How to build a long term relationship with your donor
Raising money isn’t rocket science. Just remember that it’s all about cultivating relationships, says Luminate’s Melanie Hui.
Takeaways
It’s not a one-off transaction. Think of it like building a long-term business partnership. You want trust and communication. This takes time and energy to build, so you’re going to want to develop this capacity in-house.
Get to know your funders: alignment is important, so put in the work to find out as much as you can about what they’re interested in and what they care about.
Context
Over the years, media organizations have been awarded hundreds of millions of dollars in grants that go to journalists and journalism projects. This means that there is money out there, and the bucket of funding appears to be growing globally.
Still, the situation can be challenging in Southeast Asia: there’s still a scarcity of funding in the region, and in some contexts, getting funding from foreign organizations can lead to difficulties. Media organizations will have to evaluate for themselves whether this is a risk in their context, and if so, whether it’s one they’re comfortable with.
Luminate, one of our sponsors, has been supporting media through good times and bad. Melanie Hui leads Luminate’s portfolio in Southeast Asia. She spoke at Beta about how to cultivate a long-term relationship with your donor that goes beyond just money.
Who is Luminate?
Luminate is a global philanthropic organization established in 2018 by Pierre and Pam Omidyar (think eBay!). It works across four impact areas: civic empowerment, data & digital rights, financial transparency, and independent media.
If you’ve missed the previous Splice Beta session by Luminate’s Nishant Lalwani about building a global public interest media fund, catch up here.
Tips
There are different things that you could get out of a healthy funding relationship, such as unrestricted funding that would allow you to use the money on things like overheads and operations.
You could also get emergency support (such as for legal defense), or non-monetary support in the form of introductions to other contacts and training. Look at past statements that they’ve made, reports they’ve commissioned, and other outfits they’ve funded to get an idea.
Also try your best to find out about their funding cycles — even if funders say they evaluate applications on a rolling basis, the fact remains that budgets are allocated at particular times of the year.
Trust is really important. While it’s understandable that you want to “sell” your publication, don’t overstate and don’t overpromise.
“You want to care about what they specifically care about. Use this research in a way that resonates with your funder to get funding.”
Be candid and vulnerable about what the challenges are.
Be upfront about problems you’ve encountered — it hurts trust if the funder has to find out about this through the grapevine instead of directly from you!
Keep in touch with your funders beyond the mandatory reporting requirements stipulated in your grant agreement. This is because you want to keep your organization in their minds; not only does this help build more connection and loyalty to you, it also increases the chances of them thinking about you if any new funding program comes up.
Establish multiple touchpoints and multiple points of contact. Send them updates about what you’re doing, even newsletters.
Ask for advice if your organization is pivoting, or making significant decisions. Keep them in the loop about major changes.
Impact matters, but it’s the small things that count! Establish a relationship of mutual respect, and don’t make life more difficult for your grantmaker — they’ve likely got full dockets so anything you can do to make things go more smoothly will be much appreciated.