History of Fundraising (for Nonprofits)

Definition and History of Fundraising

Fundraising is defined as an activity undertaken with the goal of eliciting charitable or philanthropic giving (Worth 2012). Fundraising is a vital part of nonprofit organizations. Fundraising is vital to philanthropy, it is intended to inspire philanthropy and charity, but does not guarantee success of the company or organization. Without fundraising much of the missions of nonprofits would not be possible. Since many nonprofits provide free or very cheap services to their customers and users, fundraising is how they are able to stay afloat and succeed at their goals. All nonprofits, at some point in their life cycle, will depend on fundraising; although sometimes they may depend on it more than others. How successful a group is at raising necessary funds will sometimes directly result in the success or failure of the organization, though not always.

As with everything in a business, fundraising comes with challenges. Some companies have trouble raising funds to fundraise (Holmes 2010). In Robert Holmes’s article the Challenge of Funding Fundraising, he discusses some of the issues of funding fundraising initiatives. Some forms of fundraising companies attempt can end up being more costly to them than beneficial. For instance, if a company is advertising their mission in an attempt to get donations from people, they need to consider how much exactly they will be spending on the marketing compared to saving that money and going about earning the funds in a different manner. This is an important factor for groups to consider, but luckily there are many alternatives to expensive marketing for nonprofits to consider.

In the article Creative Fundraising, Kathryn Hull offers some examples of inexpensive fundraising different groups may take part in. For smaller groups, hold dinners or auctions. These are simple and can be low cost for groups to participate in when money is needed. For larger groups she offers the...