The 2014 Winter Olympics kick off Friday, February 7 with Opening Ceremonies in Sochi, Russia. The best athletes around the world will gather together to compete for a gold medal that will label them “the best in the world.”
Over the years I’ve watched hard-working Executive Directors, Major Gift officers and Development Directors strive for excellence every day, just like Olympic athletes.
The journey to be the best is often long and made up of tiny successes to reach a big goal.
So, in between watching hockey, figure skating, bobsledding, and alpine skiing, I invite you to take some time to see how your work may qualify you for a fundraising Olympic gold medal.
Five ways I believe nonprofit fundraisers are like Olympic athletes:
Passion
It takes time and energy to do important work. The passion that brought you to your work is the foundation of your success. Whether what you care about is being the very best hockey forward or making sure no one in your community goes hungry; it’s your passion that keeps you going, taking one step after another to reach your goal.
Support
No one gets to the Olympics alone. From parents who drive children to practices to coaches guiding athletes through competitions, it takes a village to raise an athlete. It also takes a village to raise funds.
YOUR team must include volunteers, staff, board members, and even your program participants to provide you with stories, open doors, give you a high-give after the big fundraising event, and more.
Remember: Nobody reaches a big goal alone.
Engage the people around you to do the tasks, small and large, to secure the funds it requires to do your important work.
Practice, Practice, Practice
This one is a no-brainer. A downhill skier doesn’t jump on a ski slope and know how to nail the Giant Slalom the very first time. It’s the same for our sector. We are rarely able to walk into a nonprofit organization and know the stories and the numbers to instantly raise thousands of dollars.
Fundraising and Olympic athletes practice over and over again. That kind of practice takes time and dedication. From honing your client stories to writing your fall appeals letter to making “the ask” for a $1 million gift, the more you practice the better you get. The better you get, the more money you raise.
Doesn’t the “yes” from a donor FEEL like a gold medal sometimes? It should.
Competition and Tiny Wins
I often remind people the best way to cut through the clutter in the competition for charitable dollars and for attention is to share stories of your impact. Those stories, what I call “mission moments” can be stories of tiny moments of success, or near success or even failure.
- A student is the first in his family to get a college degree.
- A veteran finally gets a part-time job.
- A young father gets a scholarship to cover the cost of new tires on his car so he can drive to night school to better his families’ life.
- The Somali family that was turned away because your affordable housing program is full.
The competition can feel fierce. I know.
I promise you, it’s the tiny wins and “mission moments” your supporters want to and must hear in between the requests for contributions. Those examples of your impact will cause you to stand out in the competition for funds.
Olympic athletes compete not just with themselves for a better time or better score, but it’s also the competition with other athletes that makes them stronger or skate further. I can assure you Olympic athletes share stories with their community of a tiny moment that felt exhilarating or felt scary or like they won’t ever get to their gold medal.
Celebrate those tiny wins, and even failures with your supporters so they KNOW they are on YOUR team.
Love the Goal AND the Path
While a gold medal is the singular goal of an Olympian, you might have many goals as a fundraiser. Whether your big goal is meeting a fundraising target this year or expanding your services, or getting the board engaged in making donor thank you calls, remember that each step along the way gets you closer to reaching the end goal of having sufficient funding.
This is where it truly is the journey AND the destination that are critical. It’s rare that a very young first-time competitor gets a win at a big competition. But when it happens it was because they followed and embraced the path of continual practice, focusing on their passion and acknowledging the tiny wins along the way.
Fully embracing the journey will make the big win much sweeter.
Here’s to an Olympic-size fundraising year for you and your organization!
