5 Fundraising Mistakes Nonprofits Make

Fundraising is such a misunderstood enterprise. And it’s not just misunderstood by nonprofit leaders in the trenches.

The other day, I was talking to a foundation program officer, who is normally very savvy and wondered if one of his struggling grantees should think about launching a new gala event to raise some additional money. I swallowed my first inclination to scream “Noooooo!” in the middle of a crowded restaurant, and instead calmly explained why events are a bad money fix and why any short-term money-generating strategy is probably a really bad idea.

But this well-meaning program officer is far from alone in his understanding of financial sustainability in the nonprofit sector.