Are You Prepared For Raising Funds During Emergencies?
- 1. You do not know where and when an emergency could strike. This makes the task of preparing for it all the more difficult. Still, don't you hear your programming colleagues talk about being prepared for emergencies? If your organisation needs to be prepared to help out during emergencies, then should not the fundraisers be prepared too? Outside South Asia, especially in Europe and North America, being prepared for fundraising in times of emergencies has been a practice for some time now. With rising economic growth in our part of the world, we too need to be prepared for raising funds for emergencies. There are several simple ways of doing so. Where do you begin? Raising funds for emergencies means reaching out to donors and that itself requires money. Where do you get that from? It is prudent to make provisions for emergency fundraising in your budget. This is a sure starting point. Whom do you ask first? This is a no-brainer. The people to ask first are your existing donors. You know they are generous. You have their contact details. They know you and have supported your work already. If you are able to send a fundraising appeal to your existing donors within the first few days of the emergency, then chances of them helping you are higher. How do you ensure that you reach your existing donors rather quickly? Your donor database should be in order with the contact information of donors who have donated earlier. Target those that have shown an interest in donating for emergencies. This requires your donor database to be in perfect order. It should have donors who have earlier donated for emergencies clearly marked. The donors whose phone numbers and email IDs are in your database are the ones that can be reached rather quickly. These are the ones that we should focus our energy on at the outset. Such people should be identified in advance so that precious time is not wasted in looking for them when emergency strikes. The bigger challenge is to have balanced communication free of errors going out to donors – a difficult task when time is short. Hence it makes sense to have approved templates in place. These have standard text with fill-in-the-blanks provisions for relevant details. Reaching new donors Reaching new donors needs untapped donor databases. If you have regular database suppliers on your panel, then a highly discounted rate for emergencies should be negotiated with them beforehand. The database agencies should have the ability to supply names, addresses, phone numbers and email IDs rather quickly. During an emergency, even people who would not have donated otherwise, contribute. Your response rates, hence, would be higher than they normally are. Email appeals and SMS, which usually have a low response rate also work well during emergencies. Moreover, people who usually feel that tele-calling is annoying, do not mind being called. It is also often not difficult to convince corporates to allow access to their employees, associates and customers during emergencies. This gives you a high potential, authentic and updated database available to you at no cost. An advance agreement for a fundraiser with companies that have a large number of employees and customers would be a smart option. It is also necessary to have pre-approved messages for prospective donors. In fact, some NGOs keep printed emergency appeals ready. The envelope of such communication generally has a message like 'Emergency – you have seen it on TV. Your urgent donations are needed now.' printed in bold red colour on the outside. There could be a general pre- printed letter inside. The relevant details about the emergency on-hand are quickly over-printed using a laser printer. Approaching corporations Corporations fairly quickly decide on their contributions towards an emergency. Usually, during normal times, if you start chasing a company it would be anywhere between six months to two years before they decide to donate. But during emergencies within the first two weeks most big companies make their contribution. Are You Prepared for Raising Money During Emergencies? “An emergency hits like a bolt from the blue. Can you plan raising funds beforehand? There are ways to be prepared for raising funds during emergencies,” says Anup Tiwari FUNDRAISING 15Raisers’ Ask – Sept. 2010
- 2. Being prepared for this would imply that you keep a ready database of companies who contribute frequently for emergencies. It is not difficult to find about that as these are stated on their websites or reported by media. While knowing the relevant person at these companies is best, in emergencies sending the appeal to any fairly senior employee is sufficient. Usually they pass it on to the relevant colleague without wasting time, as it is an emergency. Using new media helps New media – online & social networks – is a quick and inexpensive way for raising funds during emergencies. It is not difficult to get free online banners on prominent websites during emergencies. If you keep approved templates of online banners ready, then speed becomes the essence, as these websites choose from the first few people who ask them. Using social media like Facebook, Orkut and Twitter, which is totally free, helps in disseminating your appeals quickly. Generic emergency widgets that people could easily insert on their social network pages and blogs could be made. They bring people in their network to your website and contribute. Presence in multiple social media networks and blogs increases chances of being amongst the top results on search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing. If you keep contact details of relevant people at these search engines ready, then a simple email request during an emergency could lead to preferential positioning of your donation page link on their various networks. Finally, why do donors donating during emergencies, make long-term sense for you? As mentioned before, several people who do not contribute to appeals during normal times donate during emergencies. This means a whole new set of people know about your organisation and work. Moreover, the average size of donations made during emergencies is more than that at normal times. Although donors who donate during emergencies may not give again for your regular work, if they are kept informed of how money is used, they may well become regular donors. Surely, donors contributing during emergencies provide a great long-term value and you should maintain contact with them. Anup Tiwari heads Asia-wide fundraising and communications for a leading international child development organisation. He frequently blogs on www.fundraisingasia.org and can be reached through it. The views expressed in this article are his own and not ascribable to his organisation. Contents Page Raisers’ Ask – Sept. 2010 16