Len Iaquinta's Blog

1. Steward your current funders.
    • Stay in touch with all of them:
       o Governmental agencies
       o Business foundations
       o Businesses
       o Civic and other funding organizations
       o Individuals
       o Family foundations
       o Community foundations
    • Share your continuing successes in personal stories as well as in the usual statistics.  Keep the Vision alive!
    • Make it personal.  Mailing an annual report or a newsletter is not enough.  Phone and ask for a 15-minute personal visit at which you will tell compelling stories about real persons served and then leave behind appropriate reports.
    • Understand that their funding may diminish, cease temporarily or be otherwise interrupted during this recession.  Discuss options for the funder to help you.
    • Take stewardship seriously.  Do it well and stand out from the crowd!

2. Focus on identifying, cultivating, engaging and soliciting individuals who care about your mission and those you serve.
    • Individual giving accounted for 82% of 2008 charitable giving (including bequests). 
    • Don’t neglect the largest potential source of philanthropic support for any not-for-profit—people who care about people and your mission.  This includes family foundations.

3. Think long term. 
    • Start today to diversify your support.  Put as much effort into your total funding plan as you do into your program plan.
    • Be creative.  Don’t naysay what you have not used best practices to implement.
    • Develop appropriate metrics that measure activities that are proven indicators of best practices as well as metrics that track dollars raised.
       o Have you weight trained?  Then you know it is all about doing the training properly and for the correct number of repetitions.  It is not a mystery.

4. Tell the personal, human stories in compelling heart-touching messages that demonstrate what you do and why it matters.
    • Avoid clinical terms and scenarios.
    • Use simple, direct language.  Let the light come through!

5. Work hard at raising funds from ALL sources.  The peak-performing organizations do not cut themselves off from success by neglecting the funding avenues available.

Len Iaquinta, a member of the Alliance for Children and Families’ Resource Development Advisory Commitee and Executive Consultant Select Group, is a career fundraiser of millions of dollars in major gifts, grants, and annual funds. He is recognized as a strategic and tactical thinker, often contributing to professional practice journals and presenting at professional meetings. He has created successful fundraising programs at public and private institutions from New York City to Milwaukee and Chicago. He earned his bachelor's and master's degrees in journalism from Northwestern University (Medill School) and Columbia University in the City of New York (Pulitzer School), respectively.

Len is president of Excellence in Communications Inc.