4 Steps to a Productive Partnership

Marketing and fundraising are two halves of a whole. But when they don't operate that way, the results are far less than they could be.

Unfortunately, that's the situation in most nonprofits where a single person doesn't wear both hats. As fundraising expert Mal Warwick told me recently, when marketing and fundraising teams remain stuck in their respective corners, the disconnect becomes a huge obstacle to building strong relationships and raising money. But there are ways to surmount this obstacle. Fairleigh Dickinson University broke out of this pattern via a deliberate, well-articulated restructuring. Here's FDU's strategy and results, and my recommendation of a four-step process to bring marketing and fundraising into a productive partnership.