There’s Never Been a Good Time to Fundraise
As a fundraiser, do you ever look at the calendar or the news or the economy, and think: this is the worst possible time to ask anyone for anything?
You’re not alone.
I’ve been in nonprofit fundraising since the mid-1990s. It’s just about always felt like a bad time to fundraise. There was always logical reason why we shouldn’t be asking for money. The dot-com bust. 9/11. The 2008 crash. Donor fatigue (still a myth, by the way). Election anxiety. COVID lockdowns. A donor gives less this year so we immediately think all donors will give less. There are too many active capital campaigns in the community.
There is always a reason to not ask.
The problem is, not asking isn’t a fundraising strategy.
Your Mission Still Matters
In good times and bad: your work still needs to happen. The people you serve still need you.
And, as nonprofit fundraisers, we get front row seats to people’s generosity. Across millennia of human history, people have been shockingly, reliably generous. Even in hard, confusing times. Maybe especially in hard times.
I think about what happened during the pandemic lockdowns. Some of the organizations I was watching most closely were arts groups, orchestras, theater companies. They couldn’t perform. Couldn’t gather. Couldn’t do the thing that defined them. By every conventional measure, they had no reason to ask and no right to expect much.
Some of them had record-breaking fundraising years.
Not because circumstances were perfect. But because people are generous and they were asked.
The Voice in Your Head Is Not a Reliable Advisor
I can almost hear the objections coming up right now.
- “My board says the timing is off.”
- “My gut says people are stretched.”
- “I don’t want to seem tone-deaf.”
I get it. That instinct comes from caring about your donors. That’s a good thing.
But your board’s nervousness is not a fundraising plan. And the critic in your own head would likely keep you from asking even in times when it’s obvious donors are giving.
You can ask with compassion. You can acknowledge that this might be a hard season for some people. You can make it easy to say “not right now” without any pressure or guilt. That’s not weakness. That’s wisdom.
What you can’t do is not ask and then wonder why the money didn’t come.
Ask Clearly. Ask Kindly. Ask Directly.
I wrote a whole book called Ask Without Fear! because this is the thing that stops more fundraisers than anything else. Not the economy. Not donor fatigue. Fear.
Fear of seeming pushy. Fear of a no. Fear that the timing is wrong.
The antidote isn’t false bravado. It’s asking anyway, with your whole heart, knowing your mission matters and knowing that some people are ready and willing to join you in it.
And in chaotic times, we’ve found asking can be a kindness. In a world the feels out of control, we’re offering something tangible for people to do. Something concrete they can feel good about.
Be specific. Be warm. And don’t bury the ask below three paragraphs of context-setting.
Ask clearly. Ask kindly. Ask directly.
Hundreds of Billions of Dollars are Given Away Every Year
Every year, hundreds of billions of dollars are given away to nonprofits. Not just the famous ones. Not just the massive endowments. To organizations exactly like yours, run by people who took a breath and made the call.
No organization receives donations by accident. No one wakes up and mails a check to a cause they’ve never heard of. Every single gift, every single year, was earned by someone who made the ask.
You have to earn each donation each time. That’s the work. And it’s worth doing.
So if your organization needs funds, the path forward is simple (not easy, but simple): ask. Ask clearly. Ask kindly. Ask with the confidence of someone who believes their mission matters.
Because it does.
