Nonprofits Must 'Raise the Bar' in Fundraising, Commonfund Whitepaper Finds

Some themes from the white paper include:

• In the process of rebuilding endowment, donations will, if anything, play a more important role than in the past.
• “A Golden Age — for those who can grasp it.” The current period is one of the most favorable, in historical terms, for endowment fundraising.
• “The permanent campaign.” Now, at many large nonprofit institutions there is no real beginning or end to campaigns; instead, a “permanent campaign” is always running in the background, with continuous cultivation of major gift prospects and a prioritized list of defined projects at the ready for negotiation with donors.
• The core campaign model. A significant development has been the transition to a strategic or “core” model, which focuses on providing endowed support for the core mission of the institution and for a specific number of areas that have the potential to make a major difference in the institution’s future.

The full paper is available at: Commonfund.org under “Commonfund Institute Corner.”