Making the Case
Does your organization have a Case for Support or a Case for Giving? Armstrong McGuire assists nonprofits with the creation of these important fundraising tools every day. A case for support is a must for a capital campaign, a major gifts campaign, an endowment campaign and for your ongoing annual giving opportunities. Developing, refining and sharing of your case for support is an important piece of any resource development plan.
A case for support is different than your mission statement, different from your vision, different from your elevator speech and other organizational language. Prospective donors want to know what the need is, what impact your organization will make and how their gift will make a difference.
Questions that help form a case statement include:
- What is the need? State the need and talk about who will benefit and why.
- What evidence is there of the need? Use facts, statistics, surveys and experts to provide evidence of the need.
- Is the need urgent? Donors want to know that their funding will make an impact and understand why their gift is needed now. If the need is not urgent, it makes it harder to incent prospects to give now.
- How is your organization qualified to meet the need? Testimonials and a successful track record help prove that your organization is qualified. Donors will also want to know why your organization is special or unique compared to similar nonprofits aspiring to meet the same need.
- What impact will be made as your organization solves the need? Donors need to know how many people, animals or whomever your clients are will be affected. Bottom line donors will want to hear about quantity (i.e. how many more served) and heart string donors will want to hear about quality (i.e. early detection, increased safety).
Creating a case for giving or support is a great way to involve your board or development committee as well as program staff members. A case created years ago may need updating. Language from a case can be used for speaking points, solicitation scripts and training volunteers.
Please email april@armstrongmcguire.com with any additional case statement tips or call (919) 390.1925 ext. 105 with any questions or comments.
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