Small extra comment—I think the costs of slow fundraising are potentially much worse than ‘a month of staff time’. Fundraising mainly takes up the time of senior management, so it bottlenecks the rest of the organisation. It usually becomes the ‘top idea on your mind’ meaning it especially absorbs your most creative, focused hours. If fundraising results become more volatile (even if in expectation you get the same amount of money) it forces you to become more risk-averse and spend longer contingency planning, which makes it harder to reach really ambitious goals.
In general, we want an ecosystem where the link between expected impact and getting money is quick and reliable.
Small extra comment—I think the costs of slow fundraising are potentially much worse than ‘a month of staff time’. Fundraising mainly takes up the time of senior management, so it bottlenecks the rest of the organisation. It usually becomes the ‘top idea on your mind’ meaning it especially absorbs your most creative, focused hours. If fundraising results become more volatile (even if in expectation you get the same amount of money) it forces you to become more risk-averse and spend longer contingency planning, which makes it harder to reach really ambitious goals.
In general, we want an ecosystem where the link between expected impact and getting money is quick and reliable.
I think the fact that it’s a very stressful activity is also pretty relevant.