Giving carnival: The future of fundraising

Fellow philanthroblogger Gayle Roberts in San Francisco is hosting this month’s Giving Carnival – a chance for bloggers to comment on this month’s shared theme which is “the future of fundraising”.  She’s been egging me on, trying to get me to join in the discussion this month, and today is the deadline for postings.  (I need the urging … after Labour Day yesterday, today was a literal flood of work, emails, etc.)   

I’m no Nostradamus, but here’s some predictions on what fundraising will look like ten years on:

(1) We’ve talked about how Facebook is altering the social networking landscape, and last night was a case in point for me.  In a bizarre few minutes of facebooking, I reconnected again after 20+ years with some old friends from high school, and even elementary school. 

But it’s more than social.  Since I signed on to Facebook in the spring, I’ve had at least four significant encounters with friends-of-friends who are seeking partnerships with our foundation (by encounter, I refer to well-written concept papers and face-to-face meetings in coffee shops, etc).  Because they have taken the time to understand our foundation’s interests via blog and facebook profile, their approach to us is far more sophisticated and meaningful.  I’ve also had time and space to check them out without having to feel pressured.

So in the future, I expect technogeeks will have figured out a way for mutual virtual collaboration on projects of shared interest.  And I expect even stodgy foundations will by then have caught on to the value and potential of being more vulnerable on the web and networking with those of shared passion.  The reams of information out there on the donor community will be used by fundraisers to propose and customize meaningful paths to benefiting communities.

(2) Speaking of collaboration, I am witnessing a growing trend of charities who see the value and synergy in fundraising together.  For example, Compassion International seems to do this well here in Canada.  In one partnership with Opportunity, they fundraise together for a community in the Dominican Republic where Compassion offers wholistic community development through sponsoring children, and Opportunity kicks in the funding for microenterprise development for the same village.  I was at an Opportunity International major donors’ event where I witnessed the President of Compassion get up and basically make a pitch for the sister organization along with speaking to the value of collaboration.  I respect that. 

A different example is found in two local schools who are together putting in an application to us for a joint program which would be sponsored by both. 

In many ways these initiatives seem like feeble attempts, but ten years out, I expect we will see a growing sophistication in how these types of projects are marketed to us donors, and in how they are implemented on the ground.

(3) Another thought, this one on impact.  Donors are seeking measurable results through their granting.  I expect that in the future, fundraisers and their charities will continue to refine their own impact assessment and learn to communicate it even more meaningfully to donors. 

So there you go.  Gayle will be posting a compliation of the comments from various bloggers later this month, and when she does, I will post a link on this site.