As your team works on its year-end appeal, someone suggests a new program that could attract donors. It’s easy to get excited about what that funding could make possible, especially when you’ve been working hard to bring in support.
Before including it in the appeal, ask whether this is the right work for your team. Does it serve the people your organization exists to help, or are you considering it mainly because it could raise money?
A year-end appeal should help donors understand why your work matters and what their support would make possible. Trouble starts when the fundraising story begins to determine which work the organization takes on.
In “Nonprofits Can Be Ruthlessly Competitive,” Jim Morgan describes how organizations can choose projects because they make compelling fundraising stories, rather than because they reflect the organization’s strengths or address the most important needs.
That can happen without anyone intending to change direction. A proposed program gets a good response from a donor. Someone adds it to the appeal. Before the team has decided whether it belongs in the mission, the organization has begun asking people to fund it.
One question can help your team pause and make that decision:
Would we choose this work if it were harder to raise money for?
If the answer is yes, you should be able to explain why the program belongs in your organization’s work and how it would help the people you serve.
If the answer is no, take another look before putting it in the appeal. The opportunity to raise money deserves consideration, but your team also needs a reason to take on the work that the money would fund.
A new program can be a sensible way to carry out your mission. The important thing is to make that choice deliberately, with the people responsible for the work involved in the decision.
This week, have the development lead and program lead review one year-end appeal together. Make clear which programs your organization already runs and which it is proposing. Ask what new work the appeal would promise to donors and whether that work belongs in your mission.
If there is a concern, bring it to the executive director before the appeal goes out. Agree on what the organization intends to do, then make sure the fundraising story reflects that decision.
Share this with a colleague who is preparing your year-end appeal. The free Applied Wisdom booklet offers more practical guidance for the decisions nonprofit teams face.
P.S. Jim Morgan’s Applied Wisdom for the Nonprofit Sector is now available in Spanish. Request a free digital copy and share it with Spanish-speaking colleagues.