Making a Case for Support

Here is another excerpt from The Best of Fundraising 101. I've been using InFix PDF Editor to bring the book up-to-date and there is already a corrected e-version available on the Lost City Press website.

What Type of Case Is It?
Before you begin writing, you also need to have it clearly in your mind what you are building a case for. Is it the case for supporting your organization and it’s activities, or is it the case for supporting a particular campaign or programme? The story of one person’s positive experience with your organization is always a good starting point. Taking, again, the example of a group working with the underprivileged, perhaps you have helped someone learn about computers, or become involved in sports. Maybe they have gone beyond what you were able to teach them, and have started teaching others. So now they are filling a role in society, and society as a whole is benefiting. This is what your organization exists to do. What prospect or donor who is concerned about the problem of poverty could fail to support that kind of activity?

On the other hand, don’t confuse telling one person’s story with telling the history of your organization. One person’s story can illustrate why you exist, and provide proof that your methods work. It is something you can use in your fundraising pitches as a bridge to saying that there are more people waiting for this kind of help. How your organization got started, it’s location, and how many buildings you have are not really central to why someone should support you. Provide this information if you have a good reason, but keep it in the background.

In a longer case statement, you should certainly feel free to cite the successes you have had and to discuss the positive impact you have made, but only as a way of proving that your organization has a history of effective action, and that your team knows how to make its programmes work. Don’t, however, fall into the trap of discussing your organization’s growth as something glorious. Keep the focus on the people you intend to help, not on the buildings, or the equipment, you have acquired. Donors don’t want to buy facilities; they want to buy access to facilities for people who can’t otherwise afford them.

Don’t confuse the means with the ends. You may need a new computer to do your job more efficiently, but that isn’t what donors give to. In general, what they give to is a positive improvement in someone else’s life. In many cities now, unemployed and homeless people sell a newspaper about street people because it makes them feel they are doing something more worthwhile than begging for quarters. The people who pay a dollar for these publications, however, aren’t buying a newspaper; they’re buying an improved level of self-esteem and dignity for the seller. Many of them are also, no doubt, buying the hope that some of these people will learn that they can do something about their own situation, and eventually go on to better things.

In the non-profit world hope is, if not a marketable commodity, certainly what people get when they give you their money or time. So look to the future, and offer your vision of the best that can be achieved, given adequate funding. Whether you achieve it or not, it’s what you are working towards. Don’t provide a lecture about all the evil that will befall if people don’t support you, but rather a picture of the good that will ensue if they do. Take an inspirational look beyond the current crisis to a better day. Your case should contain some of the spirit of Martin Luther King Jr. saying, ‘I have a dream this afternoon.’ His civil rights marches didn’t achieve all the changes that he talked about, but they certainly brought about considerable improvement, largely because he inspired people to believe in the need to work for the best possible society.

Once you have pointed the way to a better tomorrow, the task is to convince prospects that you know the way and have the best vehicle to get there. If you’ve done your market/case statement research, you already know what the people you are addressing want to hear. You should be able to say that your reason for being is to deal with one of their greatest concerns. Before they’ve even become involved, reading your case should make prospects feel a sense of ownership towards your cause.