Thirteen Signs It’s Time to Transform Your Approach to Fundraising

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We're inviting fundraisers, leaders, organizers, and volunteers (new and seasoned alike) to imagine their roles more expansively and embrace approaches to mobilizing resources that build and amplify community power.

Registration is open! If the list below speaks to you, come join a group of budding resource mobilizers in our new fundraising training:

From Fundraiser to Resource Mobilizer: Changing Our Perspectives and Practices to Shift Power 

Thirteen Signs It’s Time to Transform your Approach to Fundraising (a non-exhaustive list of things that might be calling you to think about fundraising in expansive, creative ways that help build power!) ...

• Every connection you make with a donor or supporter feels more like a transaction than the beginning of an actual relationship. 
   
• You know that fundraising isn’t just dollars and cents, and you want to help others think creatively about resources, as well.
   
• Co-workers see you as the “money” person and don’t understand your contribution to the organization.
   
• You hear “because we’ve always done it like that” and know intuitively "that doesn't mean it has to be that way!"
   
• When a donor has questions or curiosities, you notice only executive leaders have the “answers.”
   
• You find yourself spending more time chasing wealthy donors than building power with the community you serve.
   
• You feel disconnected from the “real” work, and sometimes it feels like you don’t even work at the same organization as folks focused on programs.
   
• You feel obligated to appreciate and take any form of giving, even when it impacts staff time, energy, and morale.
   
• You feel burned out, out of ideas, and unsupported by your organization.
   
• You’re clearer on your values, political beliefs, and purpose in social justice work than ever before, and you want to move resources in a way that reflects the truth about what brings you to social justice work. 
   
• You see and hear untapped brilliance and wisdom from your co-workers and community members and wonder how it could be shaping donor cultivation.
   
• You can feel energy and momentum building in movement efforts all around you, and you’re eager to connect the way you move resources to the swelling tide of justice and liberation work. 
   
• You’re driven by a genuine spirit of gratitude, connecting with people, and connecting folks to bigger social change efforts.
   
• You can see how oppressive dynamics around race, class, age, and gender show up in philanthropy, and can feel in your gut that it’s part of your role to challenge them in your fundraising, too.
   

Registration is open! Start re-energizing your approach to fundraising with us at the next From Fundraiser to Resource Mobilizer: Changing Our Perspectives and Practices to Shift Power