How to know when you're ready for your next fundraising strategy

Hillary breaks down why the next 5–8 years will require nonprofits to make sharper, more disciplined decisions about their revenue streams. We walk through the five major philanthropic strategies—major gifts, annual giving, grants, events, and corporate sponsorships—and learn how to assess whether your current approaches are scaling and operationalized enough to take on something new.

She’s joined by Dan Ebert, Director of Development & Communications at City Kids Wilderness Project, who offers a thoughtful look at focus, capacity, return on investment, and why trying to do “everything” leaves money on the table. Together, they explore how high-performing organizations grow by choosing one or two revenue streams to master—rather than chasing every opportunity.

Mentioned: Kelley, A., Isom, D., Seeman, B., Silverman, J., Cuevas-Ferreras, A., & Frei-Herrmann, K. (2024). How the biggest U.S. nonprofits are funded. Stanford Social Innovation Review.

Guest: Dan Ebert is a seasoned fundraising and communications leader dedicated to expanding access, opportunity, and outdoor experiences for D.C. youth. He currently serves as the Director of Development and Communications at City Kids Wilderness Project, where he oversees fundraising strategy, donor engagement, organizational storytelling, and external communications.

Dan joined City Kids in 2019 and has held progressive roles including Development Manager and Associate Director. Over his tenure, he has helped the organization strengthen its revenue systems, grow its donor community, and elevate its brand and impact narrative.

Before transitioning into youth development, Dan spent several years in arts and culture fundraising, serving as a Major Gifts Officer, Membership Manager, and Membership Coordinator at the Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington, D.C., and working with theatre organizations across Philadelphia and Northeast Ohio. He also founded and served as Artistic Director of Transforum Theatre.

Dan holds a bachelor’s degree from Kent State University. Outside of work, he can often be found cycling through Rock Creek Park, exploring Hipcamps across the region, cheering on Arsenal, or hunting down exceptional coffee and bagels.

Transcript

My name is Hillary Frances, and one of the things I've been thinking about is that the current sociopolitical economic landscape demands our careful attention to our fundraising strategies. You've often heard me say that we should choose one to two fundraising strategies to double down on until they are scaling, that we don't add a third or fourth until the first two are scaling. By the way, when I say fundraising strategy, I mean revenue stream. There are five. There are five categories of philanthropic revenue to choose from, major gifts, annual giving grants, events, and corporate sponsorships. My friends, now is the time to determine if you are ready to add a new revenue stream or strategy, which will fortify you through the next five to eight uncertain years. 

You're listening to Tailwinds: ideas fueling nonprofit innovators and social entrepreneurs. Tailwinds is a project that brings momentum to the leaders tackling the world's most impossible problems. On today's episode, How to cautiously add your next revenue stream. This episode has three parts. Part one. I give you my notes on the five strategies you have to work with. I'm going to argue that you should not try to bring on too many revenue streams at once, and you should be considering how to accelerate your capacity to bring on your next revenue stream soon. Part two, you hear from a seasoned development professional named Dan, who has put a lot of thought into this, not spreading his team too thin, not leaving money on the table, operationalizing, return on investment. Dan will help us see where each of his fundraising strategies are on the spectrum of being a well-oiled machine. Part three. I help you decide which strategy is next for your organization. 

So part one, let's get right into it. Two terms I need to define. Scaling, the strategy is generating revenue at scale, which means your team generates more revenue from the same activities this year than last. Operationalized. The strategy is a well-oiled machine. You have optimized the systems and processes to generate scalable revenue from this strategy. Now to clarify the five strategies or revenue streams we'll be talking about, major gifts is the revenue stream that comes from individual donors giving at or above your major gift threshold. The work of major gifts is activating generosity through relationships. Annual giving is the revenue stream that comes from individual donors giving below your major gift threshold. The work of annual giving is activating generosity through curated content, think appeals and a communication calendar. Events is the revenue stream that comes from individuals participating in fundraising events, the work of event fundraising. Activating generosity through transformational experiences. Corporate sponsorships is the revenue stream that comes from businesses and corporations choosing a specific asset to attach their gift, they receive a benefits package and the work of corporate sponsorship. Fundraising is activating generosity through a value proposition. Finally, grants is the revenue stream that comes from institutions giving in response to an application you submitted. The work of grant fundraising is activating generosity through compelling writing. 

