Have you noticed that sometimes there’s a disconnect between organizing and fundraising?

I’ve been thinking about a workshop to help development staff talk to funders about long-term organizing. The kind of campaigns that take five years, don’t produce reams of pretty numbers and might not win the next election.

The kind of organizing that builds long-term power, lays the groundwork to maintain it and does more than win elections.

We can’t always measure the success of organizing with traditional metrics of doors knocked, new voters registered or clicks.

Although organizers have to know how to count, there are factors about organizing that don’t fit into Salesforce. For people who are used to spreadsheets, dollar amounts and grant reports full of charts and tables, it’s a hard concept to accept. For development staff and donors alike.

The workshop isn’t fully baked yet, but here are a few key points.

Real Talk

You know it already, but it’s important enough to say it again: the relationship is the most important factor. If there isn’t mutual trust between the person making the financial ask and the person hearing that ask, it won’t work.

Power comes from three places:

• the power of status or position
• the power of organized people
• the power of organized money

While organizers are building the power of organized people, development pros are building the power of organized money.

Learn about the funder’s vision of power in the community they support. Funders have a story too. Let them tell it.

Agitate. If you’ve built the relationship, you can safely remind the person of their vision and contrast it with the opposition’s long-term planning and patience.

Finally, for the moment when the funder reverts to their happy place of data, reports and studies, arm yourself with examples of the opposition’s long-term vision.

For example, back in 2001, Club for Growth founder Grover Nordquist said “I don’t want to abolish government. I simply want to reduce it to the size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub.”

And here we are.

Fundraiser? Organizer? What would be helpful to you?

If you’re a development staff member, what would be helpful in your conversations with funders about long-term organizing?

If you’re an organizer, what do you wish your development co-workers knew about organizing?

If you have thoughts, put them in the comments below!