This document provides information and advice about fundraising from American trusts and foundations. It lists resources for identifying potential funders, such as Foundation Directory Online and Foundation Search. It recommends being direct, avoiding passive voice and conditionals, and sounding confident in communications. It also lists 16 questions for determining if an organization is a good candidate for US fundraising, such as having annual expenditures over £250,000, staff assigned to fundraising, board member contacts in the US, and the ability to invest time in a fundraising program.

1. The Association of Professional Fundraisers in Ireland
Fundraising
From American
Trusts/
Foundations
Thoughts from
Kenneth Hoffman
IoF 2013

2. Fundraising From American
Trusts/Foundations
• There is no discourse by implication in the
US - it is wonderfully direct
• Until you say the number they don’t know
they have been asked (they are
Americans!)

3. Fundraising from American
Trusts/Foundations
• Don’t use the passive voice
• Don’t use conditionals
• Sound confident

4. Fundraising from American
Trusts/Foundations
• Two chief proprietary databases
– Foundation Directory Online
• www.fconline.foundationcenter.org
– Foundation Search
• www.foundationsearch.com
• Tax returns of trusts/foundations
– www.guidestar.org

5. Fundraising from American
Trusts/Foundations
• You need to answer yes to 12 or more of
the following questions to be a likely
candidate for US fundraising
1.Is your organisation a registered charity?
2.Are some of your audience based outside
the region of your base of operations?

6. Fundraising From American
Trusts/Foundations
• 3. Is your annual expenditure above
£250,000?
• 4. Is your annual expenditure above £1
million?
• 5. Do you currently raise any income from
private sources (individuals, foundations,
or corporations)?

7. Fundraising From American
Trusts/Foundations
• 6. Do any of your board members donate
their own, their corporation’s or their
foundation’s money to your organisation?
• 7. Do you have 10 or more fulltime staff in
your organisation?
• 8. Is any of your staff currently assigned
fulltime to fundraising duties?

8. Fundraising From American
Trusts/Foundations
• 9. Do you anticipate that your board
members if asked and instructed properly
will help the staff to raise the funds?
• 10. Do you have any professional or
personal contacts in the US to whom you,
with advice, could speak about
fundraising?

9. Fundraising From American
Trusts/Foundations
• 11. Can you identify one or more specific
projects, each with its own expense
budget for which you could request
support?
• 12. Can you identify other charities doing
work similar, in part, to your own, based
in any country?

10. Fundraising From American
Trusts/Foundations
• 13. Can you afford 12-24 months of
investment of time and resources before
earning a cash return from a US
fundraising initiative?
• 14. Can your chief executive make time to
participate in a US fundraising
programme?

11. Fundraising From American
Trusts/Foundations
• 15. Do you have a senior staff person who
can take primary responsibility for
implementing the programme on a week
to week basis?
• 16. Are organisational circumstances
stable enough for implementation of a new
initiative e.g. no change in chief executive
or financial crisis?