Introducing M.O.M.

I'll go out on a limb and say it would be pretty rare to find a lifelong meat-eater working for PETA. It's fair to say that if you work for, volunteer for or donate to an organization, you pretty much would and should love it and everything it stands for. A fundraiser's job is to create compelling campaigns that tap in to that love (or in some cases, remind the potential supporter that he or she really does have a soft spot for, say, war orphans in Africa).

So fundraising is all about the mission. Well, duh. It's also about proper and timely asks targeted to the right audience and followed promptly with a thank-you note, receipt and another ask. But no matter how well you know the fundamentals of fundraising, if the mission isn't something people can get behind, then they simply won't get behind it. That's not to say every mission has to be happy and giggly and swarming with rainbows and unicorns. There are "unpopular" missions that don't paint pretty pictures or lend themselves to cute art or flashy websites. But they're no less worthy than those that do.

Your job as a fundraiser is to know your mission inside and out. You have to know not only who your potential supporters are, but why they give and why they give to you. You have to be aware of the nuances of your specific mission and the people who support it. For example, one of the first and more fascinating glimpses I have gotten into the donor mind-set came years ago, when someone told me that if you're talking to potential donors about their pets, for Pete's sake don't refer to a pet as an "it." That donor's pet is a he or a she or, ideally, a Boscoe, Fluffy or Scooter. Loving a pet means acknowledging that he or she is just a little person with fur. And courting a potential donor to an animal-welfare cause means honoring that acknowledgment.

Every donor demographic has its quirks. Every mission has its unique challenges. As fundraisers, it behooves you to know the ones your target audience presents. That's why, starting in October, FundRaising Success will begin a new feature called Mission of the Month (and yes, we promise not to call it MOM — at least not externally). We've covered mission-specific topics before, but with this new feature we'll practice what we preach and take it multichannel. Each month, in addition to our usual comprehensive coverage of fundraising issues across the sector, we'll devote space to a specific mission in print, in our Today in Fundraising e-letter, with video and podcasts, and on social media. It will be a pretty full immersion into the topic, and there will even be a special page on the FS website where you can find all of the content for that month's specified mission. But don't worry, even if one month's topic doesn't pertain to your organization's mission, you'll be sure to find great strategic tips. Here are the Mission of the Month topics we've chosen for the first six months: Animal Welfare (October), Political Fundraising (November), Faith-based (December), International Aid (January), Environment (February) and Education (March).

If there is something specific that you'd like to know about fundraising and friend-raising for these causes, let us know. Or if you can offer some fabulous insights for your colleagues to learn from, let us know that too.