‘I’m not a professional fundraiser’

The Friendship Circle helps families of children with special needs and individuals and families struggling with addiction, isolation and other issues by offering programs and activities that foster relationships between community volunteers — many of whom are teenagers — and clients, regardless of their religious affiliation.

Founded in 1994 by Lubavitch Foundation of Michigan, a branch of Chabad-Lubavitch, an institution dedicated to the welfare of the Jewish people worldwide, The Friendship Circle has inspired the development of almost 30 similar programs in the United States, Canada and Australia.

Each Friendship Circle program is community-based and run by a relatively small staff. Here, Rabbi Levi Shemtov, executive director of the original, West Bloomfield, Mich.-based Friendship Circle, shares some of the organization’s fundraising challenges and successes.

FundRaising Success: What is your major source of funding?
Rabbi Levi Shemtov: The major source of our funding is large contributions from a founding group of supporters.

FS: How do you typically fundraise?
RLS: It’s one on one, introducing people to the organization. I don’t even ask for a specific amount when I ask people to contribute. I expose people to the organization. I bring them to a wonderful new building that we have and we ask people to support the organization. Our goal is to spread the word, bring people in on tours of the building, and then usually they initiate the idea that they want to contribute, and I follow up with them. That’s how most of the money comes in.

FS: What do you see as the benefits of operating this way?
RLS: It’s the only way I know how to operate because I’m not a fundraiser. I run the organization. This is something that I do; it’s something that I have a passion in. I’ve had more donors give larger percentages of budgets because they feel they are personally invested in the organization. So the people who donate money don’t feel like they’re donating money because somebody sold them on something or someone convinced them to do it. But rather they feel like it’s their initiative and they feel happy to do it. It lets me focus on a smaller amount of people for fundraising and have more meaningful relationships with the donors, and it frees up my time to run the organization.

FS: How many donors do you have?
RLS: We had a walk in the summer that brought in over 2,000 donors, so, in total, we have probably about 3,000 donors.

FS: What was the goal of the walk?
RLS: We don’t have a fundraiser on staff. We have no one whose job is fundraising. Together with my wife, we both founded the organization and we don’t see ourselves as fundraisers. We try to find money when we need it, but I’m not a professional fundraiser. One of the great strengths of the Friendship Circle is that we have close to 900 people who we impact directly. Some are families who have children with special needs, others are volunteers whose lives are affected by their interaction with these special children. We were looking for an opportunity to allow these people to help raise money for the organization. We raised about $217,000.

FS: What were the benefits of the walk?
RLS: This was a perfect vehicle to reach out to a broad amount of people and have the volunteers themselves send out letters. Using the ‘friends asking friends’ [online technology] was perfect for an organization like ours that has a lot of people who really care deeply about what we do. They’re personally involved, but I can’t physically meet with every one of them and say, ‘Can you take us to your friends?’ So this was a wonderful vehicle. I think for an organization that has a lot of people personally involved that have an interest in it, the ‘friends asking friends’ program is the perfect fit.

FS: What advice can you share with other organizations that don’t have a fundraising staff, per se?
RLS: I would say view your donors as your partners and they’ll view themselves as partners. And, you know, people give to organizations that they’re interested in more than they’ll give to an organization that’s just another organization. But in order to do that, you really have to bring them in, and you really have to feel that your donors are your partners and share the joys of the organization with them — send them updates, keep them involved, and listen to their ideas on how to move the organization. These are smart people; take their advice. That creates the cycle of increasing their vested interest, and then you won’t have to ask for money. They’ll be happy to give it to you.