The Dixon Society has been serving women and children fleeing violence since 1973. Their long history in the community and reputation for a feminist approach to domestic violence support work has helped them gain the support of numerous government agencies and foundations. However, the team identified the need to increase revenue to meet service demands.
The challenge was figuring out how to increase their revenue. Because The Dixon Society had had success securing government funding, they had a limited individual donor program but lacked the ability to confidently create a fundraising strategy and consistently implement it to reach their fundraising goals.
As a small organization with a limited fundraising program, The Dixon Society wasn’t sure what tactics and strategies to explore to reach their goals. Development Coordinator, Sena Hughes Lauer shares, “I was legitimately googling ‘how to write a good fundraising plan’ prior to working with Vanessa, as well as asking various fundraisers and executive directors about their experiences with such a project."
"The problem with that is very few people in the industry have the time to do justice to your very real questions."
Another challenge The Dixon Society faced was consistently taking action to build relationships with donors. Being a small non-profit with limited capacity, they needed accountability to do the work that needed to be done.
Throughout my work with The Dixon Society, my goal was to make sure a sustainable fundraising plan was developed that the team could confidently and consistently implement. Ultimately, that meant clearly defining priority activities, creating a roadmap the team could follow, and developing systems and process to support success.
To that end after conducting a comprehensive development audit, I recommended three areas of focus for the new fundraising plan -- prioritizing donor retention, creating an excellent donor experience, and developing new asking strategies. As the plan took shape, I made sure the team had all the pieces they would need to succeed. This included a case for support, metrics dashboards, a stewardship matrix, and contingency plan suggestions for each strategy.
Development Coordinator, Sena Hughes Lauer said that working with an outside consultant “saved Dixon staff weeks--if not months--of time spent on trial and error, instead giving us a well-formed, sustainable game plan to be able to trust as we moved forward.”
Putting metrics dashboards in place, implementing a new donor CRM, and committing to weekly fundraising team meetings are a few of the ways The Dixon Society has been able to get traction in their fundraising program to become more efficient than they were last year. The team is focused on the right activities and are using data to drive decisions.
A year after our work came to a close, The Dixon Society’s Executive Director, Pany Aghili says that one of their biggest wins has been becoming consistent. “We are now proactive with donor relations and have been able to more effectively connect with donors.” As a result, the team was able to increase their fundraising revenue by 14% within 9 months of implementing the plan. In year 2, they are aiming to increase fundraising revenue by an additional 25%.
Development Coordinator Sena Hughes Lauer says that one of the biggest benefits of the work was the “process of coming to understand where and how our organization can grow and believing that me and the team can be the one(s) to get us there.” The confidence and clarity motivates her and the team to continue to implement the plan.
Executive Director, Pany Aghili shares, “Working with The Storytelling Non-Profit was a great experience. Vanessa was accessible and a pleasure to work with. She took the time needed to understand our need and created a robust fund development strategy that we are now fully utilizing. And when the project wrapped up, Vanessa didn’t disappear; she truly cares about our success and has helped to support it.”
Keep up the excellent work