No plan? No funds!

"I need a plan" to raise money against.  So a professional fund-raiser told me as we discussed the work he does for charitable organizations.

It's hardly a surprise that a plan helps guide the request for funds and offers potential donors a map of how their funds will make a difference.  What was the surprise is what my fund-raiser friend said next.

"Most organizations that talk to me about raising funds for them don't have a plan."

Astonished, I pushed back.  "Are you really saying that the non-profits you encounter don't have a vision of what major benefit the funds they want you to raise will achieve and how the money will help them get there?"

The answer was blunt.  "Nope.  Often I'm asked to raise, say, a million bucks, and I ask them, 'What will this money achieve?'  They really can't answer the question other than say 'to keep us going.'"

In processing this conversation, I am struck by the starkness of the depiction of the non-profits my friend encounters.  They need money - don't we all?  They want a professional to help them get it - no issue with that.  But then they do not empower the fund raiser - much less their stakeholders - with a compelling vision of the specific difference that the funds raised will make, whether it be X homeless housed, Y children reading at grade level or Z bird breeding grounds protected.

I'd like to think it's not as stark as my friend makes it out to be.  But, then again, I think of all the organizations - profit as well as non-profit - that I have encountered and worked for and with over the years.  For the most part, beyond "keeping going" most of them had not articulated a compelling vision of the future nor had laid out nor were pursuing the specific strategies to get there.

Many of these organizations would have been hard pressed to arm my friend with the vision and plan he would need to effectively raise funds for them.