Fundraising Sugar Highs

Why do so many nonprofits go for the quick fix, the easy and obvious routes to raise money?

Because they work … for a while.

Shortcuts and silver bullets are offered up to us every day.

“Cool free ways to raise money.”

“Ten steps to rapid—and effortless—weight loss.”

You’ve seen them. You’ve heard the pitches.

And the truth is, we’ve all gone for them at one time or another. We’re all a bit curious. Is there really a free lunch?

There’s a dark side to these. Repeated revenue spikes followed by the predictable crash. Your fundraising program merely cycles. It never really expands.

Like highs created from a jolt of sugar, once in a while won’t do much harm. It’s when the cheap, quick and lazy approach becomes the norm that we’re in trouble.

As with too much sugar for too long, nonprofits leaders who don’t think strategically or make the necessary investments in time and money begin to see diminishing returns in their fundraising.

Resistance is created. Pushback develops.

For our bodies, these repeated sugar spikes develop insulin resistance. What was a powerful, stabilizing tool loses its potency. The result? Diabetes—and the attendant consequences of reduced physical capacity—even death.

For organizations, it’s no different. Dependence on the quick fix slowly, but surely, wears everyone down. The result may not be outright organizational death, but it will certainly be irrelevance.

The solution? Get off the sugar. Detox. Put in the time and effort to build a truly strategic fundraising system that delivers, and delivers, and delivers.

You can do this.

Principle 8 of The Eight Principles™ is Invest, Integrate & Evaluate™. Do these continually and you’ll never miss the sugar.

The Eight Principles of Sustainable Fundraising® are those immutable laws of sustainable, scalable fundraising. Either you work with them or break yourself against them.

You’ll never change them.

Now that’s a strategic fundraising idea.

To your fundraising success!