What Makes a Good Fundraiser?

What makes a good fundraiser? Believe it or not, but not everybody can simply stand up and declare themselves a fundraiser. First of all, you need official fundraiser qualifications and specific skills needed for fundraising events; second, you also need excellent fundraising ideas, which is something that most people can’t achieve that easily! On the other hand, this is why fundraising matters a lot in many ways: a good fundraiser is truly a committed professional that can bring lots of help to many people…through their own determination!

What Makes a Good Fundraiser?

This article will break down what makes a good fundraiser and provide some useful hints that will help you outline a successful fundraising campaign and enjoy the benefits of a fundraiser. If you’re aiming to become a fundraiser, this article is certainly a must-read!

What Does a Fundraiser Do?

Just as the name implies, fundraises gather funds for a specific non-profit. They come up with nifty fundraiser ideas and design special events in order to increase awareness of their organization’s work, goals and monetary needs.

Every fundraiser’s most common duties are the following:

1. Find potential donors.
2. Design a powerful fundraising message that might appeal to donors.
3. Raise funds through all kinds of platforms, campaigns and events.
4. Keep a record of each donor’s information.
5. Evaluate the success of past fundraising campaigns. You can easily do this if you’ve fundraised online, on social media or used online platforms. 
6. Train volunteers for the campaigns.
7. Be in charge of every legal report.

What Makes a Good Fundraiser?

There are some important skills needed for fundraising that every successful fundraiser possesses. They’re not always inborn, but you might as well cultivate them as your career progresses:

1. Perhaps the most important one is to have an impeccable integrity that places selflessness above everything else. You develop this by simply working with a strong moral sense!
2. You must become a good listener! It is essential to establish good relationships with your donors, so we recommend you to take a class in communications to further develop this.
3. Being a motivational is a must! Your donors must appreciate your organization’s message, so putting the donor’s interest first always makes it easier to inspire them to listen to you regardless of the type of fundraiser.
4. If you’re not the hard worker type, then this might not be the job for you, because you have to be everywhere if you want a fundraising campaign to be successful!
5. A genuine concern for people is a must, so we recommend you to firstly join an organization you’re truly passionate about.
6. Develop some high expectations not only for yourself, but also for everybody. So always aim to the sky and do your best to constantly improve the things around you. This will also spark creativity and enable you to come up with some unique fundraising ideas.
7. This might seem obvious, but it has to be said: love your work. We recommend you to work as a volunteer first in order to determine if this is for you. Otherwise, it’ll be a burden both for you and your coworkers.
8. High energy not only will keep you working properly, but it’ll also inspire others to do so. So, eat well, exercise and relieve stress to keep your energy levels high.
9. Perseverance. Be stubborn as heck. Set goals and realistic benchmarks not only to measure success, but also to achieve them…and surpass them!
10. A good fundraiser has a great presence – he commands all attention and is respected by everybody. This is the hardest trait to cultivate, but you can start by simply developing a professional attitude at all times. Sooner or later, it will become part of your personality!

How to Become Successful at Fundraising?

Even if you don’t have most of the traits we explained above, or are still cultivating them, there are some practical tips that will help you become successful at fundraising easier. For example:

• Only work for organizations whose mission you feel passionate about. Don’t push yourself onto things you don’t like, or else, success won’t follow.
• Become a change agent inside of your organization and always highlight the importance of philanthropy.
• Always put the donor’s interest at the top of the pedestal. They’re key players in the fundraising campaigns, so make it obvious.

What skills are needed to be a fundraiser?

Practical fundraising skills involve excellent communication skills (be it written and spoken), great presence, the ability to inspire and manage others, a professional attitude, and a budget-oriented style of work.

What can I sell for a fundraiser?

The top selling fundraising products for non-profits tend to be shirts, discount cards, cookies, pizza, bricks and scratch cards.

Bottom Line 

As you can see, what makes a good fundraiser can be summed in one word: passion. Of course, you also need fundraiser qualifications and the skills needed for fundraising we just described above, but the fundraisers’ passion is what breeds innovative fundraising ideas that bring the success to non-profits. Fundraisers are basically the answer to the “Why fundraising matters” question: they set the example that there are still people willing to sacrifice themselves for others!