South Florida Muslim leadership concluded the final training session as part of a series of six non-profit essentials workshops designed for capacity building of local Muslim non-profit organizations. Conducted by Tayyab Yunus, President of Center on Muslim Philanthropy in partnership with SFL Muslim Federation, the session focused on Fundraising and Development strategies. It set out to clearly define what fundraising for NPOs actually is and address the common mistake of limiting fundraising to event management and banquets.
According to Tayyab, the biggest misconception about fundraising is ‘asking’ for money and inviting donors to big events. Such practices lead to what he calls ‘donor fatigue’ and eventually a loss in donor pool. The key to devising a strong and effective fundraising and development strategy rests with collection and understanding of an organization’s donor-base data.
Tayyab emphasized that NPOs need to shift their focus from ‘raising money’ to ‘building relationship’ with their donors. He termed this process as a journey that begins by having a donor centric strategy that aims at ‘cultivating’ and ensuring a connection with them. Next comes soliciting and lastly, maintaining that relationship with your donors through stewardship.
He also outlined ten different strategies that NPOs may employ when approaching their donors that he divided into three main levels namely, top play, mid play and base play. In each of these categories the most important role is that of recurring donors who are often overlooked by organizations that are solely focused on retaining top play, i.e., the donors that contribute the most. While top play retention is important, it should not come at the cost of losing mid or base play.
Some of the strategies that Tayyab talked about included planned gifts and major gift management for top plays; peer-to-peer and invitation to join in for mid plays; and social media networking, use of ambassadors and influencers for base plays.
Fundraising and Development was part of a series of six workshops, namely, Communications and Strategies, Operational Excellence, Board Governance, Strategic Planning, and Human Resource Strategies. The program was spread over a period of six months with the aim of providing knowledge of NPO best practices and solutions/strategies that local Muslim organizations can use to enhance their capabilities and maximize their resources and potential.
South Florida Community Leaders on CMP-SFMF Capacity Building Program
Afifa Khaliq
Secretary, South Florida Muslim Federation
‘This program in the past six months provided South Florida Muslim organizations with much needed training to help improve their organizational efficacy. The program also provided a collaborative learning environment where we shared ideas, experiences and best practices. InshaAllah, the next step is to build on the acquired skill set for development and growth of our valuable organizations.’
Khalid Mirza
Chairperson, Muslim Communities Association
I found these sessions to be very informative. I have learned a lot from this program. I would like to thank Tayyab Yunus and South Florida Muslim Federation for providing Muslim NPOs with an opportunity to strengthen and improve through these training workshops.
Samir Kakli
President, South Florida Muslim Federation
This series was start of a strategic partnership with Center on Muslim Philanthropy to introduce essential concepts for the benefit of out member organizations enabling them to better manage their schools, mosques and institutions. The workshops focused on NPO concepts such as human resource, strategic planning, fundraising, operational excellence and others. It is essential that we as community leaders, start implementing these best practices within our organizations to achieve success.
Author: Sana Saif
Program Manager
