Have you ever noticed that some of the most popular businesses only do one small thing? Whether it be French fries, cupcakes, or ham sandwiches, they churn out one product, and it’s amazing. Sure, there are the super Wal-Marts that are everything to everyone – but the quality is usually lacking. When it comes to your nonprofit, you want to be the specialty store. You want to be the guys who do one thing and do it with excellence and precision.
Less is more. Keeping your campaign simple and streamlined can make you more noticeable and attract more supporters.
In order to become the specialty store of the nonprofit world, you need to do four key things:
1. Focus
2. Become an expert
3. Trim the fat
4.. Learn from your mistakes
Focus
Your fundraising campaign should be about one thing. Whether it’s to build a new community center, send 50 girls to school, or bring water to a particular region, state the goal of your campaign explicitly so that people know exactly where their money is going, and how it will make a difference. Each campaign you run should have a specific goal and deliverable.
Keep the conversation about the issue, and not about your organization. As nice as you may be, people don’t want to give money to you, they want to give it to the cause, to make an impact. That’s why you are there too – because you want to help solve a problem. So make your fundraising appeal less about who you are as an organization and more about bringing a specific solution.
Become an expert
You need to become the authority in your cause by knowing everything there is to know about your particular issue. When you have clear and defined goals, you can go more in-depth and zero in on your specific contribution.
By becoming an expert, you earn people’s trust. Then whenever someone thinks about your cause, they will think of you. You become the resource that people go to to learn about the issue. You become the go-to people when it comes to talking about your cause. This will then increase your support and your impact.
Trim the Fat
You probably have a lot of good ideas, even great ones. But not all of them are going to be relevant to your mission or your campaign. Part of being specialized is knowing when to leave good ideas behind if they are not part of your core goals.
Define exactly what you are trying to accomplish in specific terms, and get rid of anything else when it doesn’t directly contribute to that. And who knows, maybe one of those left-behind ideas will come back around and be relevant later – but you need to be able to focus on the current goal and campaign, and be ruthless about keeping its integrity.
Learn from your mistakes
Grow. Experiment. Evolve. If you want to be a specialist in your field, do killer research about what makes for a successful campaign. Make each one better than the last. The most effective way to accomplish this is through feedback.
Getting good feedback will give you the insight you need to improve your campaigns. Ask hard questions, and seek honest evaluations of your performance. It might come from your supporters or from an outside consultant, but don’t let your pride get in the way of your growth.
If you take these things into account – focusing, becoming an expert, trimming the fat, and learning – you’ll be well on your way to becoming the Magnolia Cupcakes of your given field. People will be lined up around the block to be a part of your work.
