A Lesson in Fundraising

I recently took part in one of those ubiquitous crowdfunding campaigns. This particular campaign did not feature matching grants, which multiply the value of each contribution two- or threefold, or a brief window of time to increase the excitement. But otherwise, it was the same formula of dedicated volunteers reaching out to thousands of friends and strangers.

I gather that many have already grown weary of these proliferating campaigns. But they do have their positive points, quite apart from the fact that they still seem to be effective means of raising money for strapped institutions and organizations. For one thing, especially where there is a matching element, they provide thousands of non-gvirim the feeling that they are also contributing and playing a crucial role in a large campaign, for which they would never have been solicited previously. They also allow hundreds of volunteers with energy to participate. Not so long ago, a group of teenagers manning a bank of telephones in my neighborhood raised enough money to start construction to replace the current prefabricated shul.

These campaigns offer those institutions that cannot afford a full-time fundraiser or director of development a means of meeting their expenses. And they can be an ideal way to publicize a very good organization and the idea underlying its work.

The representative of the company managing the campaign in which I participated told us at the outset that whatever we committed to raise we would likely achieve. I pledged to raise NIS 100,000, on the assumption that I had two partners who would together carry 40 percent of the burden. Wrong. I had apparently not made my expectations clear enough to my would-be partners.