Before the Ask: Fundraising Strategy for Charities
About this Event
A campaign. A grant. A capital campaign. Three fundraising strategies every charity should know how to run.
What they have in common is that before you start, you need a plan. Not a vague sense of the goal, but the actual numbers, the actual message, and an honest read on what you're getting into.
Three sessions on how to build that plan. Everything here is practical, specific, and ready to use Monday morning.
Free to attend. Coffee and refreshments provided.
Who it's for
Executive directors, fundraisers, communications staff and board members at charities across Belleville, Trenton, Prince Edward County and the wider Quinte region. Come as staff, come as a board member, bring both.
The sessions
One Message, Every Channel: The fundraising campaign you can run this fall Andrew and Katrina MacDonald, Kasama Marketing
A gala is not a campaign. Neither is one mail piece, two emails, or three posts on Facebook. Most charities are running disconnected pieces, spending real staff time on each one, and wondering why the results feel flat. This session covers the strategy behind an integrated campaign: how to cost a program honestly so a donor can see what their $50 actually buys, how to find the story already sitting in your files, how email, mail, phone and personal asks reinforce each other instead of competing, and why your thank-you letter should be written in September. Bring a recent appeal if you have one.
Make It Easier to Say Yes: What grant funders actually want to see Kristen Visser, Founder & CEO, Grantsimple
Most charities assume grant success comes down to finding the right opportunity or writing a more impressive application. In reality, funders are looking for clear answers to four basic questions that can be surprisingly hard to answer: What is the idea? Who are you? What do you need? What is in it for them? This practical session will help charities explain their work more clearly, spot gaps in their grant readiness and build stronger applications without losing their mission or several innocent weekends.
The Capital Campaign You Don't Think You're Ready For Daniel Hussey, Lead Campaign Strategist and Head Coach, HPC
You don't feel ready for a capital campaign. Nobody does, and that's usually where the conversation ends. This session covers what a campaign really is, what it costs, what charities your size actually raise, and the six phases that let you climb it one step at a time instead of one giant leap. You'll leave knowing whether a campaign is 6, 12, or 24 months away for your organization. Come with a question.
The panel
All three teams stay for an open Q&A. Bring the question you'd normally save for the parking lot.
Schedule
- 9:45 — Doors and coffee
- 10:00 — Welcome
- 10:05 — One Message, Every Channel
- 10:35 — Make It Easier to Say Yes
- 11:05 — The Capital Campaign You Don't Think You're Ready For
- 11:30 — Panel Q&A
- 11:55 — Close, coffee and conversation
Why we're doing this
Kasama Marketing is hosting this, and here's why.
We work with charities, and we keep seeing the same thing. Good organizations, doing hard work, with no strategy underneath it. Not because they don't know better, but because there's one person doing the job of four and strategy feels like a luxury for organizations with a department. We think it's the opposite. Strategy is what makes a small team's effort actually count.
So we brought in two people we trust. Kristen Visser knows the grant funding landscape better than anyone we've met. Daniel Hussey has spent his career telling small charities they're not too small for a capital campaign. Add our session on building a real fundraising campaign, and you get three angles on the same idea.
It's free, there's coffee, and every session is the actual method rather than a preview of one.
Where is it happening?
Event Location & Nearby Stays:
CAD 0.00
