If you work inside a large or long-established nonprofit, you might not realize that there are nonprofits out there that start out by relying only on major gifts – not even a donation button on the website! Usually that means institutional giving, but increasingly it can mean individual major gifts.
Why is that such a big deal?
As soon as the nonprofit wants or needs to take a leap of growth, they realize there is not a big enough pipeline of donors to support it. And – unless you have celebrities on your board — calling cold on wealthy people is a diamond-hard row to hoe!
The Institute for Nonprofit News (INN) is nurturing an explosion of new nonprofits providing local, independent news. They are an organization of more than 450 nonprofit news members. And they are intent on helping them create long-term, sustainable funding right from the start.
Meta Stange, NewsMatch Program Manager at INN is the woman on the front lines of delivering a wrap-around program of support to get nonprofit news outlets building a broad base of donor support from the outset.
In this #ChatBytes interview, Meta shares how INN is using pooled funds to create incentives for the nonprofit news outlets to create and run great fundraising campaigns and matching gift incentives for donors to give.
INN also provides training that starts with building readership and then sending readers on a pathway to become donors. There is a supportive nonprofit news community, and then there is Meta, too!
As the Program Manager, Meta works full-time to make sure all the pieces are moving in sync, members connect with each other, and communications deliver inspiration and promote members’ achievements.
There is a lot to learn in this interview for start-up nonprofits, but also lots of refreshers for fundraisers about why the fundamentals are so critical and how getting it right with small donors leads to faster, more sustainable major gifts down the pipeline.
Additional Resources
- Connect with Meta Stange | LinkedIn
- Institute for Nonprofit News (INN) | A network of 450 nonprofit newsrooms dedicated to providing independent, nonpartisan news coverage as a public service.
- NewsMatch | NewsMatch is a collaboration of funders, supported through the Fund for Nonprofit News, an open collaborative fund at The Miami Foundation, managed by the Institute for Nonprofit News (INN), and learning partner, News Revenue
- How Funders Support Journalism with Ease and Precision | Chronicle of Philanthropy | 10/27/2023
- How This Nationwide Matching Gift Campaign Galvanizes Support for Nonprofit News Outlets| Inside Philanthropy | 10/30/2023
- “A Pathway to Restoring Local News.” Field Leader Sue Cross on the State of Journalism Philanthropy | Inside Philanthropy | 10/24/2023
