Investing with Conviction

If you're a nonprofit leader or work for one, keeping fundraising costs low is very often the goal. But should it be?

At Rescigno's we're all too aware of this concern. But if you're treating your development department as a cost center rather than a potential profit center, you need to change your thinking.

The money you spend on fundraising should be bringing in even more money. In other words, more fundraising may add more cost, but you and your team (and your board) should be looking at that cost as an investment in earning more revenue. 

Investing for Growth

If you're of the belief that you're going to save your way into an extra million dollars by spending as little as possible, you need to stop thinking that way. Immediately.

Here's an example of what I'm talking about: 

The CEO of a $5 million organization once told me how proud he is of the fact that his nonprofit spends "very little" on fundraising. He worked with a significant portion of the donor file and ran all of their marketing. In addition, they had 12 months of cash reserves. That's excellent, no doubt. 

But what he was not considering was that he was seriously hampering his organization's growth.