Saturday, December 6, 2008

Fundraising is Caring For and Feeding Your Network - 5 Secrets

Fundraising for your organization needs to be coordinated or else your efforts remortgage rates be futile. Along with being coordinated your fundraising mesothelioma clinical trial needs continuity. What I mean is that there must be some connection from one fundraiser to another.

You are wasting your time if you look at a list of contacts and all you ask is: How can I get their money?

You might get money from them, but you will not build a relationship with them nor will you get them to believe in your cause.

So, what do you do? There are five secrets to building and developing a healthy network.

Secret 1 - Be honest. If you are not being authentic or honest with someone you are speaking with they will be able to see it. If you care about your contacts, you need to be sincere and honest with your contacts. Anything less and you will lose that person for good (or until your are fired or quit).

Secret 2 - Stop trying to sell. When you network with people you are not trying to exploit them for your gain; you are trying to develop a list of people that will work with you to promote your organization's cause. If you want to network you need to give and once you have given the members of your network will be more than happy to give in return.

Secret 3 - Networking is about more than finding qualified people. A lot of networkers like to believe that all they have to do is collect some business cards, get a business person, a lawyer and someone in PR and everything will magically come together. Guess what? They're wrong. Networking is about building a system of interested, passionate people that are willing to get involved.

Secret 4 - Crack the introverts shell. In every network there is going to be people that are shy and introverted. Unfortunately, that is going to hurt your network. Promotion is about meeting people, presenting to groups and introverted people look awkward when they do these things. One idea is to host public speaking workshops or have team building activities designed to make the introverts more comfortable around groups of people.

Secret 5 - The world needs networks. The only way the problems in this world will get done will be through successful and effective networking. No matter how big or small the problem your group wants to solve, it needs to leverage its network. While this may sound lofty, there are problems that need solvin' and they will only be solved when smart, dedicated and involved people network, get connected and start cooperating!

For more information on Fundraising, or for assistance in developing your marketing plan, visit http://www.donation411.org Our mission is to serve as a turn key marketing system for charities and social organizations nationwide.


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