from that, tax related issues can be easily sorted out if you know your way around finance laws.

Work on your resume.

Start building a killer resume. This is where you will have an opportunity to impress your potential clients. Your resume should contain a plethora of successful projects that you must have completed in the past and even the ongoing ones if you must.  Let it state your experience with raising funds by showing how you raised funds for a client or your own project and how much you made. The overall success rate of your projects and how well you managed budgets as well as complementary notes or messages from previous clients should be included.

Now that you know a couple of things that will make you capable of doing a good job for your potential clients, it’s high time you “sold yourself”. Here are steps to securing that big contract.

Read Also: How to Start a Consulting Business

Join associations

There are many benefits to joining an association for fundraisers which include getting up-to-date information on new developments in the industry, learning from other people’s experiences, improving your general knowledge of fundraising and being in the company of peers that can be like a support group sometimes. In addition, one of the perks of joining an association is that you get to meet people, share your ideas, get invited to meetings and other events, and you get to know the “shot callers” in the industry. If you play your cards right and make your presence felt, with time, you might find yourself making friends in high places.

Have a strong online presence.

Nowadays, we do everything online. If your business is not online then it doesn’t exist in today’s world. Websites are now cheaper to build- get one. Social media is one of the most effective and cheapest ways to get your message across and sell yourself- use it. Understand the different online social networks and use them appropriately to show the world what you do. Upload pictures of former events, links to videos of events and campaigns you were involved in and follow other big consultants on their social media accounts to learn a thing or two and you might get recognized as well.

Stack up referrals.

This is a proven shortcut to success. It is way easier to get hired by someone who heard about you from a trusted friend or associate. It saves you a lot of time, effort, and money. When you consider how much an advert slot would cost, how much time you would have spent devising a method of approaching the client, the competition you would have been up against and all the mails and phone calls you would have had to make, you would realize how much of a life saver a good referral can be. So each time you get a client to work for, don’t just do your best job ever, make an impression and urge them to refer you to their associates and peers.

Publish articles

When you create a guide to functioning effectively in the fundraising industry, you’re standing out from the crowd. It means you have a wealth of knowledge about the field and passing on that knowledge in a literary manner will impress corporate organization. In addition, published articles add to your resume and you would also get opportunities to make speeches, train people on fundraising and your work which bears your name will travel distances you may never be able to reach at the moment.

Support others in the fundraising industry and volunteer.

This is another great and cheap way to sell yourself. Each charitable organization, private fundraiser or group of fundraisers, have their clientele and network of partners. When you support their events, publications and campaigns, they could return the favor by acknowledging you in public. It could be attending one of their events and offering to help in a particular area, making a donation or simple things like retweeting and sharing their online posts, commenting and congratulating them on a recent achievement (without doing too much, though). When they all start returning the favor, imagine just how far your name would spread.

Talk to people.

This technique is a no-brainer, right?  The surprising revelation is that modern day practices and the presence of social networks have made some people pay little attention to old techniques. Some people’s friends and family members don’t know they are fundraising consultants and it is killing their chances of getting known. Family and friends are usually the biggest supporters and cheerleaders who would be glad to advertise for you for free. Selling yourself by word of mouth is still effective. You could talk to people at your local gym, your yoga classes, at the grocery store, at the barbershop or at the hairdresser’s, anywhere you find people. You have to be smart about it so that you don’t give people the wrong impression or run the risk of getting a restraining order.

Be on the lookout for opportunities.

You have to be ready to take advantage of every situation as there are lots of people who are probably better and more experienced at the job. Send out proposals, look out for opportunities to give speeches at events and volunteer to coordinate an aspect of a major fundraising event. Propose a partnership between organizers of major charity and fundraising events that would make you place a banner or give out souvenirs with your name on it. Train greenhorns and volunteers to become professionals whenever you are called to. Offer discounts to organizations and visit other charitable organizations.

Finally, you have the necessary information, so start making your business seen, attend events, make yourself heard and valued, look out for openings and send those well drafted proposals. The key to a successful fundraising campaign is not just raking up a chunk of money for your clients, it’s when people donate for a cause and feel good about it.

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