At this point you should have employed a fundraiser, found several ambassadors for your NGO in the local community and also created a group of apprentice/volunteers ready to help the fundraiser in his/her daily commitments. At this point it is crucial to elaborate on a strategy able to manage this team in the long run. The NGO should have a system to ensure that the fundraising team works with the other groups towards the achievement of set goals for the organisation, the fundraising team should report on a monthly or bi-monthly basis to the NGO general assembly and provide evidence of their success while presenting problems encountered to ask for critical feedback and general support. Many of the following tips could be used to manage any group working in the organisation although few suggestions have been elaborated considering the needs and expectations of the fundraising team.
Introducing the New Team to the Organisation
It is essential that the new fundraising team is introduced to the rest of the organisation to facilitate exchanges of opinions and ideas but also because the fundraiser and his/her apprentices will be asked to work with several members of the NGO to raise money for different projects. You could organise a special social event to introduce the new team members to the others. There should be a more official part in which the new members have the possibility to introduce themselves and present their ideas to the rest of the groups followed by a more informal meeting where members of the NGO are free to talk and mingle. This is the starting point of a successful collaboration. The second step towards success is to ensure that all new members have clearly understood what are the short and long term objectives of the organisation, its main strategies and its past achievements. If the NGO is very young, it will not have a strong identity. As such the new members will be asked to collaborate in building a distinctive profile for the organisation in their fields of expertise. In this case, the fundraiser and his/her team will be asked to create a portfolio of potential donors and collaborators able to define the position of the organisation within its broader field of action. If the NGO has been running for few years and it has a clear identity, the new team members should be guided to understand where the organisation stands, its main funding bodies, its strategies to raise money and the modalities to advertise its activities. It is important that the new team members adhere to existing policies and strategies to reinforce the NGO identity rather than sending mixed messages to the community or existing donors. For instance, if your NGO uses posters to advertise its projects in the community, it is important for the fundraiser to know so that he/she could budget for designing, printing and hanging posters in the community.
It is also important that the fundraiser understands what are the main points to be raised when asking for money and how the NGO has previously presented itself to donors. This will guarantee continuity.
The fundraisers should work in close contact with the administration and finance teams. They should know what is the financial situation of the organisation to better formulate requests for money, which are realistic (remember that donors will ask for prove that you can manage large grants before giving one to you).
