While working with a local branch of a well-known national charity two years ago, I was asked to help them to organize a corporate solicitation appeal. Despite having a strong brand, this group was primarily grassroots in nature and not particularly endowed with super-connected board members and volunteers. The odds of this neophyte organization successfully making inroads into the saturated and viciously competitive world of corporate philanthropy was paltry at best.
After some coaxing I convinced the Executive Director to consider redirecting their appeal launching efforts towards the plethora of service club chapters scattered across the region. “Businesses exist to earn a profit for their owners or shareholders”, I explained., “and their decisions governing what charities to support are commonly based on which ones have the greatest influence on the bottom line”.
Service clubs by contrast consist of individuals who are motivated by their altruistic instincts, care deeply about their communities and generously give their time, money and talents to make the world a better place for all. That is, service clubs exist for charitable purposes and the degree of difficulty in cultivating meaningful relations with them is substantially lower than businesses.
“But service clubs are hurting from declining memberships and attrition”, “Service clubs don’t have the same giving capacity of corporations or major foundations”, “One of our board directors spoke to a couple of service clubs last year and we never heard back from them”. These are among the litany of arguments that are often voiced as to why service clubs should rarely be considered as pivotal targets of any fundraising appeal.
Now there is an element of truth in claiming that eroding rosters and a failure to entice younger generations to join have resulted in the dissolution of local affiliates and have threatened the existence of entire districts of service club organizations. However, it would be folly to discount them as a part of the solution to the long-term sustainability for all types of non-profits and charities.
Chapters of Rotary, Lions, Kinsmen, Kiwanis, Optimist, Zonta, Junior League and organizations like them still thrive in cities and towns throughout the world and still should occupy an integral position within every charitable group’s fund development strategies. By far the most effective way to begin cultivating ties with any service club is taking advantage of guest speaking opportunities at their breakfast, lunch and dinner meetings.
When preparing your presentation, do not simply give them a mundane summary of your history and programs. Service club members are hoping for something compelling, inspiring or heart-rendering. Thus, a balance of information about your organization’s work with some stimulating lived experience accounts is a better approach. Whatever you say, DO NOT make any solicitation or make any reference to seeking monetary support – that is like asking for marriage on the first date.
Rather your objective is to generate interest among a sufficient portion of members so that it warrants a follow-up communication. The purpose of the subsequent dialogue is to explore the possible ways that their club members and your organization might work together to enhance the quality of life in the community that you both share. Following are some of the ways service clubs can strengthen the fundraising capacity for your charity:
· Short-term funding
Local clubs manage modest pools of funds generated from their own fundraising and gaming activities that they use to support non-profits and community programs. Amounts typically range from $50 to $5,000 although 5-digit dollar gifts are not unusual. Better still, these donations can be accessed within a short timeframe of as little as a single week and can frequently be used to cover direct and indirect operating costs associated with non-profit programs.
· Accessing high percentage grants
If your organization has cultivated strong ties with a service club, they may have access to obscure grant-making opportunities with a high probability of approval. Investment income from endowment funds maintained at various levels of their governing structure – district, provincial, national, international – are frequently allocated toward community projects through their local chapters. The best approach to qualify is for your charity to partner with a service club chapter and have them to apply for a grant on your behalf. Strict rules normally stipulate that only service club members can facilitate the disbursement of these grants and prohibits external groups from applying independently. The good news is competition for these funds is minimal since the number of organizations applying is significantly lower than most grant-making opportunities.
· Volunteer support
Exceptionally kind and enthusiastic service club members who are team players that get along with everybody as they eagerly help others can be the best prospective volunteers a charity will ever encounter. Establishing close relations with service club chapters can provide charitable groups with a bountiful source of committed and passionate volunteers who perform a multitude of tasks and quickly acquire and affinity for the cause.
· Board member recruitment
Speaking of voluntary tasks, one that service clubs are adept at fostering is community leadership. From the moment their members officially join, most clubs encourage them to aspire to occupy executive leadership positions such as president, vice-president and treasurer at some point during their tenure. Thus, service club members often are perfectly suited for board member roles since many of them are experienced and versed in the art of governance.
· Special event participation
Whether you are organizing in-person or virtual special fundraising events, service clubs are frequently eager to purchase and/or sell tickets to dinner galas, collect pledges for walkathons, enter teams in a community spelling bee or invest as the title sponsor at an awards banquet. In cities and larger centres where multiple chapters exist, service clubs may engage in a friendly competition with one another to raise the most money, sell the most tickets and the like.
· Third-party fundraising
For start-up and volunteer-driven charities without much fundraising experience and resources, service clubs may be willing to split the proceeds generated through special events they organize with such groups. For example, a club may host a dinner dance and donate 25% of the net to a fledgling organization. Ordinarily there may be some reasonable conditions to the arrangement such as the recipient organization is required to purchase some tickets themselves or volunteer at the event.
· Branding and awareness building
As ubiquitous fixtures in their communities, service clubs are accustomed to constantly publicizing their events and sharing news with all citizens. With so many established dissemination avenues, they are the ideal partner for non-profits when it comes to launching public awareness campaigns about programs, issues and other vital types of information.
· Gifts-in-kind
A value-added aspect of service club membership is he variety of businesses and other segments of society that are represented. Forging relations with clubs can present charities with numerous opportunities for different types of gift-in-kind contributions from local merchants, contractors and professionals. Some gifts-in-kind can range from simple door prizes for special events to major donations to capital campaigns.
Regardless of the nature of the collaboration, the unifying factor between both parties is a passionate commitment to create positive and enduring change in their communities. We on the non-profit side of these alliances must also derive some inspiration from the continual resilience demonstrated by clubs who have chartered themselves through some extremely arduous paths in recent history. They are far from extinction and should always viewed as a focal component of every fundraising program.
Stay well,
Mike
