The N Nonprofi fit S Selling g and F Fundraising g Challen - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

The N Nonprofi fit S Selling g and F Fundraising g Challen enges es a and O Opportu tunities es: An E Explor lorator

• ry S

y Study o

• f N

Non

• nprofit

it O Organiz izatio ions*

• Dr. Bahar Ashnai

ashnaib@wpunj.edu

• Dr. Saeed Shekari

shekaris@wpunj.edu Professional Sales Department, Cotsakos College of Business William Paterson University March 2020 * Support for this study was provided by the Cotsakos College of Business' Business Policy and Practice Research Forum

Resea earch Qu Ques estion

What are fundraising challenges and opportunities in the nonprofit sector?

Literature Ga e Gap

• Prior studies have primarily looked at improving nonprofit
• rganizations management and have not covered a wide range of

sales and marketing techniques, useful for nonprofit organizations fundraising.

• We highlight this gap by reviewing the literature for critical resources

and strategies.

Fieldwork and An Analysis

• Our qualitative fieldwork of 25 nonprofit organizations in the US
• Content Analysis of the interviews
• Exploring the themes that are not addressed by prior theory or

literature

Prop

• pos
• sition
• ns
• We identify the key resources and communication strategies.
• We bridge the literature gap by offering a resource and strategy “fit”

perspective.

• We propose that strategies to communicate and close a deal are

different depending on the donor type.

Prop

• pos
• sition
• ns
• For small and individual donors, we suggest that low-impact

communications such as newsletters and emails provide a more fruitful approach when dealing with a large donor base.

• For organizational donors, we propose that high-impact

communication channels such as in-person communications supplement the critical resource of fundraising staff. We further suggest that vital sales-related skill sets are essential to make high- impact interpersonal relationships work.

Implicati tion f for P Practi tice

• We find evidence in our qualitative study that interpersonal

communications in the nonprofit sector can benefit from conventional sales training to improve different aspects of the fundraising process by incorporating critical sales skill sets such as cold-calling, objection handling, and closing.