I have been working with fundraising for over twenty years, and I constantly come across the following question: “…but you have a large network because you can’t just present my Project to your financiers?” So let's see. A person comes to me with a Project, often for him, is a "great Project”. When I say excellent Project, I always put it in quotation marks, because, for the father, the Project It is always beautiful, wonderful, easy to sell, there is no equal on the entire planet earth. And, fortunately or unfortunately, it does not necessarily matter to the donor if his Project is beautiful or wonderful, or if your institution serves dozens, hundreds or thousands of people at the lowest possible cost, often with the sweat of its poorly paid or not always paid employees. What matters is whether or not the financier/donor/collaborator is interested in your Project.
How successful is a pickup? It's not just having network. My network of relationships from yesterday may no longer be useful for my fundraising today. Building and developing the network of relationships is part of the issue, the most important thing is to develop and maintain the Share capital of the relationship, this demands efforts and Investments constants.
Let's check a hypothetical case, for example: Pedro has a beautiful Project and knows a fundraiser that has a network of relationships/financiers that adhere to that type of Project. Basically the problem would be to connect one point to another and that's it, simple as that, right? however, it is exactly there, in this simplicity, that the difficulty lies. In the example reported above, by an irony of fate, the capturer ended up introducing Pedro to one of his financiers. Pedro, realizing that there was an opportunity, asked the Financier of that pickup for a Donation for your Project. And the financier actually ended up making a Donation. Thus, in the next projects, Pedro contacted the financier repeatedly, without success in getting him to contribute to his new projects. Why was Pedro unhappy in the following requests, since that financier had been favorable to him at first, since he knew him, knew the seriousness of his work? Well, in addition to running over his pickup, which, in my opinion, is a very serious mistake, he confused the first Donation as Share capital your relationship with the financier. What was missing in the relationship? at the very least, it was trust.
O Share capital it is based exclusively on the relationship of trust, this is missing, the relationship is falling apart. A financier may donate to you once, or may even donate to you sporadically, but that doesn't make him a partner, until you learn how to win him over, and here lies the second problem, why? Why trust relationships require investment. Investment of time, attention, affection, affinities, mutual and reciprocal interests, empathy, requires the ability to give oneself without asking for anything in return, etc., in other words, constant investment in the relationship is necessary. And that's something many people and many institutions don't want to do, or can't do, simply because it's hard work and demands a lot of time, people and money.
Thus, one of the premises for being a good collector is to build and develop the Share capital relationship with your donor, investor or financier. In this case we are using here the sociological term of what we call Share capital, not the accounting concept of social capital.
On Wikipedia Share capital, It is: “…refers to the implicit value of a social network’s internal and external connections…”, and social network here can be online and offline networks.
Share capital It's something that makes online and offline relationships significant It is cheerful. And so that the Share capital exists is necessary, among other things, trust It is reciprocity.
Thus, returning to our case above, Pedro or his Institution had difficulties in retaining the potential financier, simply because there was a lack of trust in the relationship and consequently in the Share capital of this relationship.
So, if you want to have a good perspective of success in your fundraising, know that in the relationship between donor, your check or your Donation, should not be confused with the Share capital of this relationship, they are disparate and often even antagonistic things. Reversing this logic is a clear recipe for failure, or at the very least, a lot of work with little prospect of loyal recurring revenue.
A hug and success to everyone.
