1. Fundraising Bright Spots
Conservation Lands Foundation
Presenter: Kim Klein
Real money. Real people. Real change.

2. About the Presenter
Kim Klein is the author of five books, including the classic text, Fundraising for Social Change, recently released in a SEVENTH edition.
She also wrote Reliable Fundraising in Unreliable Times, which won the McAdam Book Award in 2010.
She recently co-authored “Fundraising Bright Spots” with Jeanne Belle.
She has provided training and consultation in all 50 United States, five Canadian provinces and 21 other countries. She is a lecturer at the School of Social Welfare at the University of California, Berkeley, and has served as guest faculty at the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley and Concordia University in Montreal. Kim co-founded the Grassroots Fundraising Journal in 1981.
Steve—add your bio as a separate slide.

3. Describe the genesis of this briefly
Describe the genesis of this briefly. Ask how many people have read the report? Point out that some Bright Spots are at the conference.
Brief ice-breaker: why did you choose this workshop? What do you hope to get out of it? This might be done in small groups if the workshop is very large.
@HaasJrFund

4. Fundraising Bright Spots
In-depth interviews with staff, board, volunteers, and donors of 16 social justice organizations
Together they raised over $14 million in from individual donors
“Regular” groups who are not caught in the “vicious cycle”
Read it here: draising-brightspots
There are four key learnings we will discuss today and that are in the report. They form a kind of frame and all that you do is inside that frame. You can tell where your weaknesses are by looking at each side of the frame and seeing how your organization is doing compared to the lessons.
@HaasJrFund

5. TWITTER: #ResetDevelopment @JeanneBellCP @kimkleincommons @HaasJrFund
Organizations
At the Crossroads, Breast Cancer Action, CHIRLA, Casa de Maryland, FIERCE, Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement, Jewish Voice for Peace, Mono Lake Committee, Mujeres Unidas y Activas, National Center for Lesbian Rights, Northern Plains Resource Council, Nebraska Apple Seed, PLAN Nevada, Kentuckians for the Commonwealth, Student Action for Farmworkers, Transgender Law Center YOUR NAME HERE:
These are the organizations we found. We think almost every organization can be a Bright Spot.
Bright Spots are not perfect. They struggle, but what separates them from other imperfect struggling orgs is their mindset, and we are going to explore the four broad themes we discovered.
IMPORTANT TO NOTE: this was not a large scale survey. There are many other Bright Spots, but these are the ones we found.
@HaasJrFund

6. Fundraising Philosophy
How should we raise money?
KIM leads: Imagine you went to a psychic and asked, “What is best way for our organization to raise money? Where will we be most successful?” And she said, “Whereever you want. YOu will be good at everything.
How would you raise money then?
What could I learn about your organization just from your fundraising strategies and income streams?
Discussion in small groups.

7. TWITTER: #ResetDevelopment @JeanneBellCP @kimkleincommons @HaasJrFund
The Bright Spots started with a fundraising philosophy that permeated their organization. Fundraising was never separate from anything else they did.
People are attracted to your mission—we hear a lot of talk about being “Donor Centric” but in the Bright Spots, all the donors are invited to be vision-centric and they carry the vision to their networks.
“I encourage other organizations and leaders to feel a confidence and a comfort in focusing on what you do and how you do it and to trust that that will connect you with other likeminded people.”
@HaasJrFund

8. Fundraising Bright Spots Mindsets
The decision to raise money from individuals—as well as the approaches used to do so—are steeped in existing organizational values.
Being genuine about who you are and what you stand for as an organization is core to fundraising success.
Fundraising is a form of organizing and power-building, not merely a strategy for financing the organization’s work.
Here are the key mindsets for this principle.
Questions, comments? In what ways is your organization a Bright Spot with regard to this key learning?
How could you get better?
TOTAL TIME ON FIRST PRINCIPLE: minutes.
@HaasJrFund

