The N Nonprofi fit S Selling g and F Fundraising g Challen - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

The N Nonprofi fit S Selling g and F Fundraising g Challen enges es a and O Opportu tunities es: An E Explor lorator ory S y Study o of N Non onprofit it O Organiz izatio ions* Dr. Bahar Ashnai Dr. Saeed Shekari ashnaib@wpunj.edu shekaris@wpunj.edu Professional Sales Department, Cotsakos College of Business William Paterson University March 2020 * Support for this study was provided by the Cotsakos College of Business' Business Policy and Practice Research Forum

Resea earch Qu Ques estion What are fundraising challenges and opportunities in the nonprofit sector?

Literature Ga e Gap • Prior studies have primarily looked at improving nonprofit organizations management and have not covered a wide range of sales and marketing techniques, useful for nonprofit organizations fundraising. • We highlight this gap by reviewing the literature for critical resources and strategies.

Fieldwork and An Analysis • Our qualitative fieldwork of 25 nonprofit organizations in the US • Content Analysis of the interviews • Exploring the themes that are not addressed by prior theory or literature

Prop opos osition ons • We identify the key resources and communication strategies. • We bridge the literature gap by offering a resource and strategy “fit” perspective. • We propose that strategies to communicate and close a deal are different depending on the donor type.

Prop opos osition ons • For small and individual donors, we suggest that low-impact communications such as newsletters and emails provide a more fruitful approach when dealing with a large donor base. • For organizational donors, we propose that high-impact communication channels such as in-person communications supplement the critical resource of fundraising staff. We further suggest that vital sales-related skill sets are essential to make high- impact interpersonal relationships work.

Implicati tion f for P Practi tice • We find evidence in our qualitative study that interpersonal communications in the nonprofit sector can benefit from conventional sales training to improve different aspects of the fundraising process by incorporating critical sales skill sets such as cold-calling, objection handling, and closing.