Being prepared for fundraising during emergencies requires having contact information and donor databases in order, approved templates for communication ready, and relationships and agreements established with database providers, corporations, and media outlets beforehand. It is important to be able to quickly reach existing donors who have supported emergencies previously as well as new donors through various online and social media channels. While fundraising during crises may attract short term donors, maintaining contact with them can turn them into long term supporters.

1. You do not know where and when an
emergency could strike. This makes the
task of preparing for it all the more
difficult. Still, don't you hear your
programming colleagues talk about being
prepared for emergencies? If your
organisation needs to be prepared to
help out during emergencies, then should
not the fundraisers be prepared too?
Outside South Asia, especially in Europe
and North America, being prepared for
fundraising in times of emergencies has
been a practice for some time now. With
rising economic growth in our part of the
world, we too need to be prepared for
raising funds for emergencies. There are
several simple ways of doing so.
Where do you begin?
Raising funds for emergencies means
reaching out to donors and that itself
requires money. Where do you get that
from? It is prudent to make provisions
for emergency fundraising in your
budget. This is a sure starting point.
Whom do you ask first?
This is a no-brainer. The people to ask
first are your existing donors. You know
they are generous. You have their
contact details. They know you and have
supported your work already. If you are
able to send a fundraising appeal to your
existing donors within the first few days
of the emergency, then chances of them
helping you are higher.
How do you ensure that you reach
your existing donors rather quickly?
Your donor database should be in order
with the contact information of donors
who have donated earlier. Target those
that have shown an interest in donating
for emergencies. This requires your
donor database to be in perfect order. It
should have donors who have earlier
donated for emergencies clearly marked.
The donors whose phone numbers and
email IDs are in your database are the
ones that can be reached rather quickly.
These are the ones that we should focus
our energy on at the outset. Such people
should be identified in advance so that
precious time is not wasted in looking for
them when emergency strikes.
The bigger challenge is to have balanced
communication free of errors going out
to donors – a difficult task when time is
short. Hence it makes sense to have
approved templates in place. These have
standard text with fill-in-the-blanks
provisions for relevant details.
Reaching new donors
Reaching new donors needs untapped
donor databases. If you have regular
database suppliers on your panel, then a
highly discounted rate for emergencies
should be negotiated with them
beforehand. The database agencies
should have the ability to supply names,
addresses, phone numbers and email IDs
rather quickly.
During an emergency, even people who
would not have donated otherwise,
contribute. Your response rates, hence,
would be higher than they normally are.
Email appeals and SMS, which usually
have a low response rate also work well
during emergencies. Moreover, people
who usually feel that tele-calling is
annoying, do not mind being called.
It is also often not difficult to convince
corporates to allow access to their
employees, associates and customers
during emergencies. This gives you a
high potential, authentic and updated
database available to you at no cost. An
advance agreement for a fundraiser with
companies that have a large number of
employees and customers would be a
smart option.
It is also necessary to have pre-approved
messages for prospective donors. In fact,
some NGOs keep printed emergency
appeals ready. The envelope of such
communication generally has a message
like 'Emergency – you have seen it on
TV. Your urgent donations are needed
now.' printed in bold red colour on the
outside. There could be a general pre-
printed letter inside. The relevant details
about the emergency on-hand are
quickly over-printed using a laser printer.
Approaching corporations
Corporations fairly quickly decide on their
contributions towards an emergency.
Usually, during normal times, if you start
chasing a company it would be anywhere
between six months to two years before
they decide to donate. But during
emergencies within the first two weeks
most big companies make their
contribution.
Are You Prepared for Raising Money
During Emergencies?
“An emergency hits like a bolt from the blue.
Can you plan raising funds beforehand? There
are ways to be prepared for raising funds
during emergencies,” says Anup Tiwari
FUNDRAISING
15Raisers’ Ask – Sept. 2010

2. Being prepared for this would imply that
you keep a ready database of companies
who contribute frequently for
emergencies. It is not difficult to find
about that as these are stated on their
websites or reported by media.
While knowing the relevant person at
these companies is best, in emergencies
sending the appeal to any fairly senior
employee is sufficient. Usually they pass
it on to the relevant colleague without
wasting time, as it is an emergency.
Using new media helps
New media – online & social networks –
is a quick and inexpensive way for raising
funds during emergencies. It is not
difficult to get free online banners on
prominent websites during emergencies.
If you keep approved templates of online
banners ready, then speed becomes the
essence, as these websites choose from
the first few people who ask them.
Using social media like Facebook, Orkut
and Twitter, which is totally free, helps in
disseminating your appeals quickly.
Generic emergency widgets that people
could easily insert on their social network
pages and blogs could be made. They
bring people in their network to your
website and contribute.
Presence in multiple social media
networks and blogs increases chances of
being amongst the top results on search
engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing.
If you keep contact details of relevant
people at these search engines ready,
then a simple email request during an
emergency could lead to preferential
positioning of your donation page link on
their various networks.
Finally, why do donors donating
during emergencies, make long-term
sense for you?
As mentioned before, several people who
do not contribute to appeals during
normal times donate during
emergencies. This means a whole new
set of people know about your
organisation and work.
Moreover, the average size of donations
made during emergencies is more than
that at normal times. Although donors
who donate during emergencies may not
give again for your regular work, if they
are kept informed of how money is used,
they may well become regular donors.
Surely, donors contributing during
emergencies provide a great long-term
value and you should maintain contact
with them.
Anup Tiwari heads Asia-wide fundraising and
communications for a leading international
child development organisation. He frequently
blogs on www.fundraisingasia.org and can be
reached through it. The views expressed in
this article are his own and not ascribable to
his organisation.
Contents Page
Raisers’ Ask – Sept. 2010 16