I have found that most organizations raise more money by focusing on one or two of these streams at a time. In fact, there was an article in the Stanford Social Innovation Review recently that said that some of our country's biggest nonprofits are focusing on a single. Revenue category rather than diversifying across categories of funding. They conducted a study that found over 90% of the organizations in their study, which was 269 of them had a dominant revenue category, which accounted for at least 60% of the organization's total revenue. Now, their revenue categories were a bit different than those. I'm presenting here the five I just went over. So they asked organizations about their focus on the following categories, government funding, earned revenue, corporate giving, individual giving philanthropy, which they're calling major gifts of 10,000 and above, and investment income so they're saying that most of the nonprofits that get big do one or two things exceptionally well. They build a professional organization that is excellent at raising their dominant revenue category and sometimes an important secondary category, and and they get very clear on what activities will bring in this funding. Then they hire, recruit, and contract for the capabilities needed to accomplish these activities. 

So let's hear how this works at a small but mighty organization based in Washington DC I'm going to play clips from my conversation with Dan Ebert, director of Development and Communications at City Kids. Dan will help us get a clearer picture of how this theory of focusing on one or two strategies works in his context. A few things to know and to listen for. First, Dan has a team of two, three, if you count the executive director, and they are raising a little over $3 million a year. They work with donors in two geographic locations, Washington DC, where they're based, and Jackson Hole, Wyoming, where they have summer camp activities. You'll hear me ask Dan to evaluate how operationalized each of his strategies are. This conversation will sound like it's just scratching the surface of a deeper analysis that you might be craving. Dan doesn't give us a clear answer. Like, yes. This strategy meets your criteria for operationalized or no, it doesn't, and I don't press him for it because I think the reflections he's giving us on the status of each strategy is helpful to witness. What we also don't do in this conversation is analyze if Dan's spread too thin with his strategy selection. This is something I trust Dan to do now that he's been through that process with me earlier on in his tenure at City Kids.

Dan Ebert is the Director of Development and Communications at City Kids Wilderness Project an organization that provides transformative outdoor experiences for sixth through 12th grade DC-based students over a seven year journey. I had the opportunity to work with Dan when he was transitioning from a development manager to an associate director of development several years ago One of the things that stands out to me about our work was how Dan so thoughtfully considered City Kids' fundraising strategies. He thought about which of the five would be the best return on investment for the organization's unique landscape and he thought about how to prepare the organization for the next revenue stream. So he's the person I want you to hear from today. So Dan let's start by helping people get a little sense of the work of City Kids And if we could do this interview in a location that would represent your work where would we be What would be going on in the background?

Yeah that sounds great! Thank you Hillary.

Gosh, where would we be It would definitely be somewhere in nature of course given that we run a summer camp out in Wyoming and do a bunch of outdoor programming in DC And so uh right now we're gearing up for our ski and snowboarding club And so it could be on the side of a mountain learning to ski and snowboard we could be in Shenandoah I chaperoned many flights of of sixth graders on their first flight heading out to Jackson with 24 sixth graders all going time with two other adults and five minutes to grab McDonald's for 30 people

That's such a great preview of your work Um now specifically about you had eight different job titles related to fundraising in the last 10 years Did you know that

That's correct I yeah that that's

Mm-hmm which is probably what set you up really well to be able to evaluate fundraising strategies And so let's talk about that now So um today's episode is about deciding which fundraising strategies are the best for your organization at a certain time And um most folks I try and do all of them at once And I'm curious if you remember what the fundraising strategies were at City Kids when you first started working there

I do And and when we worked together in 2022 which was a few years into when I was working there you helped us really focus in on the the main three which were major gifts grants and annual

And then we had discussions around um Corporate sponsorships being a potential fourth that we could grow into if it seemed right. And then when it came to events we made the decision to ensure that our events were cultivation focused and stewardship focused for mid and major donors and that we would really kind of tuck it into our major gift strategy as a cultivation tool for for those major donors and to raise more by doing less and to not hold the the big expensive gala um to cultivate those donors but to do so in a in a more thoughtful community driven way.

