Hi Rick, it’s great to connect with you! I have a few questions and would really appreciate hearing your perspective on them.
Given that I haven’t yet had much success in securing substantial support for my phage-related projects, what strategies would you recommend for balancing the trade-off between relying on major funders and building a network of smaller donors, especially in niche fields like phage therapy research?
Could you suggest effective ways to uncover what truly motivates funders, particularly those who might be interested in high-impact, emerging biomedical solutions? This insight would be invaluable in refining my approach for phage therapy projects.
Based on your experience with EA organizations, what are some common fundraising mistakes to avoid when pitching early-stage, high-risk research? I’m particularly keen to understand where others might have gone wrong, as I work to gain support for my own phage research.
How can I tap into the knowledge and expertise of existing funders to strengthen both my research and fundraising efforts? Additionally, are there effective ways to work with current funders to identify potential new funding sources within the global health sector?
Hi @emmannaemeka! Thanks for your questions—let me start by saying that for a lot fundraising issues and approaches, there are may not be absolute right and wrong answers. What works for you in your org might not be right for another org, even ones of similar size or cause area.
You mention that you haven’t had much success in securing substantial support. I’d first want to get a sense of where you’ve had success securing support, at any level. It’s possible that the approaches that are working for those supporters might work for larger donors too. Trade offs, if any, might depend on your resources and staffing. For a small team, it might be easier to manage a small number of relationships with big donors, instead of tens or hundreds of relationships with donors giving more modest amounts. There doesn’t need to be a trade off—many organisations do both.
I love this question about donor/funder motivation. Sometimes we can be so focused on our work and our impact, that we’re not thinking about what our supporters might want to achieve. I don’t mean for this to sound flippant (because it certainly isn’t!), but I think the best thing we can do to find out this info is to ask them. Think about your supporters, volunteers, team (regardless of their giving our ability to give) and ask why they do it. Once the conversations get going, you may even uncover some ideas and quotes that can help other people to get involved.
There are probably a lot of things we could talk about here, but in general I always want to find ways to bring people in, to start a conversation. A wide-funnel approach is one example. If you’re talking about a niche, early-stage, high-risk initiative, I’m might think about why this isn’t for me before I consider why it might be perfect for me.
Here, I’d go back to point 2 above. Not every funder may respond positively to a “would you introduce me to …?” question, but our donors/funders/supporters have an enormous amount of knowledge and expertise. So let’s at least ask the questions.
Hi Rick, it’s great to connect with you! I have a few questions and would really appreciate hearing your perspective on them.
Given that I haven’t yet had much success in securing substantial support for my phage-related projects, what strategies would you recommend for balancing the trade-off between relying on major funders and building a network of smaller donors, especially in niche fields like phage therapy research?
Could you suggest effective ways to uncover what truly motivates funders, particularly those who might be interested in high-impact, emerging biomedical solutions? This insight would be invaluable in refining my approach for phage therapy projects.
Based on your experience with EA organizations, what are some common fundraising mistakes to avoid when pitching early-stage, high-risk research? I’m particularly keen to understand where others might have gone wrong, as I work to gain support for my own phage research.
How can I tap into the knowledge and expertise of existing funders to strengthen both my research and fundraising efforts? Additionally, are there effective ways to work with current funders to identify potential new funding sources within the global health sector?
Hi @emmannaemeka! Thanks for your questions—let me start by saying that for a lot fundraising issues and approaches, there are may not be absolute right and wrong answers. What works for you in your org might not be right for another org, even ones of similar size or cause area.
You mention that you haven’t had much success in securing substantial support. I’d first want to get a sense of where you’ve had success securing support, at any level. It’s possible that the approaches that are working for those supporters might work for larger donors too. Trade offs, if any, might depend on your resources and staffing. For a small team, it might be easier to manage a small number of relationships with big donors, instead of tens or hundreds of relationships with donors giving more modest amounts. There doesn’t need to be a trade off—many organisations do both.
I love this question about donor/funder motivation. Sometimes we can be so focused on our work and our impact, that we’re not thinking about what our supporters might want to achieve. I don’t mean for this to sound flippant (because it certainly isn’t!), but I think the best thing we can do to find out this info is to ask them. Think about your supporters, volunteers, team (regardless of their giving our ability to give) and ask why they do it. Once the conversations get going, you may even uncover some ideas and quotes that can help other people to get involved.
There are probably a lot of things we could talk about here, but in general I always want to find ways to bring people in, to start a conversation. A wide-funnel approach is one example. If you’re talking about a niche, early-stage, high-risk initiative, I’m might think about why this isn’t for me before I consider why it might be perfect for me.
Here, I’d go back to point 2 above. Not every funder may respond positively to a “would you introduce me to …?” question, but our donors/funders/supporters have an enormous amount of knowledge and expertise. So let’s at least ask the questions.