BIG’s Blog: I Got It Wrong

Sometimes when we are researching a piece of information we get the details wrong and just plain blow it. It’s time to fess up!

Such was the case in my April 12th blog post entitled “Where’s The Action?”

In that blog I wanted to make the point to mature nonprofit fundraising charity – primarily faith-based – organizations that have been in existence and serving the needs of people for 70, 80, 90, and 100+ years (and have been doing fundraising for at least that long) that “maybe” they are in need of a radical rethink of their fundraising strategy if they are not keeping up with similar organizations.

Why?

Because other charities that are 50+ years old… and here I mentioned Heifer International being 68 years old… are raising significantly more in donations than your organization. In Heifer International’s case I said they were raising $10 million in donations annually.

How old is your organization and how long have you been fundraising? Most of my blog readership consists of older, established charities that have been raising funds for 50+ years and many for much longer. And here is Heifer International - according to me - raising $10 million dollars a year.

How long has your organization been fundraising and how much are you raising?

So my point is, why is your fundraising organization only raising a fraction of the donations of Heifer International when many of your organizations are as old or older than Heifer International?

I mean, $10 million is a lot of donations…right?

Turns out I was wrong about Heifer International raising $10 million dollars a year in donations.

Allison Stephens, the Public Relations Manager for Heifer International sent me a note thanking me for mentioning Heifer International in my blog, but making the point that I got the annual donation amount wrong.

It turns out that Heifer International, founded in 1944, raises over one hundred million dollars ($100 million) in annual donations a year!

Is your fundraising organization setting the bar too low? Or, have you stalled with your current fundraising strategy and are in serious need of rethinking your fundraising strategy?


-Mike
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