5 Mistakes and 5 Successful Strategies for Association Fundraising

Charter School Associations around the country depend on philanthropic funding to not only startup but also to continue to operate. In conversations with association executive directors and board members, “we have limited resources and we need more money” is a common theme. It does not seem to matter if the association is a large established organization or a small upstart---the same theme comes up. Another issue that we hear in some states is the struggle of charting their own path versus the “will of outside funders”.

This month’s Charter School Association Management Blog addresses the 5 most common mistakes that associations make and 5 strategies that will strengthen your fundraising efforts—and more importantly strengthen your association. Some of these things may seem like “common sense” and “simple” issues-- but they are the big things we see holding associations back from getting the support they need.

Common Mistake #1 – Not defining and quantifying what problem you are actually going to “solve”

In many plans, we see inspirational goals such as “improve the quality of charters in the state” and “build the pipeline of qualified charter leaders”. What we don’t see is a quantification of the size of the problem and how the association’s efforts are actually going to solve that problem. Take the example problem statement “improve the quality of charters in the state”--how many existing charter schools need to significantly improve on their quality? 2? 50? 100? How many startup schools historically in a given year have needed to significantly improve on their quality within the first 3 years of their lives? 7? 15? 35? A stated outcome that is the equivalent of saying “we are going to just work on it” is not good enough. Likewise, helping only 5 charter schools improve when 50 need to improve doesn’t solve the problem either. How you quantify your goals has huge timing, funding, and success ramifications.

Success Strategy #1 – Clearly state, quantify, and commit to funders what you are going to solve

In our example, if there are 50 charter schools that need improvement, then solving the problem will require some level of intervention and/or support for 50 schools at some point in time. You may not be able to solve the problem overnight or all at once…but funders and you need to be clear that your efforts coupled with their money will solve the problem in a specified period of time.

Common Mistake #2 – Being too cheap and not asking for the right level of resources to truly deliver results

Non-profits often pride themselves on “stretching themselves”, “wearing multiple hats”, and “acting poor”. As the result, more non-profits fail to fully deliver on their promises than ones that do. At the end of the day, you can’t go to the funders and tell them that you didn’t do what you said you were going to do because they didn’t give you enough money---especially when you provided them the budget for how much you needed.

Success Strategy #2 – Ask for the “right level” of funding needed to do the job right

The “right level” of funding is not only to cover your true costs to do the job right, but the costs for inevitable mistakes, risks, and costs to scale. It should include costs to properly market and promote your solution to your constituents and customers who need your help.

At the end of the day, your funders will want to know that for X dollars, you were able to fully deliver on Y.

Common Mistake #3 – Not knowing your customer

All charter schools are not the same—and likewise their relationship with you as their Association is not going to be the same. Often, associations get pulled into a tug-o-war to please one group of charter schools over another with so-called competing interests. The reality is that there will be groups in your state that have very different needs.

Using our “quality improvement” example with 50 schools that could use improvement--what if 40 of those schools are district-controlled dependent charter schools? Wouldn’t the way you solve the problem be very different than if they were all independent charters?

Funders who have worked in the charter school space over the years are smart. They can tell when you are using high level estimates and generalizations to bolster your numbers--and just beneath the surface your schools are much more segmented with different needs.

Success Strategy #3 – Know your customers and their issues inside and out

You, as the “official association” should know your charter schools in your state better than anyone else in the country. You should be able to describe and quantify all the subgroups and their needs. This level of insight and understanding brings credibility to your work and your numbers.

Common Mistake #4 – Dysfunctional association governance
There are two types of boards. We are not speaking of who is on the board but rather how they act and perform their work.
The first type of board views their primary role is to govern and lead the “association” to be a strong organization that is uniquely positioned to help the charter movement solve its own toughest challenges. Their loyalty first is to the association and as board members will put the association/movement’s long-term needs first even if it means that their own interests and even their school’s may be negatively impacted.

The second type of board views their primary role as being “representatives” to carry the voice of their constituents. The board becomes the platform for compromise. The problem with this model is that very few of the toughest problems get really solved because the solution is always a compromised one—right down the middle. What is characteristic of this type of board is that decisions often take a long time to be made and from the outside, the association appears aimless. Governing is not happening—just voting. These associations seem to have a difficult time to articulate clear strategy and deliverables—and the major side effect is that funders are more reluctant to fund.

Success Strategy #4 – Create Effective Governance

The association board should be clear about its loyalty and its role—to the association and not individual interests. People from charter schools can and should serve on the board but need to be very clear about their role. For “movement/customer” input, form a member council as an official body to hash out the various conflicting priorities that may exist in the movement with a representative on the board. What is most important is the expertise brought onto the board so that there are no major organizational blind spots—someone with financial expertise, someone with legal expertise, someone with organizational development expertise, leadership expertise…etc. Funders will have more confidence in your organization’s leadership decision making process, and stability.

Common Mistake #5 – Not having the right people in your organization

Many associations have a person with deep advocacy experience as the executive director. While this may be the right qualifications to deliver advocacy work, it may not be the right skill set for other functions necessary within the organization. It is a disheartening thing for funders to see in an association’s business plan a group of people who have no past experience or expertise to do what the association says it wants to accomplish—it taints what you say as more risky with higher potential for failure.

Success Strategy #5 – Bring the right level of experience and expertise into the organization

If you have an executive director who is great at advocacy but not so great at operations (usually a different skill set), then get someone who lives and breathes operations. If you are starting a consulting service, find someone who has run a profitable consulting organization. With a solid team that has prior track record, your plans look a lot more achievable, solid, and credible to funders.

Conclusion

In our experience, when there is a solid plan to solve well defined problems, the money shows up. Funders want results at the end of the day. The bonus is that you pretty much get to define the results. If it has been difficult in raising funds, then the reason to consider is “doubt”---“doubt” in your organization’s ability to deliver on what it says it’s going to deliver.
In most cases, we have found funders to not want to “drive” or control an agenda or a specific way of doing things. In fact, most want quite the opposite. However, when there is a lack of clarity on the association’s part, any input from a funder may seem to the association as a directive. The most important is for the association to become clear--clear about its customers, clear about what problems its setting out to solve, and clear about what it will deliver. With this clarity, more than sufficient funding will be on its way to you!

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