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Effective fundraising isn’t magic. There’s no one-size-fits-all formula. But organizations that consistently achieve or exceed their fundraising goals share some common traits: a strong culture of philanthropy, a compelling case detailing why funds are needed, programs with measurable impact, an engaged Board and consistent outreach to donors and prospects.
Many nonprofits struggle to overcome the same fundraising challenges year after year. Breaking that cycle often means rebooting the organization’s culture – not simply troubleshooting fundraising tactics or hiring a new development director. The crux of the problem is often rooted in deeper issues that must be understood before they can be fixed. This is where the Pivot Program comes in.
Pivot is a fundraising assessment tool and coaching program designed for small to mid-sized nonprofits to evaluate what’s working and what isn’t and create a roadmap to guide fundraising success. It also includes 1:1 or group coaching so you learn just what you need to do to expand support.
Pivot is a powerful system designed to assess your overall fundraising. Our goal is to help you understand your existing systems and strategies as they relate to your goals and best practices.
In many ways, fundraising is a predictable science. The data exists to show us why and how people give. We can examine your fundraising performance: average gift size, email open rates, revenue raised, ROI, and so on. But those metrics tell us only about past performance, which is just one piece of the story. We also need to consider your readiness to raise funds and whether you’ve got systems in place to improve on what you’re doing.
Pivot uses a robust survey tool as a basis to assess your organization’s attitude toward philanthropy and effectiveness with fund development. That data generates a Pivot score that reflects the health of your fundraising and helps you reshape your approach to fundraising. Once we understand how your fund development process works today, we can tackle how you can improve it across your organization – ultimately positioning you to raise more money.
Pivot is based on 50+ years of combined fundraising experience working with over 100 organizations across the nonprofit sector. Our experience, underscored by recent studies on the sector1, reveal a pattern of fundraising challenges facing nonprofits regardless of budget size and across sectors.
1 UnderDeveloped: A National Study of Challenges Facing the Nonprofit Sector,
Compass Point and Evelyn + Walter Haas, Jr. Foundation. 2013.
The Pivot survey assesses four key components that are critical to an organization’s fundraising effectiveness and culture of philanthropy:
Our team helps you identify the opportunities and challenges by aligning components that our experience – and best practice – shows are the keys to successful fundraising: dedicated staff leadership and an engaged board; integrated, methodical systems; and compelling messaging.
Once we know how your fundraising program fits into your overall organizational culture, we can create a roadmap for future success.
Soon, you’ll be poised to implement the targeted action plan – and, ultimately, drive fundraising success. And you’ll be ready to reach – or exceed – your fundraising potential.
© 2020, Joan Wood & Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.
© 2022 Joan Wood & Company, LLC. All rights reserved.