5 Signs You're Ready to Hire a Community-Centric Fundraiser at Your Nonprofit
By Esther Saehyun Lee
In the ever-evolving landscape of nonprofit management, one thing remains constant: the need for funds to drive your mission forward. But fundraising isn't just about asking for money. It's about building genuine relationships with your community and ensuring that your donors feel connected to your cause. This is where a Community-Centric fundraiser comes into play.
But how do you know if you're ready to make that investment? How do you know if you’re ready to shift your fundraising practices and ensure they’re centered in equity and social justice?
Here are five signs that indicate you're prepared to hire a CCF fundraiser, invest time and money into your fundraising efforts, and shift to more equitable practices:
1. You Recognize the Value of Relationships Over Transactions
If you've come to understand that long-term donor relationships are more valuable than one-time gifts, you're on the right track. A community-centric fundraiser focuses on nurturing these relationships, ensuring that donors feel valued and connected to your mission. You’re not hyper-fixated on revenue, you’re committed to cultivating a donor base that is aligned with your organization’s mission, values, and the community you serve.
2. You’re Confronting a Scarcity Mindset
Are you constantly chasing the next big donation or grant, only to find yourself back at square one when they run out? Are you constantly looking for quick fixes for your revenue development rather than focusing on long-term gain?
There’s no doubt about it. The looming revenue goal will always be a stressor to organizations. If you care about your mission and your organization, you’re always worried about being able to fund its operations. OF COURSE.
But the question is, are you ready to accept that this is a consistent reality and focus on developing a strategy that’s not reactive but strategic? Are you ready to expand your vision of fundraising and its goals for your organization? Are you willing to confront YOUR scarcity mindset and shift to focusing on long-term gain?
3. You're Ready to Build Relationships with Your Community, Not Just Cater to Them
Building Relationships and donor engagement is not just about sharing impact reports that share only the good of what the organization does. It’s about building relationship and trust to a point where you can be transparent about the work you’re doing, the good, the great, the bad, and the ugly. If we’re to truly commit to the principle of building trust and relationship with your donors, then you have to be ready to share all of the work, not just the parts that look good in an annual report.
4. Your Work is Centered on Community, Not Individuals
It's not just about telling your story; it's also about listening to your community's needs and feedback.
It’s not easy to be a nonprofit leader and be ready to hear critical feedback about the organization’s work. But it’s necessary to ask for feedback from the community, truly engage in this dialogue, welcome it, and adapt. If you’re ready to approach this work with humility, knowing that the shift to equity is an unending exercise in humility, then you're ready to shift your practices to community-centric principles. You’re ready to work with a CCF fundraiser.
5. You're Prepared to Invest in the Long-Term
Hiring a CCF fundraiser is an investment in your organization's future. If you're ready to allocate resources (both time and money) to build a robust fundraising strategy that will serve you for years to come, it's time to make that hire.
Hiring a fundraiser who is committed to Community-Centric principles is to hire someone who is willing to confront the discomforts of applying equitable practices to fundraising- every day. You’re hiring someone who is looking to foster deep, meaningful connections with their donors. It's about more than just raising funds; it's about building a community that believes in and supports your mission. If you see these signs in your organization, congratulations, let’s change the way we raise money, let’s focus on how we can support each other, and let’s build communities the way we need to- in a way that centers them and not just individuals.