Okay so let's call those three the three that we started out with and then that was in 2022. Now I count five that you're doing all five Do you still want to be running all five or are there some that you wanna drop down into the low hum category

It's a great question Um and I don't I I don't think I'm ready to completely cut any of them out but I think when I look at where I invest my time and our department's time over the year I think grants is one that we will be invested in heavily all year round Um for annual giving We have those dedicated campaigns and I think we can find pockets of time where we are really investing in those but it's not a full year round um effort to maintain and similarly with this event and and corporate sponsorships really just focusing on an October event where we have a few months of the year that we are really looking to combine corporate sponsorships major gifts and planning this event into one where where we really thoughtfully spend several months planning that out to enhance those major donor relationships and and connect with them there.

Makes sense to me one of the things that we're learning here in this episode is that an organization should fully operationalize a strategy before they venture into a new one. And so we're gonna talk through what operationalization looks like for each strategy One of my favorite things about working with you is how easily you think of ways to operationalize something Could you gimme an example of something that wasn't really working very efficiently when you started at City Kids and a way you've operationalized it since?

Yeah that's a great question and thank you I think the skill that I've developed is from my theater background and and just needing to solve problems quickly on the fly and and keep the show going on And so moving but find ways to make sure everything has everything's in its place and everyone has what they need Um

Wait when you say theater background were you were you an actor or were you behind the scenes Both parents both have a had theater degrees and so I grew up in the theater my dad's a lighting designer so I did behind the stage I ran our light boards in second grade and did a lot of lighting set design and then I acted when I was in high school led our ensemble and sang and all of that and then went to college and did directing and fundraising to be able to take a show that I Directed to Edinburgh

Oh my gosh So side note did you go to the Fringe Festival

Yes I wrote and directed a show that we took to the Fringe with my seven best friends in college and did a show fairytales and shadow puppetry And I wrote directed and all my friends there and we raised like $12,000 to be able to to take the show over And so that was my first

oh this is fun this is fun So I wanna ask you if you can think of something you fixed Theater because this is gonna be a great analogy of how you operationalize things in fundraising

So many small minor things like that come to mind And even in directing more recently in a rehearsal where we don't have something or something breaks you just pick up the closest thing and and make it work for the sake of keeping things moving Um gosh it's taking me back to my senior year where I I was the Tin Man in the Wizard of Oz and I was using my ax for something and cut my hand and all of a sudden noticed that I had a Bloody silver glove

Oh

everything was silver it's one of those things where you run backstage you process what's going on and then you have to be back on stage with a smile and singing and dancing while it work And a a bandaid to it and the the second you have off stage and and all of that And so just that quick thinking um and being able to juggle so many things at the same time is

But probably think yeah you're probably also after that show you're like okay what are we gonna do So this never happens again

Yep

which is how you run your shop Yeah

I think it's helpful to give everyone a short checklist of things to look for that tell you your strategy is a well-oiled machine or operationalized. We're gonna use those two things interchangeably. Well oiled machine means it's operationalized and therefore clearing the way for your next strategy to come on board what I want to do with you Dan is to have you listen to my list for each strategy and you can either say yes that's true for us and therefore we feel like this strategy is operationalized, or you can say I'm gonna play my Joker card here I think our strategy is operationalized but our list is different than that. Does that make sense Mm

That makes sense And what a great time at like the beginning of the year to to review this in your department or with your team to say what's working what's not working? So yeah I'm excited to to go through

Okay so we'll go one by one we'll start with major gifts. Here's what I think you're looking for to check off your list. Number one we are able to meet an increasing revenue goal each year without hiring more people, and major donors come to us through word of mouth, and major donors increase their giving over time. So how does that list sound to you?

