Resourcing by Results

Fund-raising has long followed a hallowed set of traditions about prospecting for sources and grant writing. While outcomes are important, the focus is on needs identification, lofty mission and visions, and many other factors presumed critical to getting money.

For many government agencies and foundations, the new best way to support programs is to tell a great Result Story. This is done not just in proposals but in the complete outreach program of the agency, where the pictures of strong need are replaced by views of effective need response. An applicant need not wait for the right format before disclosing past achievement, core know how, and targets and milestones for the project needing support. In fact, the groups that lead in outcomes will be those that remain competitive in a period of scare resources.

We also bring in marketing concepts, and help groups to understand this continuum:

• Informing—what the person needs to know to stay engaged.
• Convincing—such that someone is convinced that a group is worth supporting.
• Persuading—such that conviction moves to the “sale”—a grant or contribution decision.

The sequence is critical. Too many groups think they raise money by informing alone—and try to tell prospects everything they know. They fail to see that most of us form convictions based on just 2-3 key points that are communicated to us in different ways such that we fully “get’ them. Some stop at conviction, not realizing that most of us find our convictions (e.g., to give money to a group we see profiled on TV or the internet) displaced by new convictions before we act on them. And most fail to understand the dynamics of “point of sale”—just who is making the decisions (it is never an organization) and what the best timing and personal touch will be to get the sale.

Finally, we look at resourcing as the gaining of key people as well as money. The same framework (results and effective marketing of them) hold for attracting board members and critical staff, for example.