Fundraising Sustainability Is Built Between Campaigns

Dear executives, board members, and CEOs,

There is a rhythm to transactional fundraising that almost every nonprofit professional knows.

The campaign launches. Suddenly fundraising is everywhere. Staff are sharing posts. Board members are reminded to contact their networks. Leadership is making calls. Emails are flying. Everyone is watching the thermometer. There are updates at staff meetings, reminders at board meetings, and increasingly frantic conversations as the deadline gets closer.

Then the campaign ends. Everyone exhales. And fundraising quietly disappears until the next time the organization needs money.

That's the problem; We tend to think the campaign is the fundraising. I think the campaign is where we see the results of fundraising work that should have been happening all along.

Sustainable fundraising is built between campaigns.

The Campaign Shouldn't Be the Starting Line

I've worked with organizations where launching a campaign essentially means rebuilding the fundraising program from scratch.

Who are we going to ask? When did we last talk to them? Who knows this donor? Which board members will participate? Do we have any prospective major donors? What happened to everyone who gave last year? Do we have their correct contact information? Who is writing the emails? Who is making the calls?

Those are important questions. They're just terrible questions to be asking for the first time two weeks before a campaign launches.

A sustainable fundraising practice answers them throughout the year.

Donors are being stewarded before the next solicitation arrives. Prospects are being identified before the organization needs their money. Board members are building relationships before someone hands them an appeal script. Corporate partners are being cultivated outside sponsorship season. Grant opportunities are being managed before the deadline becomes an emergency. Leadership is meeting with supporters even when there isn't an ask attached.

None of that work is particularly dramatic.

There's no countdown clock. No campaign thermometer. No giant check for LinkedIn. But it's the work that determines whether the next campaign begins with relationships—or a list of strangers.

What Happens After Someone Gives?

Transactional fundraising is very good at getting to the gift. Sustainable fundraising is obsessed with what happens next.

Let's say someone gives $100 to your year-end campaign. The transaction is complete. You asked. They gave. Your campaign total increased by $100.

Now what?

Do they receive an automated receipt and disappear back into your database until the next appeal? Or does someone actually notice that a human being just decided to invest in your organization?

Do you thank them? Do you learn anything about why they gave? Do you show them what their generosity made possible? Do you invite them to experience the mission differently? Do you know whether this was their first gift, their fifth gift, or their first gift after three years away?

Most importantly, do you have any idea what you'd like the relationship to become?

That $100 gift could become another $100 gift next year. It could become $10 a month. It could become volunteering, an introduction, attendance at an event, a corporate connection, a board prospect, or eventually a major gift.

Or it could become absolutely nothing.

The difference is often what happens between the campaigns.

Your Annual Fund Should Actually Be Annual

This is one reason I think we need to reclaim the idea of the Annual Fund.

For some organizations, "annual fund" has essentially become another name for the annual appeal. Once a year, we send some letters and emails, ask everyone for money, and call it an Annual Fund.

That's not how I think about it.

An Annual Fund is the year-round engine of your individual giving program. Appeals are part of it, but so are monthly giving, major gifts, peer-to-peer fundraising, tribute giving, donor upgrades, reactivation, acquisition, stewardship, cultivation, events, and the different giving vehicles that allow people to deepen their relationship with your organization over time.

The goal isn't simply to create more ways to ask people for money. It's to create more ways for people to participate in philanthropy.

When those pieces are intentionally connected, campaigns stop functioning as isolated fundraising moments. A year-end donor can move into monthly giving. An event attendee can enter a cultivation pathway. A peer-to-peer donor can become a direct supporter. A longtime annual donor can become a major gift prospect.

Now the Annual Fund isn't something you turn on every November. It's moving all year.

Stewardship Is Not the Break Between Fundraising

I think one of the biggest reasons organizations fall into transactional fundraising is because we mentally separate asking from everything else.

