What business development can learn from fundraising

Most charities fundraise, a few really excel in public service delivery, and all will acknowledge that these are very different ways of working.

At a glance, fundraising is about people, and business development is about systems. One is associated with loud public messaging, one a little more with a stressed project manager staring blearily at “service model finalfinaldraft.doc (3).”

But as someone who has spent many years bouncing between the two, I’ve noted a few things business development can (and should) learn from fundraising:

Tell stories – fundraisers are master storytellers; BD prefer to crunch hard data. But stories are the simplest way that you can jump your audience out of the blurb and into genuinely believing that you can achieve what they need. Find your success stories – remember when you turned around a struggling service in record time – and really hone how to concisely spell out the challenges, what did to overcome them and what the result was. And tell it!

Have an influencing plan – cultivating a long term donor relationship is very different from bidding for something that just popped into your inbox. Success will come easier where you have a trusted reputation, and that takes work. Follow the path of major donor fundraising and make a plan – where do you want to get them from and to? What key messages do they need to understand? Block out clear steps, assign responsibility and stick to that plan with faith and patience.

Think about your audience – while a commissioner or procurement officer will be accountable to regulation on their decisions, they are still individuals. Think like a fundraiser and focus on building an understanding of what they care about and how you can adapt. Do they want constant consultation and involvement, or do they want to leave you to it? Will they feel miffed if there is not someone with an important job title attending their meetings? Are they passionately local and likely to hate a bunch of Southern accents showing up to the presentation? Recognise their personalities, and tailor your pitch (yes, even the formal submission)

…And one thing fundraisers can learn from BD:

Business development is cross-organisational by its nature, driving the delivery work of staff in everything from operations to HR to facilities. This means that a business development lead doing a half decent job will build their solution with all the best experts and ensure all relevant people are informed and agreed on what they are committing to.

Fundraising - often needing to meet the funders’ needs for big, ambitious sounding targets and quick turnarounds for proposals - can risk leaving this vital interconnectivity out, leading to everyone chasing their tail when the cheque lands.

Meaningful fundraising should be driving new work and not just plugging budget gaps – but to do this well, they need to bring the organisation with them.