Fundraising Beyond 2006
by Marc Lee, CFRE

With so much attention paid to the end of a century, so much time being spent looking back, isn't it time to look forward?

A client recently mixed optimism with despair: "I honestly believe that 21st century opportunities for fund raising are as overwhelming as the needs that must be met. But so much is changing so quickly, I hardly know where to begin!"

I feel there are three essential areas around which to focus our development planning for 2006 and beyond: Relationships, Numbers, and Speed.

Speed. If you thought life was moving fast before, don't stop, don't even blink! A revolution was unleashed in the 90's that is taking over -- the increasing speed with which all information is transmitted.

In 1979 I was overjoyed when my computer connection speed increased 100%. But it was so slow that I could still count letters as they appeared one-by-one on my screen! Today the fastest telephone modem feels slow!

Universal high speed access to the Internet is coming. Though not here yet, we must think and plan as if it were already so. That's how quickly things will change as speed and access increases. Thanks to private and government programs, fiber-optic cable, and cable television modems, everyone will have high speed access to the Internet and Email.

Numbers: As a means of getting and staying in touch with identified groups of individuals, the Internet is going to exceed anything we have ever experienced -- the printing press, the radio, the television. We must think and plan as if it were already so.

If you now receive 100 or 1,000 small donations each year, the Internet makes it possible to gather 10 or 100 or 1,000 times that number! While 100 donations of $30 may not be a great deal for you, surely 10,000 such donations would certainly get your attention. We must think and plan as if it were already so.

Relationships. It is easy to suppose that the Development Officer at Cornell picked up the phone and immediately called to thank their new donor for his pledge. She responded to an investment in a relationship.

Each and every $30 donation is also an investment in a relationship. For all its speed and numbers, our fundraising beyond 2006 will fail whenever we neglect the cultivation of relationships with our smaller donors.

Internet-based systems are the speedy tools we must use to nurture and grow numerous relationships. The Net helps manage the job.

Every development officer tends relationships -- a time consuming process, limited in its numbers, that often moves slowly. Healthy relationships require good communication. Email and websites, can support donor relationships by providing easy access to information, and swift, two-way communication.

True communication moves in both directions. The essential Internet opportunity for donor relationships beyond 2006 lies not just in its speed or number of contacts. Fundraising beyond 2005 lies in our capacity to hear and acknowledge quickly what numerous individual donors may want to say to us. It is a future that is very nearly here, and it is time to think and plan and respond as if it were already so.

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