Growing Friends and Funds for Hand in Hand

Fundraising, at its foundation, is building relationships. It is caring about people, getting to know them and what they care about, and finding the places where what they care about intersects with what Hand in Hand does.

There are three things we need to understand in order to be successful in fundraising:

• your feelings about wealth and money
• the importance of building relationships
• how to ask for what you want

Great news! We are especially well positioned to do that!

• We have the tools and support for understanding our feelings about money. 
• We know the importance of relationships and listening. 
• And we can learn how to ask for what we want. 

Here’s the crash course in fundraising…

The purpose of this training is to give all board members the understanding, tools and skills for fundraising in a way that is well supported, accessible and easy so that as an organization we have a positive fundraising culture that helps take Hand in Hand Parenting’s work to the next level.

There are many ways boards support fundraising, and stepping into and owning the responsibility is a tricky transition for growing boards.  These are one set of guidelines from a trusted source: 

• All board members embrace fundraising as a major part of their role.
• The board discusses fundraising at every meeting.
• All board members make financial contributions to the organization themselves every year. They recognize that, by giving, they provide evidence of the organization’s importance to them and thus set an example for other donors.
• The board recruitment strategy makes clear to potential board members that active participation in some aspect of fundraising is a duty of every board member. Nothing is more frustrating than asking someone to raise money when the person did not realize that doing so was expected.
• Board members participate in training that can help them expand their capabilities as fundraisers for the organization.
• Board members hold themselves and one another accountable for performance through annual self-assessments and discussion of accomplishments in relation to fundraising goals.

From Pages 6-7, FEARLESS FUNDRAISING FOR NONPROFIT BOARDS, SECOND EDITION / © 2008 BoardSource

Ultimately, raising funds = fuel.  We can’t go anywhere without it. This one role is the primary deciding factor in how many families will feel supported this year.  If we, as a team,  don’t make it happen, families are left in the dark, alone. If we do, families feel connected and supported and fueled.  Creating opportunities for friends, family members, colleagues, social networks, and perfect strangers to be a part of this mission is a profound gift for them and for the world.  We are all here because we believe in this mission, now we get to figure out how to share it with others so they can invest in it too.  We’re creating a foundation for future Hand in Hand boards to build on, this is a big turning point that we’re figuring out together!

Over the next three months, we’ll be:

• Getting a foundational understanding of fundraising 
• Building our Tool Kit, including the case for support and all the things you need to know to talk to donors
• Practicing connecting with donors

Here are the dates and groups for the training:

• Tuesdays at 10am PT/1pm ET:  9/14, 9/28, 10/12, 10/26, 11/9, 11/16 — Ron, Maya, John, Ken, Aanchal
• Thursdays at 2pm PT/5pm ET:  9/16, 9/30, 10/14, 10/28, 11/11, 11/18 — Kim, Patty, Liz, Teresa, Rachel