Should you have a fundraising campaign when you don't need more money?
(Originally in SIGNAL, Summer 1997)

Copyright 1997 by Ken Wyman CFRE

Imagine that a supporter leaves you a million dollars in her will. Or that municipal funding seems secure. Your team may see this as a good excuse to stop fundraising, at least for a while. Instead you should redouble your efforts. Here's why:

1. A million is never enough. The excitement of having money leads people to develop creative ways to invest that money in the community. Soon the volunteers, the staff, and community leaders discover so many opportunities for good work that you could use twice as much. Or ten times. Wyman's law of budgets: Needs always expand to exceed available funds.
    
2. A one time infusion of money _ even a million dollars will eventually be all gone. It may be a year. It may be a decade. If wisely invested, the principle will remain, but inflation may make it seem like a less amazing sum than it once did. Sooner or later you'll need more money. If you haven't done any fundraising in the meantime, you'll forget how. You'll have to start all over again to find friends, volunteers, donors. That will be hard. Many charities that were once securely 100% government-funded are now facing cutbacks. It's like watching a junkie try to quit. Don't get addicted to easy money -  it's a bad drug!
    
3. Fund raising keeps an library involved and accountable. The outreach, the contact with the community, the debates, the demand for accountability, the activities are life's blood to a real community-based group. The world has too many dead churches, sustained by endowments, going through the motions until the last elderly parishioner dies off _ and then there may be a trust fund looking after the cemetery in perpetuity. "Better to give the money away then die rich." This is not only good organizational sense, it is one of Carnegie's principles of philanthropy.
    
4. A million means you can invest in proper fundraising, building a campaign with true long-term vision, instead of the short-term panic to make enough for this month's bills. Too many groups are scrambling for cash and offend donors because they don't take time to say thank you and build strong relationships.
    
5. Money attracts money. A million now will be like honey to the bears. Fundraising will never be easier, provided everyone knows what the money will do for the community. Potential donors might decide that if someone believed in the Y enough to leave them a million, there might be a good reason.
    
6. Fundraising is never just about money. When people give they feel ownership. If they don't give, it is disempowering. The bad old image of fundraising is of the white-gloved lady bountiful from the rich part of town dispensing little blessings on the poor little crippled children. Yuk! No wonder people with disabilities rebelled. And rage continues to come from many other people once portrayed as needy and pitiful. What's needed is self-help. And that includes asking people to give whatever they have (time or money) to their own organizations, like the library
    
7. Fundraising builds leaders. That's arguably part of the library's mandate. People learn how to think, how to research, how to speak, how to organize, how to write, how to overcome shyness. People make new business contacts, and new friends. Fundraising campaigns are a community service to many of the volunteers.
    
8. Fundraising builds communities. People discover they can get money, and feel empowered. They learn to work in teams. They go on to tackle other problems.
    
9. People need to give. Stewardship means we all have something to give, and if we don't use our gifts, we are poorer for it. The people who use the library need to know they aren't getting something for nothing.
    
10. Fundraising is fun. Especially when you are not frightened that failure has terrible consequences. This cushion means people can enjoy the ride.