The Fundraising Bright Spots Program: Offered by CompassPoint Nonprofit Services

ABOUT THE PROGRAM
 

Fourteen organizations (with two participating staff each) will meet over a period of 8 months as a learning community through in-person gatherings, hands-on practice that puts fundraising strategies to work, and coaching sessions to support new behaviors and perspectives. Each session will be co facilitated by the Bright Spots team providing Bright Spots learning, planning tools, and time for each pair to incorporate learning into action plans.

Along with the group learning sessions, each participating group will be provided a fundraising coach and up to 10 hours of coaching in between group sessions, on how to activate plans.

The Fundraising Bright Spots program helps each group achieve the following outcomes:

Skills/Knowledge:

• Clarify your organizational business model, identifying and creating shared understanding of your “primary and secondary” income strategies.
• Achieve greater clarity around which fundraising strategies you are pursuing and why?
• Learn peer coaching skills to motivate action and learning within fundraising.

Systems:

• Improve or implement fundraising systems by working to:
• Institute practices and habits that support & leverage integrated systems- people communications, development.
• Create a documented plan to distribute fundraising activities throughout the organization 
• Create new development roles that are adopted beyond position and title.

Culture:

• Identify how fundraising lives both inside and outside the organization
• Understand how fundraising can build power in your community, movement, and in the organization
• Be able to shift group attitudes and beliefs about money to support a culture of giving and asking
   

Organizational Profile for this Program
 

You must be a social change organization (e.g., work in, but not limited to, one of these areas: racial justice, economic justice, environment, education, youth, arts and culture, violence prevention)
 
You must commit to sending the same two participants to the entire 8-month program
 
You have identified staff leading fundraising efforts (organization may or may not have a development director)
 
You have a desire to distribute fundraising across roles within the organization and build a culture that embraces fundraising across staff, board, and volunteers
 
You have the capacity and energy to make changes in roles, systems and practices over the eight months
 
You are not new to fundraising and individual giving
 
You are familiar with your current revenue streams and fund development activities