Capacity-Building Grants: Learn to Be a Self-Sustaining Nonprofit, Part 2

RCFB also launched some online-giving campaigns during the lower donation periods of the year to “smooth out the giving cycle,” Gagen says.

During the 12 months of the capacity-building grant, RCFB accomplished the following:

• Renamed the organization, rolling out a new logo, website and social-media strategy.
• Launched an online fundraising campaign in July called the Growing Circle to raise $10,000 and 10,000 pounds of fresh produce, exceeding both goals.
• Secured first-time funding for a food stamp outreach coordinator position from a new funding source.
• Increased online donations by 18 percent.

“[This grant] gave us the ability to step back, look at our organization, look at what we had done in the past, and look at ways that we could utilize media and social media,” Thomas says. “When you’re a small nonprofit and you’re stretched with staff, you spend 99 percent of your time doing crisis management instead of vision and strategy. So giving us the ability to strategize and expand our vision with actual ways of implementing plans was huge for us.”