It's a it's a good list. Um I would say system-wise I do feel like we've operationalized this well but we've also had to navigate some challenging years in the fundraising landscape. I think and I think we've had successes in these areas and we're also seeing major donors decrease their gifts. But we are at the same time having these increases. We are not looking to hire more people because we feel confident around the strategy that we have um and the success that we're having. And we've been able to identify that when it comes to new major donors coming to us we're at a time where we need to recruit more fundraising focused board members to generate more major donor prospects as we've had some turnover on our board. And so given the plan that we have in place I feel confident that in the coming years all three of the things that you listed we will feel will be in a strong position and feel strong about how our major gifts are operating.

Mm-hmm Okay so One adjustment you're making is to your board composition but other than that You're seeing this as a well-oiled machine?

I am and I have to credit our executive director who spends so much time connecting with our current major donors and the systems that we created around those touch points and and how we're managing those through spreadsheets through databases and making sure that each quarter we know who we need to be talking to at multiple points in the year who we need to be meeting with

That's so great to hear. Let's talk about annual giving because This is one that you said the revenue dipped a little bit last year but it still could be operationalized So let let me share this list with you annual giving is a well-oiled machine when number one we're able to meet an increasing revenue goal each year without hiring more people similar to major gifts. Two our appeals are frequently forwarded meaning our donors invite friends to read it. Three we're generating new leads new email addresses at a rate that allows us to meet our donor acquisition goal for the year. So in other words lead generation is working. And number four our donor retention is somewhere between 50 and 60 and growing.

As you said this has definitely been the challenging one for us that we have had operations that have worked for a while that are not working as well in more recent years. And right now we're seeing certain funders shifting their priorities to give to more urgent issues And whether that's conservation or human rights or or policy response work right now it's been harder to retain mid and major donors and some of our corporate and foundation funding And so in in this year alone we've been hearing the term shifting priorities a lot And so uh I think it's a great time for us to do something That you actually shared with us back back a few years ago around are you teaching them something new back to being frequently forwarded are you thinking about how they're educational and how they're really interesting What would make you want to forward this email to somebody else and not just being an organization who says we did all these great things and now we need funding for it fundraising is on you That's donate to us because we did these things But how can you make it interesting How can you make an email stand out in that way um that keeps it fresh I spent the middle of my career Hyper-focused on annual giving and and managing those campaigns And so I also have very high expectations of what success looks like and always love innovating one them I love looking into the data around them seeing what's working what's not what trends are we seeing where are we seeing the unsubscribes And so I think there's always so much work that can be done that I need to focus on how we are operationalizing the strategy as opposed to just constantly tweaking and and it feels like I'm in a workshop and it's a craft and I'm I'm constantly crafting on it

That it's important to guide And so as we enter into the new year I wanna set some some clear goals uh and and things that we're and really look at lead generation on its own And what strategies do we have for just that What do we have for our campaigns that are gonna make them more forwardable uh and and really stand out from the the noise in your inbox

Okay so what you're saying is that the quality of your writing the quality of the content you produce is actually an important piece on this list here in order to say you have a well-oiled machine you should be able to say the quality of our appeals are really high And I guess it's on the list cause we say our appeals are forwarded that's a sign that they're high quality Let's do events. So events to be fully operationalized, What we're looking for is number one Same thing, We're able to meet an increasing revenue goal from our events each year without hiring more people. Two retention rate for event donors is between 60 and 70. Three we do not have trouble meeting our guest list goal for each event. And four our event guests frequently invite new people.

This year we blew all of these out of the water and and it feels very operationalized but this is our first year having a legitimate fundraiser And so this is also on the back of many events that were cultivation events And so we were able to get many of those major donors who have been a part of the organization to come to this new event and it just takes a lot of really thoughtful thoughtful planning And this year we had a great timeline We had that it was it felt well well oiled

Mm-hmm Let's do corporate sponsorship So we're looking for The ability to meet an increasing revenue goal each year without hiring more people Number two our Sponsorable assets are highly desirable and attract new sponsors And then number three new sponsors reach out to us because it meets a need for them

