FUNDRAISING EFFORTS TO

BUILD AND MEASURE

CAPACITY AND INFRASTRUCTURE

2013

Ernest Lewis III, Fundraising Professional

ARE WE THERE YET?

Ice Breaker

Which picture best describes your agency’s progress

on building capacity and infrastructure through

fundraising?

Understanding Capacity Building and

Infrastructure

According to the California Wellness Foundation,

capacity building is the development of an

organization’s core skills and capabilities, in order to

build effectiveness and sustainability (www.tcwf.org)

According to Merriam – Webster, infrastructure is

the underlying foundation or basic framework for a

system or organization (www.merriam-webster.com)

Framework Assessment (Devita & Fleming, 2001)

Framework in Action (Devita & Fleming, 2001)

Organizational assessment

Strategic planning, business plan, fundraising, financial planning and governance

i. Change Management

Champions – hiring consultants or experts in the field

Resource matching or leveraging

Establish evaluation metrics illustrating impact and effectiveness

Understanding the three levels of outcomes–

i. Program/funding outputs

ii. Organizational outcomes

iii. Mission Impact

The Challenge (Hubbard & Light, Unknown)

STARVATION CYCLE occurs:

i. When nonprofit leaders and fundraisers understand the need for strong organizational capacity and are challenged with securing adequate funding

ii. Possible Risk: Reallocation of direct assistance funds to cover overhead or capacity needs

The Challenge (continued) (Hubbard & Light, Unknown)

Resources for capacity building and infrastructure (i.e. general operating, support, personnel, consulting fees and databases) are fewer.

The available resources have strict requirements often leading organizations to overpromise or underperform.

Key Strategies (Silloway, 2010)

Strategy One: Build Accurate Overhead Rates into Contracts and Grants

i. Develop updated costs allocation

ii. Report fundraising and other overhead costs accurately

iii. Communicate needs with funders

Strategy Two: Access Funding to Directly Support Capacity Building

i. Contingency Planning (earmarking memorials or bequests for capacity building efforts)

ii. Accessing Federal, State, and Local Funds

iii. Secure grants for general operating support

iv. Launch social enterprise or revamp operations

Key Strategies (continued) (Silloway, 2010)

Strategy Three:

i. Access technical assistance to support or improve organizational capacity and infrastructure

ii. Examples are data management/ reporting, board development and volunteer recruitment

What Funders are Looking for (Silloway, 2010)

Funders support successful and healthy organizations because it is a good return on their investment

A recent study offered the following criteria funders use to determine if organizations are in the position to take advantage of capacity and infrastructure building grants:

i. Board of Directors and staff leadership understand and support change management and will remain engaged in process

ii. Organization is not in crisis and has stable funding and staffing to implement capacity and infrastructure building resources

iii. Organizational leadership has a clear understanding of the organization’s needs and future priorities, a plan to strengthen capacity and infrastructure and a strong and effective action plan for change management

Assessing Fundraising Capacity and Infrastructure (Silloway, 2010)

According to Shirley Trauger, Vice President

of Schultz & Williams Consulting, key

elements to assess include:

Personnel

i. Having fulltime development staff

“who makes fundraising happen”

ii. Fundraising goals and staff levels

must be aligned to reach goals

iii. Are jobs and roles clearly defined?

iv. Are the right people in the right

roles? A new trend is recruiting

candidates with sales experience

v. Are staff equipped and trained to

achieve the fund development

targets outlined in plan

Communication/Collaboration/Trends

i. Ongoing communication with development staff and departments; CEO and Development VP or Director

i. Development and accounting departments work closely together

ii. Adequate donor software to store, manage and produce data reports

iii. Ability to use data analysis for trends to make decisions and planning purposes

iv. Ability to adapt to emerging needs, trends, and requirements

Building Capacity and Infrastructure for Growth (Tweeten, 2010)

Explore opportunities that

will increase organizational

sustainability

Leverage capacity and

make changes when

necessary

Leadership and

stakeholders should

consider the following

assessment questions:

i. Does our current

capacity match our

strategic or business

plan expectations?

ii. What steps are

needed to determine

our capacity and

infrastructure?

iii. What steps would we

take to build capacity

and infrastructure?

THANK YOU

Please share your thoughts.

References

Devita, C. J. & Fleming, C.

(2001). Building Nonprofit

Capacity. The Urban

Institute, Pg.17

Hubbard, T. E. & Light, C.

P. (Unknown). The Capacity

Building Challenge. Practice

Matters : The Improving

Philanthropy Project, Pgs.

6-8

Silloway, T. (2010). Building

Capacity for Better Results:

Strategies for Financing

and Sustaining the

Organizational Capacity of

Youth-Serving Programs.

The Finance Project

Tweeten, B. (2010).

Capacity Building for

Growth. Growth Design

Corporation