Fundraising Triumphs and

Keeping Members Engaged

for the Long Haul!

Fundraising Triumphs and

Keeping Members Engaged

for the Long Haul!

Suzi Carter

suzi@fci.coop

540-416-2667 (COOP)

foodcoopinitiative.coop

Telling your story

What is fundraising?

Fundraising

= relationships

Why do people give/join?

• Because their friend joined

• Because you asked them

• For their own reasons!

So what? How does this

apply to co-ops?

Who are you engaging?

Potential members:

• “Just browsing”

• “I’m waiting until you’re open”

• “You’re a bunch of hippies”

• “I don’t eat healthy”

• “I love what you’re doing! But I

don’t have the money right now.”

• “I’m here with my friend.”

4 Cornerstones in 3 Stages

4 Cornerstones in 3 Stages

Membership growth?

Membership fantasy?

Membership plateau…

Endowed relational capacity

…only gets you so far

vs. Earned Relational Capacity

Moving people to take action

Shoring up infrastructure

Shoring up infrastructure

Taking stock: research, listen

Set goals and tell everyone

• Why are you doing this?

• Plan it

• Test it

• Simplify it

• Use traditional and new forms of media

Decide your activities

• Who’s your team?

• Where are your members?

One-on-one

House Parties

Small events

Big events

Collecting info, building momentum

Leveraging media

Evaluating Activities

• Did it build membership/loans?

• Did it drain our energy or resources? (ROI)

• Was it worth it?

• Who could do it next time?

• What did we learn?

• Did the press cover it?

• Was it fun?

• Was it the right thing to do?

• Did the board love it? Did members love it?

• Did it bring goodwill to our co-op?

• Did it attract past the core?

Other Ideas

Other Ideas

And ideas that flopped

Lessons learned

• Use templates

• No such thing as bad press

• Work with and through your members

• Always think, “Who can do this?”

• Use your university

• Break up small tasks into smaller tasks

• Event toolbox and 3-prong spiel

• Make friends with media; become a connector

• Don’t do anything alone

• If you don’t announce it, it never happened

• Admit mistakes, ask for help

Remember Your Role

REPEAT:

I WILL NOT DO EVERYTHING.

Iron Law of Organizing

Never do for someone else what

s/he can do for herself/himself.

Job of the Organizer

• Identify and recruit the people

needed to do the work of

starting the co-op

• Give them the tools they need

to be successful

• Keep them working together

effectively

Thank you!

Suzi Carter

suzi@fci.coop

540-416-2667 (COOP)

FoodCoopInitiative.coop

Questions?