Heya, Rick. To what extent would you say that the donor landscape of EA-associated individuals requires a different approach, from a fundraising perspective, to those outside EA? What tips might you have for an organization aiming to diversify outside the bubble?
And, frankly, the bullet-pointed questions in the lead-in are all of interest, especially (for me) common mistakes made by EA organizers, working with existing funders to find new ones, and the Beatles, of course. Whatever you have bandwidth for based on other questions. Many thanks!
There are lot of things I think we can do better, though I’d add a caveat that my responses here are not generalisations. There are orgs which make a point of doing everything they can to engage donors (EA and non-EA), and there are others which fail to make the easiest of changes.
So we talk about some of things I’ve experienced, I’d encourage other views and opinions, as well as examples from forum readers.
We may not know everything about our organisations, but having someone on the team who can talk to donors/funders is helpful. Emailing your URL, and reminding a prospective donor that you sent it, may not be sufficient.
Create ways to bring donors in. While your X post about your latest research may interest a number of X readers or followers, what else might you be able to do to build an audience, and donor pool? Perhaps a webinar presenting key results? A Q&A with other experts in your field? Piggyback off of your existing activities to find ways to engage noew people, and keep your current people updated.
Make it easy for people to support you. Be contactable. Include your email address and LinkedIn link in your email signature. Let me know what time zone you’re in. If you have a donation page or FAQ about your organisation, perhaps include a link or button so I can explore more.
As I mentioned, this is not an exhaustive list, and some of these are fairly minor points. But overall, I think the more we can a foster a broad mindset, the better we’ll do at engaging with non-EA funder. It’s not that we’re hiding EA, it’s that we’re more than EA.
Heya, Rick. To what extent would you say that the donor landscape of EA-associated individuals requires a different approach, from a fundraising perspective, to those outside EA? What tips might you have for an organization aiming to diversify outside the bubble?
And, frankly, the bullet-pointed questions in the lead-in are all of interest, especially (for me) common mistakes made by EA organizers, working with existing funders to find new ones, and the Beatles, of course. Whatever you have bandwidth for based on other questions. Many thanks!
Hi @Adam! Good to see you here.
There are lot of things I think we can do better, though I’d add a caveat that my responses here are not generalisations. There are orgs which make a point of doing everything they can to engage donors (EA and non-EA), and there are others which fail to make the easiest of changes.
So we talk about some of things I’ve experienced, I’d encourage other views and opinions, as well as examples from forum readers.
We may not know everything about our organisations, but having someone on the team who can talk to donors/funders is helpful. Emailing your URL, and reminding a prospective donor that you sent it, may not be sufficient.
Create ways to bring donors in. While your X post about your latest research may interest a number of X readers or followers, what else might you be able to do to build an audience, and donor pool? Perhaps a webinar presenting key results? A Q&A with other experts in your field? Piggyback off of your existing activities to find ways to engage noew people, and keep your current people updated.
Make it easy for people to support you. Be contactable. Include your email address and LinkedIn link in your email signature. Let me know what time zone you’re in. If you have a donation page or FAQ about your organisation, perhaps include a link or button so I can explore more.
As I mentioned, this is not an exhaustive list, and some of these are fairly minor points. But overall, I think the more we can a foster a broad mindset, the better we’ll do at engaging with non-EA funder. It’s not that we’re hiding EA, it’s that we’re more than EA.
EA+ anyone?