Learn more about this topic at our FREE webinar on March 26, presented in collaboration with The Good Partnership and Keela. Click here for more details and to register.

Most people who are saddled with fundraising in small organizations are fundraising out of necessity. They need to fundraise. They need money for their important work.

But given the choice, they’d much rather be doing something else. Anything else. 

Which is why small organizations struggle so much with fundraising. The people who are fundraising are, what I call, reluctant fundraisers. They didn’t choose to fundraise. It’s not part of their career path. They are learning on the fly and piecing together training and education on a shoestring budget. Most of the time, they are spinning their wheels and just trying to survive. 

This might sound familiar. Here is what it usually feels like, or sounds like, when someone is a reluctant fundraiser:

• No matter what you do, you just can’t find the time to fundraise.
• When you do try to fundraise, it never seems to work out or be successful.
• Fundraising always feels like a chore – the very LAST thing you want to be spending your time doing.
• There are a million reasons why you KNOW fundraising won’t work for your organization – you’re too small, no one has heard of your organization, you need to re-brand, your board isn’t involved, you don’t know anyone who can give money.
• Everytime you try to learn about fundraising, it feels like it’s designed for large organizations, not small ones like yours.
• You feel like you’re spinning your wheels and not making any progress, despite trying a million different things.

Having talked to and worked with hundreds of reluctant fundraisers, I’ve heard this collective chorus over and over again.

When asked about what their fundraising challenges are, I’ve heard people say “literally everything related to fundraising.” Wow. That’s a giant hurdle to overcome!

Reluctant fundraisers often look for the easy way out – which is usually a quick fix or magic bullet that will make fundraising feel easier. They look to different fundraising strategies: trends like crowdfunding or “easy” corporate money. They list off names of big philanthropists who would give if only they knew about the organization. They write tens or hundreds of grants every year, sending them off into the grant abyss, hoping for a generous reply.

The irony is that many of the quick fixes or magic bullets are really only successful with a lot of work or meaningful connections! In fact, they are often more work than some of the tried and true fundraising strategies that make us uncomfortable – talking to people about supporting our organization. 

In order to raise more money, we have to feel differently about fundraising. 

If we feel like fundraising is “icky” or like “selling out”, if we feel that we aren’t skilled in fundraising, if we feel like we just aren’t good at fundraising, well then, we’ll never get good fundraising results!

In fact, there’s neuroscientific evidence to the fact that the more we believe something to be true, the more our brains look for evidence to support it and ignore evidence against it. So if we believe we aren’t good at fundraising, or that we can’t raise money for our small organization, our brain is subconsciously working to support that belief. It’s estimated that 95 percent of brain activity is beyond our conscious awareness. So, for 95% of the time, our brain (and therefore our behaviour) is working against our fundraising success. We are self-sabotaging. 

This is where that feeling of spinning your wheels comes in. We feel like we’re working so hard, but we’re not getting results.

So, how do we re-train our brains and start to feel good about fundraising?

I’ve created 4 reluctant fundraising archetypes that help you identify the exact belief system that is holding you back from fundraising and a new set of beliefs that are empowering. I call these new beliefs your fundraising alter-ego, because they are going to change the way you show up for fundraising. 

Each fundraising alter-ego represents another, powerful, version of your authentic self. It leverages your beliefs into a mindset that is more productive. It’s not about being someone else – it’s about finding your authentic approach that is comfortable and achievable. 

To find out your fundraising alter-ego and start to raise more money for your small nonprofit, visit: https://signup.thegoodpartnership.com/cvquiz

If you’re tired of the constant disappointment of unsuccessful fundraising and persistent worry of not having enough money, then it’s time to look inside for the answers. That requires understanding your fundraising archetype, digging deep into your fundraising mindset, and giving you the tools to find your authentic fundraising superpower.

Join us for a FREE webinar on March 26, 2020 at 1pm ET / 10am PT to deep dive into your fundraising alter-ego. Register here.