Thank you for your thoughtful comment! I do appreciate your expertise here.

As Kim Klein says, 75% of all nonprofit donations come from individuals. If you don’t know a nonprofit is there, you can’t give to them. You need to keep reaching out to individuals for your unrestricted funds. And an individual will see a Nike billboard, and think, Ooh, I want shoes, versus a Habitat for Humanity billboard and think, Ooh, I want to help others!

In short,

1. Cultivating donor relationships and having a billboard are two means to an end, and are not mutually exclusive.

2. The more people who know that your nonprofit exists, the more likely they are to donate, if you have put your message out in an effective way.

3. Nothing takes the place of relationship cultivation with donors. But you can certainly add a billboard or a newspaper ad that will make more people want to learn more about you and become donors.

4. I do believe that people still read newspapers, watch TV, listen to the radio, etc. Just not as many as before. But it’s still worth it to put your name out there. I’ve gone to events where I saw an ad in the paper, or looked into a nonprofit because I heard about them on the radio.

I personally don’t own a TV, and the TV networks are losing eyeballs, but they still have millions of viewers. These viewers could be seeing images of your nonprofit, instead of images of shampoo or yet another consumer gadget that you don’t really need.

Nothing will build capacity like an influx of cash. And to make money, you have to spend money. On advertising, as well as on fundraiser salaries and other things. There’s nothing wrong with having self interest and being a fundraiser. We aren’t here to wear a hair shirt while we ask for money.

Thank you again for reading, and I think you will really love Dan’s book. Would love to talk with you about it over email!

Mazarine

I think that if we dream big, we can compete with Coke and Nike. But that for most nonprofits, that would be a laughable idea.

But why shouldn’t we be successful, and profitable enough to get big enough to really solve our social issues?

I think if a nonprofit fundraiser had board approval, Executive Director buyin, and 60% donor kudos, a small nonprofit could start to build their marketing budget to compete with these big brands.

Mazarine