Spring Cleaning Your Fundraising Dream Team
The success of any school or community groups fundraising efforts will depend as much on the strength of the fundraising projects they run as it will on the strength of the individuals in charge of running them. For this reason, it is vitally important that you spend the time and effort to attract, train and retain the right people with the right mix of skills to match the goals of your school, community group or organisation.
One of the easiest ways to define whom you need on your fundraising committee is to spend a few minutes writing down a summary of all the skills and attributes of the one or two people you know who you consider to be great fundraisers. By listing these ‘role models’ qualities, skills and various talents, you create a list of criteria against which you can seek out and evaluate potential committee members.
Whilst it may not always be possible to find one person with all the target skills and experience, it will help you identify the right mix of people and skills to flesh out your fundraising team. It will also be a useful tool to help you evaluate your existing team, to identify people who need training or those who need to be cut from the team altogether.
Sometimes despite their best intentions some people just don’t work out, and it takes a good leader to recognise this and take decisive action before it spoils the interests of other team members. Organising a private meeting with the person, where you can have an honest uninterrupted conversation about why they are being cut from the team is the best way to handle this. Doing this shows respect for the person’s feelings as well as avoids any scenes being made.
Leaving a gaping hole in your fundraising team can eventually sink your ship, so you should try to avoid getting rid of people too hastily and always have someone in mind to replace those you cut from the team.
When you finally have the right people with the right mix of skills in place to make up your fundraising dream team, it is essential to hold regular meetings to keep the team informed, energised and on mission. Establishing team unity at the beginning is critical to the fundamental success of any fundraising committee, so you should try and have your initial strategy session as soon as possible.
Organising regular team meetings with fixed agendas will then become the most important element to keeping your team meetings running to time, and your team members energised and informed. During team meetings it’s important to encourage all team members to participate, contribute and be heard. This will be perhaps your most important role in keeping the fundraising team happy, healthy and effective.
By meeting on a regular basis, fostering new ideas and creating a sense of camaraderie, you will be able to keep your team invigorated and focused on the mission before them.
And by planning as far as possible in advance, and taking rapid action whenever you encounter bumps in the road, you can ensure your fundraising dream team is free to focus on their part of the project.
