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Grassroots funding, part 2: Ways to build grassroots financial support.
As I mentioned in part 1, providing financial support for our own movements is key to their sustainability. In the words of Andrea del Moral, it can “keep us true to our visions, flexible in our goals, and relevant to the people who yearn and strive for justice.”
Sounds good, right? So how do we do it? Read on, friends, read on.
Ways to raise cash
There are many approaches to raising funds from supporters. In the spirit of not reinventing the wheel, let me recommend Fifty-Three Ways for Board Members to Raise $1000 (PDF), written by Kim Klein, editor of the Grassroots Fundraising Journal. She repackaged many of those suggestions in 55 Ways for Board Members to Raise $500 (HTML).
And then there’s 8 ways to raise $2,500 (or more) in 10 days (or less, sometimes) (PDF), also by Kim Klein and Stephanie Roth. This one generally assumes that the reader has access to more resources (wealthy friends, a house at which to hold parties, etc.).
What if my friends are broke?
Our communities may not have much money. Still, you’d be surprised what calling around can do. A hard-pressed 15 bucks here and there really adds up.
How to find the money to support the causes you value? If you have flexible expenses — maybe you like to go to dinner with friends, or watch the occasional movie — opting for a cheaper alternative (a potluck in a local park, a DVD screening at your place) can free up funds.
I’ll close with some more insight from Andrea del Moral:
Fundraising from the grassroots means raising money from individuals with whom your organization or cause already has a connection: throwing parties, sending letters, making phone calls. It is fundamentally different from seeking government or foundation money in that donors are directly affected by the group's work — at the very least, they have a personal interest in it. It is different from seeking funding from a wealthy patron (although such people are often part of a grassroots fundraising strategy), because the grassroots strategy draws from a wide base of supporters; no one donor could cripple the organization by pulling out. This approach to raising money allows organizations to be as radical as their communities want, to be flexible and change focus over time, and to work beyond the funding cycle of the Next Big Grant. It also builds relationships between existing organizations and those new to a movement; the latter are energy and potential future leaders of the movement.
What fundraising strategies have worked for you?
- Rebecca Fureigh's blog
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Money Money Money
Financial ingenuity is something tha we need to prize in our movement, especially the grassroots level where it seems as if money is rather difficult. There are many ways in which we can even raise money in a very moral way but lots of it. There is a church in Brooklyn, where my mother goes and they have been working very hard to get some cash and actually sustain the lives of their members. Rather than simply puting money in an account, I was able to set them up with different cash flows from fixed income products--- I know they can't go aggressive. These fixed income products included certficates of depositis that martured according to the antcipated needs of the church; they loved it.
Looking at non-pprofit organizations that need mmoney for various projects, we can actually fund ourselves and allow ourselves to excute ideas with determination. I think we need to carefully asses our position with capital marktes and see how we can actually sustain our movements. A concentration of progressive money, generating enough returns, can easily take the market in a different direction; where at the least an investor will ask himself a few questions before he buys an investment. But for starters, we can certaily create these cash flows and allow ourselves the highest degree of financial autonomy to do what we want and when we want it!!
Certainly, the suggestions made are a good start.