Day 13: Do I Have Enough Money?

Day 13: Do I have enough money?  After you have your strategic plan in place, you need to figure out how to pay for everything in the plan.  Maybe your organization is blessed with a lot of money.  But most of you could always use more.  My advice is very simple, hire a professional fundraising firm to help you raise the money.  We have observed several of the firms in this field do great things for ED organizations.  There are a select few that work with economic development organizations.  A sample company is Convergent Nonprofit Solutions.  These companies will provide a full service fundraising effort that includes providing staff to go out and do the ask.  Some key questions to ask these firms is:  How do you handle feasibility studies?  What are the steps in the campaign?  How much do you want to raise in the quiet phase?  How are the volunteers involved in the process?  What are the total fees?  Make sure you get references and make sure you call the references!  It is amazing how many people don’t check references.  These organizations can raise millions of dollars for you over a five year period.  Our observation is most of our clients don’t have enough money to effectively do their job.  Next: Incentives anyone?

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