The original question posted to the discussion was this:
New and small charitable organizations are often faced with a chicken or egg scenario - they need to fundraise but don't have the money to pay for fundraisers or consultants. What's your suggestion to deal with this challenge?
There have been some great answers, including pursuing capacity-building grants that are specifically for things like hiring development staff. However, one participant in the conversation is the ED of a small Habitat for Humanity. This poor guy sounds so discouraged and stuck. They have no more money to spend for the next two months, basically, and it sounds like he is doing everything himself. Here is his solution:
We just need someone to donate about $250,000 (a quarter of a million dollars) to us so we can start doing the things that other non-profits are doing (i.e. fundraising). unless something like that happens, we'll be the same non-profit 20 years from now as we are now.He goes on to share that the Board of Directors doesn't do much, no one in their county is willing to help and the only thing that will ever change their situation is if some major donor decides to swoop in and rescue them. He is doing everything from buying the bottled water to give volunteers to writing the proposals for small grants. This means he clearly doesn't have a lot of time to research and purse major grants. You can check out the entire discussion here.
My first thought is that this ED is out of sync with reality to lay the blame for the struggling nonprofit at the feet of the rich. He is not alone in this opinion - I hear it a lot, especially from those that are not connected to the larger nonprofit sector. However, blameshifting is never productive. While we wait for someone to rescue us, our organizations will fall down around us. There are hundreds of thousands of nonprofits in the US and they all would love to have a quarter million dollar grant fall in their lap. (And rich folks love nothing more than having desperate people circle around them telling them that they should be their savior, right?) The problem still remains that without some cash to pay a fundraiser, how do they get to the big grants?
My second thought is that the ED is doing a lot of work that a volunteer should be doing. I understand that rural areas might present more of a challenge for getting regular volunteers, but even one volunteer for a few hours a week might take some of the pressure off this poor guy. He can send someone to Wal-mart to buy water bottles. A trustworthy high school student could do that. And considering that Habitat is such a universally loved nonprofit, I would imagine that there are churches in the area that might have the vision to help beyond the hammers and nails. What other ideas do you have for how the organization can attract and retain quality volunteers?
My last thought is that dealing with Board Members can be frustrating. I don't envy him the challenge this particular board seems to present. Here is an article about dealing with problem board members. I don't have a lot of personal experience working with board members, but would be very interested in how others have dealt with them. What suggestions are there for getting people moving in the right direction?
What thoughts, suggestions do you have for a small, rural nonprofit struggling to build capacity?
Photo credit.
