#FundraisingFriday - What’s Your Mission? What’s Your Goal?

Welcome to our first ever #FundraisingFriday! This is where we’ll offer some support and some lessons for those interested in raising money to do good things for others in need or at risk. These lessons are meant to be beneficial to everyone, regardless of their background, skillset, and nonprofit knowledge. We want to help you help others, so grab a seat and read on for the first #FundraisingFriday lesson: What’s Your Mission? What’s Your Goal?

A good first step for any fundraising effort is to identify what your mission is. This should be what you want to do with the money you raise. Tell the public, “your donations will help group X facing situation Y.” The more specific you can be, the more drawn the public will be to support your cause.

This should be a simple, succinct statement that is a sentence or two at most. Think of it as your elevator pitch as to who you are, who you’re raising money for, and how donations will help those in need. Practice this, work on this, and be authentic with it. Donors will feel your authenticity through your words, so be honest and true to why you’re doing this.

The second step is sharing your campaign fundraising goal. How much money do you want to raise? Knowing your monetary goal is not only beneficial to your balance sheet, but it can also be a great way to highlight progress to your potential donors. If your goal is $100,000, then you should have a big celebration when you hit $25K and $50K! This shows your appreciation to those who have donated; it may encourage a second donation from them; it could also draw in new donors by seeing your success and public support.

With that, we conclude our first ever #FundraisingFriday! Tune in next month for our next lesson: “Know Your Donors”.

Follow us on social media @NEPConnects and turn on the notifications, so you know when we’re posting a new article and join in on the #FundraisingFriday discussions with your fundraising peers!

‍

Originally from Upstate New York, Gabby Rockwell grew up in Girl Scouts with her troop meeting weekly in a volunteer fire station and giving back to her local volunteer department. From a young age, her passion was her community and the emergency responders that kept her town safe.

In New York, she pursued her Bachelors in International Relations, focusing on the impact that nonprofits have in making positive change on the world. Later moving to California to further her studies in State and Local Policy and Econometrics by getting her Masters in Public Policy, continuing to focus on how nonprofits can make a local difference through a combination of data analytics and marketing partnership opportunities.

She has worked in the community relations world of professional baseball and nonprofits, continuing to give back to emergency responders in local, statewide, and national capacities. From producing events, fundraising, marketing, and analyzing how to implement best strategies for increased donations, Gabby has a broad experience in the fundraising world of supporting emergency responders.

Now based in San Diego, Gabby is the Director of Social Media Marketing at NEP Services. She continues to spend her time giving back to emergency responders - both professionally and in her free time with her son. She's proud to merge her nonprofit and analytics backgrounds into one role to give back to those who give their all for us day in and day out.

‍