This is definitely the newest area for me in my in my time in fundraising I've done a lot of individual fundraising and now a fair amount of grant writing but corporate sponsorships is is one that before this year I didn't have much experience with and this year we created a great Corporate sponsorship package that we were with this event the next cohort of city kids So we have 25 new city kids coming in and that you're creating all of the opportunities that they're gonna do in the first year And so painting that picture of what the experience of a first year participant is um Really connected them with why it's important to invest in and youth And so I I feel very early on but I'm excited in what this one holds

Yeah I am I'm loving the idea of you having 25 youth be a Sponsorable asset not just the event itself but that there was a program related outcome that folks were sponsoring what that could do is that could allow you to have sponsorship throughout the year not just at the event

Exactly confusing in there of it's not a traditional event sponsorship You're not paying for this event to happen

Right

Um but it is more helping us hit this one goal of raising $375 for for the amount for each kid to to come into the program to have this core set of experiences And now we're gonna share why these experiences matter and what they are both in Jackson and dc then we're gonna hit on why that matters today for these new kids to come in And so it's something that you really believe in can can visualize and and see in front of you Um and then you get the benefits of the sponsorship the marketing your name at the event um on all the flyers potentially on like city kids t-shirts and such at a certain level And so building that tiered system of benefits was very fun to create

bet that was fun

I'm excited to modify that throughout the year

Yeah Oh that one sounds so strong Okay last but not least grants So what you're looking for here is the ability to meet an increasing revenue goal from grants without hiring more grant writers Being proactive with your grant writing and funders coming to you due to your ability to generate and communicate impact and having a strong track record of being invited to apply for invitation only grants Those things equal well oiled machine

Yeah I feel like for grants we do have a well-oiled machine Right now we have a lot of invitation only grants we've been able to renew a bunch of our grants year over year uh and and have strong relationships with those funders something in more Recent years it's just been harder to win new grants. We are at a point where we are doing around 80 grant applications in a year And some are very long and some are very short of them are renewals and 40 of them are new And the amount of new grants that we're winning are so small and it's so challenging to stand out uh and and win those newer grants At the end of the day you take a look back and 80 grants in a year So much to juggle for a very small team And so that's where it's so important that you have really strong systems for managing your grants for prospecting new grants weighing the amount of time that you're willing to put into a a new grant opportunity that may be a national really competitive opportunity that has a a 50 page application one that is hyper-local that is connected The focus area is connect with your organization And so I think the skill that I've been working on is is where to place that priority in when we have a busy week of 10 grants to write and a lot going on to make sure that we are prioritizing the the grants that are very likely to come in And when those new attractive new grants come in you're like Ooh but we could win win these It could be a lot of new money become more suspicious of the amount of time that we're gonna exert into those bigger grants and so I think we currently have a a really strong system but it can be improved to to figure out what we can do to either win more new grants or be more selective in which grants we're applying for

What is something you've done to make grant writing Go faster

I think it's better and responsibilities at the organization between our part-time grant writer Uh the the knowledge that I have about what we're applying for the the knowledge our executive director and our programs team has and making sure roles are very clear when we're entering into a new opportunity where we need to envision a new type of programming and it's gonna have a new budget I things move much quicker when people know their role when they're gonna see a certain draft and when they're involved in it and being able to say this is how it's gonna go We need these ideas to come from you guys and then we will work on the drafts and and how to delegate those different roles and responsibilities When that's a well-oiled machine it can be very efficient very smooth And I've also seen when it's not and no one really knows what their role spending every second of the grant rating process together trying to put in all of the effort it gets really overwhelming because some everyone feels responsible for every

It's a terrible group project at that point

Exactly And noone wants to be on that

It's a great example Yeah So I'm looking back at all of these um to summarize what it is that we're looking for To safely say this strategy is fully operationalized this strategy is a well-oiled machine and a couple themes emerge I'm wondering what emerges for you but one that we can increase our revenue goal without hiring more people All that means to me is that um we Can manage more donors because our systems for working with those donors are more efficient We can earn more grants because our grant writing is more efficient We can communicate with more base level donors because we have a system for that So scaling the number of entities that we're working with That's one And number two is that donors are attracted to us versus us having to go win every single donor fresh But that there's a word of mouth that's spreading amongst major donors amongst sponsors amongst foundations So What themes do you notice that equal well-oiled machine

