Meet Our Award Winners: David Ludwigson

In our February issue, Fundraising Success named the winners of our 2010 Fundraising Professionals of the Year Awards. In this recurring "Meet Our Award Winners" series in the Advisor, you will have an opportunity to learn more about these distinguished nonprofit professionals and their unique perspectives on fundraising. Here, meet David Ludwigson, who was named one of this year's Rising Stars.

David Ludwigson
Chief development officer
God's Love We Deliver (New York)

Organization's mission: The mission of God's Love We Deliver is to improve the health and well-being of men, women and children living with HIV/AIDS, cancer and other life-altering illnesses by alleviating hunger and malnutrition. We prepare and deliver nutritious, high-quality meals to people who are unable to provide or prepare meals for themselves. We also offer illness-specific nutrition education and counseling to our clients and families, care providers, and other service organizations. All of our services are provided free of charge without regard to income, and we have never maintained a waiting list.

Annual operating budget: Approximately $10 million for FY 2010, which ends June 30.

Dollars raised annually: The budget calls for us to raise approximately $7.2 million with an additional $2.5 million from the government.

Role models: My parents. Both always stressed two things to me and my sisters — hard work and education. My parents both worked very hard and sacrificed much to help ensure we received the best educations possible. They instilled in us that we could do anything we wanted, by working hard and looking at education as both important and as a life-long process. They encouraged us to be curious and open to learning new things. So that even when you are from a very small Midwestern town, you can end up with a great job in New York City!

Why you choose fundraising as a career: After 13 years in marketing at Ford Motor Co., I was ready for a change. I had been a volunteer for about eight years at God's Love We Deliver, and was completely taken with their mission and how the organization embraced its work. The staff seemed truly energized in all of my encounters with them, and I said to myself, "I want to feel like that." When the position I now have became open, I started talking to a couple of board members about joining the team. At first it seemed like a stretch. But when we really got into the discussion, we realized that many of the skills I had developed in the private sector were a great fit for what was needed here at God's Love. I give our president and CEO a lot of credit for taking a shot on me. There was certainly some risk involved, as I didn't have any professional fundraising experience. But I think she would say (and certainly I would) that it has worked out just fine!

Greatest fundraising challenges: I think the greatest challenge is finding the time to work on all of the great opportunties that are out there. While the current difficult economy obviously makes things harder, there is also tremendous opportunity. The key for me has been to prioritize, stay organized and use my team effectively. We are working harder than ever to stay close to our key donors. We are also looking for new revenue streams so that we can continue to meet the growing demand for our services. Like many organizations, we both recognize the opportunity of and feel pressure to leverage/embrace "Web 2.0" technology, especially social networking. We are working very hard in the development of a new Web site that will launch soon and in social networking, especially Facebook and Twitter.

Keys to success (in life): I think one of the most important things anyone can do to contribute to a happy life is to do something that you love. We all spend way too much time in our work lives to not enjoy what we are doing. Also, to be generous, both with our time and finances. And finally to treat people the way we would like to be treated ourselves — it sounds so simple (cliché even), but so important and useful if truly put into practice.

Keys to success (in fundraising): Communicate. With donors, staff, volunteers, clients, all stakeholders. We work hard to get people excited about what we are trying to accomplish. Don't view communication as a drag on our "work" — it is central to our work.

Set high goals. Ask people to "stretch."

Be organized. We are all trying to accomplish so much. In order to provide leadership and good direction/instruction to staff, keeping organized is critical.

Measure results. Develop metrics that define success for all areas and involve your entire team in tracking/measurement. Review on a regular basis. Help people take ownership of outcomes.

Constantly improve. Don't be afraid to make changes in any fundraising area/program/long-standing event, etc., in the name of improvement.

Celebrate successes. Big and small successes should be noted and enjoyed.

Fundraising accomplishment of which you are most proud: The past 18 months have presented great challenges to all fundraisers. At God's Love We Deliver, we have been able to meet our fundraising goals, while providing services to more clients than ever. We have done this without having to resort to any reductions in staff. We are all pretty proud of that fact.

How your co-workers describe you: Persistent, "team" and "results" oriented, open-minded, willing to "get his hands dirty."

Greatest lesson ever learned: Don't be afraid to fail. If you want to achieve something worthwhile, it frequently involves some risk. I try to stress to my team at God's Love We Deliver that as long as we work hard and take reasoned risks, that some failure is inevitable and acceptable. No person is perfect or knows everything. I would submit that if you never experience some failure, you aren't doing enough to achieve the best results possible.