Hi deborahann!
It sounds to me like your non-profit needs to hire a development
(fundraising) consultant – and not a firm. My recommendation, having
worked in the non-profit sector for five years, would be to consider
hiring an independent consultant to do your first stage of grant
writing. I would define this person's role as developing corporate and
foundation sponsorship. For the second stage of your fundraising plan,
I would look at using a contractor (preferably the same person) to
develop an individual donor campaign – either through direct mail or
event fundraising. Consultants in the field of development are often
available on an independent contracting basis and usually part of that
contract includes a fee based upon the number and kind of grants you
want written and includes some sort of "bonus" based upon their
success rate. You might also consider bringing a Development Director
into your organization on a part-time basis – as a part-timer they
would have a yearly salary but no benefits, and they could provide
your organization with more flexibility. I think the decision to bring
someone into the organization would depend on whether or not this
fundraising was intended to be a "one-time" activity or annual
activity that might need staff support.
So, how do you find a Development consultant? There are two non-profit
focused websites that list non-profit jobs. I recommend reading
through their listings and then formulating a posting that addresses
your specific needs:
Idealist is an international non-profit website. They have a number of
tools and resources, as well as job postings:
http://www.idealist.org/index.html
The Non Profit times provides print and online non-profit news and
classifieds.
http://www.nptimes.com/classified.html
Opportunity NOC's (Non-Profit Organization Classifieds) provides
national listings of available non-profit jobs (I used this resource
to find my second non-profit job!):
http://www.opportunitynocs.org/
I think you will also find information on the Non-profit Genie (
http://www.genie.org ) helpful. In particular they have a section on
Fundraising – FAQ #6 "What should we look for in a director of
development and what is the typical salary range?" will probably be
particularly helpful:
http://search.genie.org/genie/ans_result.lasso?cat=Fundraising
I have included a number of relevant links on this topic below.
Hopefully they will help your organization flesh out a fundraising
plan:
The Center for Non-profits focuses exclusively on New Jersey
non-profits.
http://www.njnonprofits.org/
They have a New Jersey guide to grants that they sell to non-members
for $150. This may be a valuable purchase for your local fundraising:
http://www.njnonprofits.org/NJGG_desc.html
Internet non-profit center, useful warehouse of information on
national resources:
http://www.nonprofits.org/
Management Assistance for Non-Profits: http://www.mapnp.org/
They also have a section on fundraising:
http://www.mapnp.org/library/fndrsng/np_raise/np_raise.htm
The Fundraising Network
http://www.fundraisingnetwork.org/
Non Profit Guides provides grant-writing tools:
http://www.npguides.org/
Finally, I was able to locate a few sites that provide information on
grant writers. The first is a consulting group and the second is a
list of consultants:
A consulting group for grant writing, notably they do not "We do not
work for a contingency fee or for a commission percentage of the
grant.":
http://www.grantwriter.com/
The Non Profit Resource Center – follow links at top to Fundraising
then Grant Writing to find a list of fundraising consultans:
http://www.not-for-profit.org/
Tony Poderis has written a book on fund raising for non-profits. This
site provides information on his book and methods and he may be worth
contacting for more information on consultants:
http://www.raise-funds.com/
Google searches used:
://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&querytime=4PPUB&q=non+profit+fundraising
Good luck in your fundraising efforts!
Firefly |
