Panel at Creative Pathways to Sustainability, Oxford, UK, April 2025
I recently participated in two discussions on the important topic of organizations maintaining financial sustainability. Here is some of the learning shared:
Internal work
- Having a ‘north star’ (especially when times are tough) helps to keep everyone on the same team and maintain focus.
- Know your ‘know’ and ‘no’ – what is your expertise and where are your gaps?
- Be clear about who you are as an organization. What position do we occupy and what do we offer? What can’t or shouldn’t we do? How do we align with others? Be strong in your ‘why’s’
- Know the stage your organization is at re: the type of funders you approach (eg big funders have bureaucratic check lists that may be hard for smaller organizations to navigate).
- Good internal work is needed to prepare the organization for effective partnerships – financial or otherwise. Last minute consortia to apply for funding can have a hard time sustaining themselves.
- Strengthen your story and storytelling skills – recognizing the importance. How does oral storytelling fit in? Board members can be helpful storytellers
- Recognize that it takes money to raise money (third party validation might help board to understand this) – how much do we set aside for this?
- Bring staff from different areas into proposal generation and conversations with funders. It’s good teamwork and helps internally, but funders also notice.
- Be careful of fundraising for the sake of fundraising – what impact do we want to have? How do we bring impact about? And for how long do we continue? Worth discussing your ‘end game’.
- Learning to say no – not all money is a good match.
Building and nurturing relationships
- It is never too early to build relationships – funders are people – they like stories that resonate with them and do business with people they like. Relationship building needs to be authentic.
- People don’t focus on how much you know until they know how much you care.
- In cultivating potential donors, seeing work first hand can be incredibly important.
- Ask early funders to introduce you to others.
- Know when to ask in a relationship – the timing is often key (especially for a potential large donor).
- Appreciation goes a long way.
- If you need funding quickly, focus on funders who can turn around funding quickly.
- If it’s not currently a good alignment for potential funding, ask who they recommend you talk to.
With thanks to: Cynthia Appenteng, Jacqueline Asiimwe, Dana Francois, Amanda MacArther, Rashida Petersen, Olasimbo Sojinrin and Megan Sparks