Yeah those are that's a great And as I am working on our development plan for 2026 I think something that's really important is clear roles and responsibilities and whether you have a one person team a three person team or a 10 person team everyone feeling centered and what the expectations uh and and what role they're playing are it's gonna be a well-oiled machine if you're able to clearly communicate and trust on the on the backend what somebody is doing and not not step in and and do everything for them But the the better you are at delegating clear roles and responsibilities trusting that person to do the thing and giving them full ownership of that task and and being able to share your expectations for it on the front end Um you're gonna have a really well oiled

Yeah that is such a good one. Thank you for saying that one Dan because yes division of labor is where it all becomes inefficient and frustrating But when it's clear Yeah Well-oiled machine

And it's really tough when you are second guessing yourself and you don't feel a sense of confidence in your role Whether you're like me and you're a high achiever and you you wanna do so well you you tie so much into it it can be really tough to have to just second guess and and not feel ownership over the work that you're doing and so I I acknowledge that for myself and and to be a better leader want to make sure that I'm I'm doing that for others

Mm-hmm Mm This is so so helpful I can't thank you enough

Yeah And just it's so helpful to have have those types of questions guide you Um and something you were so great in working with is guiding back to the data and setting clear goals and having those those questions that lead you in how you're developing a strategy Because in fundraising it's so easy to try to do everything It's so easy to see what has been done before and just replicate it because that had been done before that's where I think you can start to see trends go downward You can just put a lot of energy You can burn out your staff And so you are really great And I think this list of um development strategies is really great to ground you and making sure you're doing the right types of things for your organization

Well thanks and for you to walk away with knowing that you have 1 2 3 out of five well-oiled machines So Major gifts well-oiled events well-oiled grants well-oiled I there's something about annual giving though that it might still be a well-oiled machine It might simply be the landscape that you're working in yeah my favorite part of our conversation though was learning about your theater background I'm sorry That was just I

Oh my

I just love that And the tin man Um thank you for this Dan

Yeah Thank you I had a great time

This brings us to part three. Once you've chosen a couple initial strategies to focus on, once you have fully operationalized those strategies, you're ready to select your next strategy. In fact, now might be the time to select your next strategy regardless if you feel ready, just so that you know what it is and you can begin building toward it in this time of economic uncertainty, your next fundraising strategy should be one that has the highest ROI For your landscape. I'd recommend building yourself a little table by which you rank each of the five strategies across the following verticals. And imagine these as the columns on your table. How steady is this revenue? In times of uncertainty, you're gonna give it a a one through five, one, not very steady, five, extremely steady. Second column, how strong is the return on investment for this revenue stream, one through five? Third column, how quickly will the money come in? Fourth column, how interested are these donors in our mission? Fifth column, how well does it work in our fundraising landscape and the furthest column to the right? How simple is it to operate? So imagine the rows on this table are each of the five fundraising strategies, and the columns are each of those six questions you're filling in the table with your scores. On a scale of one to five, raking each strategy with each question. At the end of this analysis, you'll be able to tally the total scores for each fundraising strategy and see which scored the highest. 

I'm gonna help you with each of these. How steady is this revenue in times of uncertainty? Annual giving revenue is the steadiest by virtue of the volume of donors you have. If you lose 10% of donors through this revenue stream, your net loss is less than if you lost 10% of donors in any of the other revenue streams. So annual giving does well with volatility. It does well in times of uncertainty when the nature of the uncertainty can leverage more generosity. For example, mutual aid arises during emergencies. COVID or the George Floyd Crisis are good examples. People want to rally to support each other, and thus, annual giving can be a powerful tool. 

