Do what Presidents Do.
The nonprofit marketplace was changed forever by the Obama presidential campaign. Alum of the nonprofit sector, the President used our business model to get elected. In the last month of his campaign, Mr. Obama raised $152 million on the Internet with an average gift of $68.
The business model used by the president reflects a model most of us are familiar with, but don’t use anymore. Before flush corporations stepped up to do “cause marketing” and before we could do multiple events to raise big dollars, most arts nonprofits used their volunteer leaders (Board members) to spread the message. Volunteer leaders are best suited to make friends with high net worth donors, find collaborative opportunities, and engage others by sharing their passion for what you do. In other words they are engaged and invested in the arts. The President taught us a lesson by having groups of people in communities across America rally around a message of change, make a contribution, and go find others who would do the same thing.
We can use the same model (it belongs to our sector, after all) and create the necessary scale by using giving circles to create generational-specific investors who have passion for the art. Members make a small investment and carry the message to their peers. Scale happens with the use of social marketing and technology.
If we aren’t willing to do this, the shrinking marketplace for traditional big-dollar development strategies will leave many of us out in the cold. The political fundraising establishment has already dissected the Obama strategy and every politician who runs for office in the future will us a “community building” plan – which will bring more competition in the marketplace.
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Great call to action Mark. Your thoughts remind me of the comments my wife often makes – she is a development professional with a special focus on major gifts – about the strategy for building individual giving in the arts. Arts groups must understand this is about relationship building in a long term way. It is not about a quick fix, and it is also not about staff development professionals magically waving a wand to make major gifts materialize. Success is most often achieved through volunteer leadership. And that volunteer leadership must be passionate about the cause – they must feel that generating funds for “their” museum, or community arts center, or theatre company is going to somehow make a difference in the world. Staff can set he table but volunteers, board members, champions must invite the guests to sit down for the meal. I think too often in the arts we forget that. Obama has taught a lesson that we would be wise to learn from.