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Recession is not time for you to cut back your fundraising efforts mainly because fundraising is all about advertising in the right way. You really need to stay right in front of all your donors in order for them to donate funds to your organization as soon as they are ready to do this. For instance, you should build an e-mail list in order to start a newsletter series that will keep your donors “updated”. Also, you may a start a blog and invite each of your donors to participate. Pushing the emotional hot buttons is another wise thing for you to do during recession times because your donors will understand that other people are likely to suffer even more than them. In order to prevent the current economic climate from affecting your fundraising efforts, you should pay attention in order not to make any of the following mistakes. Spending less on your fundraising is a common mistake that many fundraising organizations tend to do during recession times. So, you must keep in mind that asking for funds costs money and extreme caution is to be exercised when looking for current budgets to trim and fundraising activities and costly mailings to plan. For instance, many fundraising efforts can actually be tweaked in order to improve their overall effectiveness. Such tweaks may increase the amounts of money you raise and reduce possible costs related to your fundraising efforts. Remember that spending less on your fundraising efforts is likely to become a sort of self-fulfilling prophecy mainly because less investment may result in fewer funds to be raised by your organization. So, if you have to tighten your budgets during recession times, you will have to pay attention in order not to cut too much from your fundraising programs. Becoming pessimistic is another deadly mistake when trying to raise the necessary funds for your organization. Raising funds should be all about shedding light on all the positive and good things that are still happening around. Next, you should make sure that you and your fundraising team does not apologize when asking for funds because timidity is to be regarded as a quite sure-fire way when it comes to raising money. Staying understanding and compassionate is a key factor when it comes to addressing donors who have a certain financial reality. Many of the donors cannot be able to donate funds at the same level and your organization needs to understand this in order to transform every donor, regardless of his/her financial situation, a strong proponent of your organization in the future to come. The best method to have your fundraising efforts recession-proofed is by raising funds in a way that can strengthen your relationship with your donors. This means that you will have to keep on making some really wise investments in each of your fundraising efforts, stay really upbeat and continue to raise the necessary support in a compassionate way and without apologizing for doing this in a recession period.
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