Does Your Fundraising Program Need a Personal Trainer?

Sometimes a personal trainer is what you need to get a weight loss or fitness program on track.

"Get results today and tomorrow” and “get motivated” are two reasons my health club promotes hiring a personal trainer. “Stop thinking you can’t do it” is my own internal marketing mantra. So now I get pushed, prodded and stretched by Cal, and I’m finding out I can do a lot more than I ever thought possible.

It’s the same with our fundraising programs. Sometimes we need someone from outside to help us get out of our comfort zone and push our fundraising efforts further than we have before. If you’re finding the following descriptions fit your situation, it may be time to hire a personal trainer for your fundraising program.

Mentally, you’ve set limits

• “There’s no way we can do that; we don’t have the resources.”
• “We tried that several years ago, and it didn’t work.”
• “Our donors (or board) will never go for that.”

Are these sentiments being raised in your fundraising strategy sessions? Even worse, have you stopped having strategy sessions because you’ve given up on doing anything new? Have you and your colleagues set limits to what you can do, preferring to stay in the safety zone of what you know works and isn’t too controversial?

A fundraising consultant can help you get past arbitrary limits and move — carefully and controlled — into new areas of fundraising. Just as you wouldn’t want to return to the gym after 10 years and start out by trying to lift 200 pounds, you may not want to take on a $10 million capital campaign as your first challenge with your fundraising personal trainer.

But maybe you could … Getting wise counsel from someone who looks at your resources and capabilities with fresh eyes may be just what you need to go beyond your limits and forge new fundraising success in previously uncharted territory.