2.3 Raising more money

Whilst in the longer term it is advisable to raise income from a diverse range of sources, when considering how to raise more money for your work in the short term (the next year or so) the first strategy should be to maximise the kind of successful fundraising you do already. This is because completely new ideas usually carry the most risk: they take time, money and other resources to set up and there is no guarantee of success.

For every category on the income spectrum that was covered in Section 2.2, increasing success will rest on two pillars:

• Knowing and understanding your audience (donor, funder, purchaser or customer)

• The ‘fit’ of your organisation or project with their wants, needs and interests.

What this means in practice will now be considered in more detail for two of the income categories: gifts and grants.