Broadening your pool of donors to engage in the information arena

Facilitator: Ron Shuffield, CEO, EWM Realtors

Megan Brownell, Arizona Community Foundation

The group discussed the challenge of persuading someone to give, emphasizing that we must meet their needs, tell compelling stories, focus on leaving a legacy and the permanence of their gift, and convincing the donor of how the community foundation provides value.

Community foundations are evolving, focusing on getting people to give where they live and to give while living, not only through bequests. Donors used to come to the community foundation and we responded to their interests. Today, we propose areas of interest, encourage collaboration with other donors and help donors feel impact and value. We’re encouraging more strategic giving rather than a sprinkling of grants to the donors’ favorite organizations. There are also significant generational differences to be accounted for, as younger generations give differently and consume information differently. Programs staff now interact with donors to bring subject-matter expertise. 

The group discussed how to get donors to see community information as a valid need. 

• It can be difficult to talk to donors over age 65 about information as a community need and as a means of preserving democracy.

• Donors need very targeted information they can understand and act upon, so it’s important to narrow the focus of what we suggest.

• Need to “package” or create stories for donors regarding how literacy and digital challenges are preventing people from thriving economically.

• As community foundations, our job is to understand the programs and services being offered by nonprofits in our community, and match donors with those programs. Every community has someone offering a successful, well-vetted program that wants the chance to tell its story. It is up to community foundations to bring this issue to our donors. 

• It can be difficult to convince donors to GIVE to the information gap—how, if they fund a program, does it help meet their personal mission? If their mission is to break the cycle of poverty, how does funding a Web site help them achieve this?

• The reality is that not all donors will be interested in this. We still have to meet donors where they are, by bringing the donor a tangible project that ties into their interests.

• Education of donors is ongoing.

The group discussed how community foundations are engaging donors in community information. One example shared was to conduct a community information audit to determine where and how people are getting information, and then overlay that map with a map of other social needs. Community foundations jump to new issue areas from time to time, which engages a new set of donors. The same would apply to community information as an issue area. Donors want more information now than ever before.

The FCC says current legislation will provide broadband access to 98% of Americans. There’s a possibility of switching subsidies for phone service to broadband, particularly in rural areas. The challenge is to bring prices down, eliminate monopoly providers. FCC’s Universal Service Fund could be used to provide broadband to underserved areas. An important priority should be getting fiber in places where it doesn’t exist. Private industry doesn’t want to put that money into infrastructure and cable companies are trying to evade their obligation to give money to support community television, meaning libraries, schools, etc. These groups will have to come up with funds to pay for access. Broadband is an economic development opportunity allowing people to do this work. 

Examples shared:

Saint Louis Beacon is a civic journalism site founded by former journalists that has raised millions of dollars in a short time by partnering with other nonprofits around town, bringing community and civic education to the public.

Beacon n’ Bacon: Weekly breakfast to which an expert in the community comes to talk about a particular community topic.

Tulsa: Partnered with evangelical community to present “Difficult Dialogues” to discuss difficult topics (in this case, high rate of female incarceration.) The interest was significant; no one had thought about this foundation and this Christian group coming together.

Tulsa: Donor with an interest in newspapers started an investigative reporting team (Oklahomawatch.org), now has three staff members. Media entities started off being upset about concept of nonprofit journalism, but have since realized the opportunity and provided staff to the project.

Community Foundation for Puerto Rico: Partnering with universities in Haiti to bring Haitian students to Puerto Rico to complete their studies; considering partnering to form a Haitian Community Foundation to bridge wealthy Haitians outside of Haiti with the needs today.

Utilized 25^th anniversary to launch “Giving Circle 25”: businesses sponsor specific projects, thereby supporting operations but gaining exposure for themselves.

Bus tours: Donors travel away from the major metro area to see what’s going on in communities has resulted in two major gifts.

Library foundation and donors have funded two part-time staff to take a mobile literacy lab out to various library branches.

Houston: Federal grant around engagement of new immigrants to teach computers, Internet, Word, etc. The class is taught in Spanish but the tools are in English.