Lessons from a CC fundraising campaign
A month or so ago iCommons webqueen, Daniela Faris interviewed me about Creative Commons’ second annual fundraising campaign. As stated in the interview, we chose to focus the 2006 campaign more on our community and raising CC awareness than solely on our financial need.
Since then Daniela, Heather and I have continued an exchange about the importance of our global community and how to best address their needs. We’ve acknowledged that raising money for a cause is always an area of interest so we thought that it would be interesting and perhaps even helpful for me to write candidly about the campaign.
The ideas that I’ve listed below are simple suggestions that I thought could be useful to reference when building your own strategy for your own cause. As suggestions go they may be useful to some and not to others depending on your own situation and bandwidth. The CC 2006 fundraising campaign was wildly successful, more so than we had ever anticipated, but in the end the implementation began with an idea. It is the idea and the subsequent process that could be re-used, re-mixed, and built upon in whatever manner is appropriate for you under your own banner.
Context
The specifics of the 2006 campaign are inconsequential in that every situation and need is different. Replicating what CC did in order to raise this needed funding isn’t necessary when raising dollars for your own cause. However, that being said it may prove beneficial to go through our general thought process when crafting and implementing your own initiative.
Let me set the stage for how all of this transpired. I joined CC in mid’July of last year and at the top of my agenda was the campaign. The campaign was traditionalized last year as a way to show the IRS that we derive our support from the public and are not a private charity.
As a way to more quickly acclimate to CC I started taking stock of previous initiatives, current and future goals, and the various resources available. Throughout this process I found myself asking questions that may have seemed basic to some but nonetheless crucial to answer. I find that those questions and conceptions fall into three general categorizations: Goals, Resources, and Implementation.
Goals
The first thing that I did after I joined CC was to meet and talk with people, including community members, about future ideas and goals. Some general guiding questions that I relied on were the following:
o� � � How have we raised money historically and has that allowed us to do all that we wanted to do?
o� � � What are the goals of CC this year? Not just in terms of dollars to be raised but all types?
o� � � What type of initiative will meet those goals?
o� � � Are the goals that we want to accomplish achievable based on our resources?
o� � � Where do we want to be in one year, 3 years, and 5 years?
The next step after some organizational introspection was to make a list of all the resources available. I’m loosely defining resources to include more than just money in our bank account.
Resources
o� � � As an individual who do I know?
o� � � As an organization whom do we know?
o� � � Who comprises our immediate and extended community?
o� � � How are they involved and to what extent?
o� � � What are the various skill sets of all the people involved in this project?
o� � � How much time do they have to be involved and how can I optimize their time and skills for what the organization needs?
After going through these questions and the questions that manifested through the initial exercise I developed a plan that best used all of the resources that I had available and met the needs of those involved and the needs of the campaign.
Implementation and measurement of success
o� � � Given the available resources how do I use them to accomplish the goal?
o� � � Is there a way to separate the overall goal into smaller more easily achievable goals?
This entire process is obviously different for everyone. As I look back I realize that there were some great successes achieved and some things that should’ve been attended to differently. One good practice that I found was to consistently revisit the overall goal and the smaller milestones that comprise it and to question the current strategy and brainstorm other possibilities. At one point what I wanted to achieve seemed impossible but after I broke it down into bite-size pieces it seemed more possible and then it became conquerable.
One key formula that I wish I had implemented early on was to develop a metrics system, a system of measurement. What constitutes success? If you succeeded, why? If you didn’t, why not? Revisiting a system seems necessary as I plan our next event, initiative, campaign, etc. and help make that bigger and better.
Photograph: A CC schwag contest entry, by BarGal, CC BY-NC 2.0