How to Raise Money to Strengthen Your Nonprofit

By Nell Edgington

There is a revolutionary concept that could dramatically transform the nonprofit sector, if only every nonprofit leader knew about it: capacity capital. Capacity capital is the money nonprofits so desperately need to strengthen and grow their organizations. Happily,the Financing Not Fundraising webinar “Raising Capacity Capital” will show nonprofit leaders how to raise this critical kind of money.

Capacity capital is the money that every nonprofit needs, but most find so hard to raise. Capacity capital can help your nonprofit to:

• Hire a development director
• Launch an earned-income stream
• Expand your programs
• Evaluate your impact
• Train your staff

It is money for infrastructure and organization building. If you want to move your organization out of the starvation cycle, you have to learn how to raise capacity capital.

I have worked with a number of small to medium sized nonprofits to create a pitch for capital to strengthen revenue functions, grow programs and otherwise build organizations.

Let me give you an example.

Elaine Spallone, executive director of Charlotte Chamber Music, felt that they were stuck. As a small, but beloved arts organization they had a great product, but they couldn’t get beyond the vicious cycle of never having enough money, never being able to expand their presence and impact. They had a solid board, and a great vision for the future, but lacked philanthropic equity to build the organization to achieve that vision.

I worked with Elaine and her board to create a long-term strategic vision, a plan to get there, and a funding pitch for capital to build the organization. You can read the on-going case study about this work to raise philanthropic equity at a small nonprofit here. Charlotte Chamber Music is now actively raising capacity capital, and it’s very exciting.

It’s incredibly powerful to think about the implications of this concept for the entire nonprofit sector. If a nonprofit that provides a solution to a social problem was no longer impeded by a lack of capital, it could be revolutionary.

We’d no longer see great programs wither on the vine. The best and the brightest ideas could travel all over the country, indeed, all over the world. All it takes is the right kind of money, invested in the right place at the right time, and the solution can take off.

If you are interested in raising capital for your nonprofit, the “Raising Capacity Capital” webinar will show you how to:

• Talk about the importance of capacity capital to your donors and board
• Create a budget for the capacity dollars you need
• Develop a campaign goal
• Break the goal into donor ask amounts
• Identify prospective donors
• Give your board a role in the campaign
• Gain the confidence to start asking for the money you really need

Raising Capacity Capital Webinar Details:

Wednesday, July 17, 2013
12:00-1:00pm EST
Price: $49

The registration fee will get you:

• Access to the live, interactive webinar
• A link to a recording of the webinar, which you can watch as many times as you like
• The PowerPoint slides from the webinar
• The ability to ask additional follow-up questions after the webinar

Register Now

Photo Credit: gfpeck

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Tags: capacity capital, Charlotte Chamber Music, financing not fundraising, Fundraising, growth capital, nonprofit capacity building, nonprofit fundraising, nonprofit webinars, philanthropic equity

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