Next column, how strong is the return on investment for this revenue stream? That just means does it require a lot of effort or a little effort to raise a thousand dollars through this strategy. Major gifts is known for having the highest return on investment because you can raise $10,000 by making a phone call. Well, it would take 10 hours of grant writing and an eight month waiting period to see that same $10,000, but it depends on your context. Some organizations think events is a better return on their investment because their work features a space or experience that activates generosity like a public park that people need to see to believe, or an entrepreneur pitch competition. Corporate sponsorships might be the highest ROI for you. If you've built a brand and audience that is super appealing to business partners who want access to your audience, so evaluate the strategies based on which require the least amount of effort for the biggest return in your context. 

Next, how quickly will the money come in? You may be working on strategies that have a long return horizon, like annual giving or grants. Annual giving requires a marketing funnel that requires repetitive communication cycles before a donor makes a giving decision. Grants takes about eight months between an application being submitted and a check coming in the mail. You may need access to quicker cash, which would come from a major gift strategy. A major donor cultivation cycle is between three and nine months, so it can have the shortest return horizon on the short end. It will be longer for larger gifts of course. 

Next. How interested are these donors in our mission? You may be working on an issue that has broad awareness or one that is only popular with niche donors. If it's one with broad awareness, your scores will be higher on this column. If your work has increased urgency because of our times, you will also score higher on this one. Also consider how your mission competes with others for funding. So if you're a private school and looking at annual giving, you'll score low on this because annual giving are donors who give a small amount of money because they were moved by your communications. Yeah, and remember, they're also receiving communications about other efforts to support like the Humane Society Women's Shelters, international Aid Relief. Your audience of donors for annual giving to a private school would be people who are also paying tuition, so they're likely not going to give a substantial amount. Additionally, Your grant makers are also slim for this private school because they're funding afterschool programs or early childhood initiatives, major donors would score higher for the private school because major donors are always interested in a niche cost. 

How well does it work in our fundraising landscape refers to your geographic location and the specific sociopolitical characteristics of that area and how saturated this area is with similar organizations. If you're a national organization, you're thinking about your competition. The economy and the political administration. I recently helped an organization in Oakland decide that corporate sponsorship worked best for their fundraising landscape because they incubate entrepreneurs working toward tech careers. They're surrounded by the headquarters of our country's biggest tech companies in Oakland. Another team decided not to do grants because they're in Wyoming, a state where they will quickly tap out the grant maker prospects. 

Last column on our table, how simple is the strategy to operate on a scale of one to five? Here I'm talking about infrastructure, systems, processes, logistics, projects to manage related to this funding. Here's just the simple scores you can use to fill in this column. Major gifts gets a five. It's the simplest you can get away without a CRM in many cases, and you don't have a complex reporting schedule or projects related to these donors. Annual giving gets a one. It's the least simple. You are running a marketing strategy with this one. So you need a CRM, lead Generation Storytelling Systems design, a great website, giving pages integration between tools and video. So that's a one. Events gets a two because it's events, and we know the complexity of running an events calendar. And by the way, when I talk about events, I mean an event strategy, not just one event. So five to seven events per year because that's what you're doing. If you're committing to an events fundraising strategy. Grants gets a four out of five because you also don't need a CRM or automations, but you do need reporting and the rigmarole that goes into the application process. Corporate sponsorships gets a three because you're fulfilling your benefits packages, which is a project management and co-marketing effort. 

Now go through each of your five strategies and give them a score of one to five on each of these questions. Your highest scores should be your priority revenue streams, but there's one I want you to circle for extra consideration right now. If I were to choose the strategy that will serve you well in the next era of fundraising, it would be annual giving only because I think we're entering a time when mutual aid is going to be on the rise, not because I'm worried about major donors and grants drying up simply because I think that individuals are going to be more eager to support each other. And looking for organizations they trust to deliver services. Consider greasing the wheels of your mass communication ability. 

Tailwinds is a production of Flying Whale Strategies, a consulting firm that is equipping teams to solve impossible problems. I'm really thankful to Dan Ebert of City Kids for sharing his thought process on fundraising strategies with us today. To learn more about City Kids, please visit citykidsdc.org. If you'd like to learn more about Flying Whale Strategies, please visit our website at flyingwhalestrategies.com. Thanks for listening.