We fundraise during the campaign. Then we steward. Then eventually we fundraise again. But stewardship is fundraising. So is cultivation. So is relationship-building. So is thanking someone well enough that they want to stay involved.

The donor meeting where you don't make an ask is fundraising. The phone call from a board member thanking someone for their first gift is fundraising. The program tour that helps a supporter understand the work differently is fundraising. The email sharing an impact story without a donate button screaming at the top is fundraising.

These activities may not create immediate transactions, but they create the trust that makes future transactions possible.

If every interaction with your donors contains an ask, you're not cultivating a relationship. You're repeatedly processing a customer. And philanthropy should be more relational than that.

The Quiet Work Is the Work

Sustainable fundraising can be frustrating because so much of the most important work doesn't produce immediate revenue.

Cleaning your CRM doesn't raise money today. Segmenting your donors doesn't raise money today. Building a major gift pipeline doesn't raise money today. Creating a grants calendar doesn't raise money today. Coaching board members on how to make introductions doesn't raise money today. Meeting a prospective corporate partner without handing them a sponsorship package doesn't raise money today. Creating a stewardship plan doesn't raise money today. Until it does. That's the part we sometimes forget.

Eventually the cleaner CRM helps you identify the donors you were losing. The segmentation produces a better appeal. The major gift prospect is ready for an ask. The grant deadline arrives and your team isn't scrambling. The board member makes the introduction. The corporate conversation becomes a partnership. The stewarded donor gives again—and gives more.

What looked like "non-revenue-generating activity" was actually building future revenue. That's sustainability.

You Still Need to Raise Money Now

This is where I want to be very clear: sustainable fundraising is not an excuse to avoid asking for money.

Sometimes organizations need cash flow. Sometimes they need it quickly.

Run the campaign. Send the appeal. Make the calls. Submit the grant. Ask the major donor. Get the sponsorship.

Queer For Hire's Sustainable Fundraising Model intentionally includes Cash Flow Fundraising because organizations cannot build a beautiful five-year donor pipeline while running out of money next Tuesday.

But cash-flow fundraising should exist inside a larger fundraising practice.

The campaign should create new donors you can retain. The grant should create a funder relationship you can steward. The sponsorship should open the door to a deeper corporate partnership. The event should produce relationships that continue after everyone goes home.

Every transaction should create an opportunity for what comes next.

Otherwise, you're going to need another transaction.

And another.

And another.

What Are You Doing When You're Not Asking?

I think that's one of the simplest ways to evaluate whether an organization is building a sustainable fundraising practice.

Look at what happens when there isn't an active campaign.

Are donors still hearing from you? Is leadership still building relationships? Are board members still participating? Are prospects moving through a pipeline? Are you learning from your data? Are grants being managed? Are corporate relationships developing? Are monthly donors being cultivated? Are lapsed donors being re-engaged? Are people being thanked, invited, introduced, and connected?

Or is everyone waiting for the next campaign?

Because if fundraising only becomes an organizational priority when you need money, you're going to spend a lot of time needing money. Campaigns matter. Revenue matters. Goals matter. Transactions matter. But they are moments inside something much bigger.

A sustainable fundraising practice is what connects those moments together. It's the stewardship after the gift, the cultivation before the ask, the relationship before the sponsorship, the prospecting before the deadline, and the engagement before the campaign.

That's why the strongest fundraising organizations aren't necessarily the ones that campaign the hardest.

They're the ones that never really stop fundraising—even when they're not asking for money.

Sincerely,

Queers

Queer For Hire provides fundraising support to Queer nonprofits, LGBTQIA+ cultural competency to straight-led organizations and corporations, and individual coaching for Queer professionals.

Learn about our Fundraising Services <here> – we’ll lead or support your fundraising efforts, whether you need general support or want to focus on raising money from and for the LGBTQIA+ community.

Learn about our Fundraising Trainings <here> – we can coach your board, staff, and fundraising team on how to fundraise and how to engage LGBTQIA+ donors.

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