ON FUND RAISING

Confessions of a long-time NGO Volunteer by Nancy Jackson, Board Member
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Until I began working with an NGO based in a major North American city my fundraising experience was limited to the two local models that prevailed in the poor rural area of the USA where I was living.
The first one I called the Sunday Morning Model because it was based on regular church attendance and a strong sense of obligation: You’re going to pray that “God’s will be done on earth as in heaven”? OK, here’s the collection plate. The basic message could be couched in gentler terms or with considerable rigor, but it was simple and clear. And whatever its shortcomings, it worked, one of its chief advantages being its remarkable financial transparency. Whether or not the congregation lived up to its daunting spiritual mandate, regular financial meetings, sometimes long, tedious and contentious, meant that the books were open to all congregants.
Then there was the Saturday Night Model, an ad hoc event sponsored by the local bikers and/or the nearest fire hall. These “Beef ‘n Beers” were usually held in response to a local tragedy: a family confronted with an illness, an accident, or a fire. Although a few notices might be posted at the local convenience stores, publicity was mostly word-of-mouth thanks to the very effective rural grapevine.
Beef ‘n Beers were, in fact, just keggers with even more meat, booze, smoke and aggressively awful music than their youthful counterparts. They were wildly popular and successful, with many of thousands of dollars being raised in a single evening.
Transparency was not a problem because there was none. Many of the attendees had only hazy memories of what had happened on the night. The families who benefited from the event were understandably stunned with gratitude. The finances of the local fire halls were always conducted in masonic secrecy and no one — but no one — was going to ask the bikers anything about money.
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