9. TWITTER: #ResetDevelopment @JeanneBellCP @kimkleincommons @HaasJrFund
Steve leads: (Steve—fill in here)
“It’s not about someone being professional or educated in a certain way. It’s really about shedding light on the fact that we already have these skills in communities of color. It’s about making visible and lifting up the resourcefulness that we’ve always had.”
@HaasJrFund

10. Fundraising Bright Spots Mindsets
Fundraising is not the purview of a select group of professionals, but a process, if well-supported, that anyone can engage in.
Development directors are organizational leaders focused on skill building, culture change, and systems development to support others in fundraising.
The conversation about fundraising goals and progress belongs everywhere. It’s not contained in a single department or confined to a single team.
@HaasJrFund

11. TWITTER: #ResetDevelopment @JeanneBellCP @kimkleincommons @HaasJrFund
KIM leads: Bright Spots groups did not trash talk their donors. Of course they were on their good behavior, but something usually slips when people are in the habit of being disrespectful to donors.
Partly, the donors were from the communities the organization serves. They are not a separate group of people. This is very different from having funders being your primary source of income—they will not be from your community.
Donors were also invited to create their own communities and to call on their own networks (KFTC, JVP, FIERCE examples here)
Exercise in small groups: Do you like your donors? (Some more than others, obviously, but overall, are you happy to know them?) Do you look forward to reaching out to them? What would make you like them more? What needs to change in your fundraising for you to have more authentic relationships with donors?
Discuss also dealing with Power issues, what is the role of race and class in keeping us from having authentic relationships?
“If NCLR hired a small army of people who were very organized and less passionate, it wouldn’t come through in the same way. They hire people from our community, who reflect our community, who are really passionate about what they are doing. It’s palpable in your interactions with them.”
@HaasJrFund

12. Fundraising Bright Spots Mindsets
“Donor” is only one aspect of the many relationships that committed supporters forge with an organization.
Authentic relationships with donors are part of a larger organizational culture that values relational rather transactional interactions with everyone.
High trust and accountability among staff and board members allow leaders to weather fundraising’s inevitable ups and downs together.
Part of the secret is seeing donors as whole people—who can protest, write letters, invite friends to join, volunteer in other ways, as well as give money.
@HaasJrFund

13. TWITTER: #ResetDevelopment @JeanneBellCP @kimkleincommons @HaasJrFund
Steve leads: Fundraising should be fun and that is the only way you will be able to show up every day to raise money. Look at CHIRLA and other examples.
“We don’t have a singular development plan. We have a system.”
@HaasJrFund

14. Reward Genuine Effort
Failure is information as well as success. Failure just means, “let’s not do that again” and “What did we learn from that?” Transparency, which goes with all the previous principles means creating “guilt-free zones” for people to grow and thrive in. With no shame attached to genuine effort, whether it works or not,people are far more likely to share honestly and learn from each other.

15. Fundraising Bright Spots Mindsets
More important than having a perfect system is working whatever system you have with a stance of rigor and continuous improvement.
Development and communications are inextricably linked; compelling communications are a powerful way to acquire, engage, and retain donors.
The use of data is not just about having a donor database. It’s also about surveying your donors; getting feedback from your fundraisers on what messages are resonating; and studying the performance of every fundraising campaign and event.
@HaasJrFund

16. Building Sustainable Organizations
“If we want our world to be different, our first act has to be claiming time to think. We can’t expect those who are well served by the current reality to give us time to think. If we want anything to change, we are the ones who have to reclaim time.”
Meg Wheatley in Turning to One Another
We have taken this two hours today—how can you build reflection into your work life?
How are you contributing to helping your organization be a Bright Spot? Discussion and sharing.
Steve and I can share a little about how the Bright Spots research changed our consulting practice.

17. TWITTER: #ResetDevelopment @JeanneBellCP @kimkleincommons @HaasJrFund

18. www.kleinandroth.com Kim Klein Kim@kleinandroth.com 510-893-8933 x306
Steve—you can add you info here or take out this slide.
kleinandroth.com