I asked senior people in CSI and donor foundations to share what they like and what irritates them about fundraisers. Here's what they said . . . . 

No fundraising conference is complete without a presentation or panel of CSI/Foundation donors – so anxious are fundraisers to know their latest thinking and trends. The ever-growing number of registered non-profits in South Africa (currently, and alarmingly, over 300,000) and donor entities becoming less accessible, means that those seeking funding have little opportunity to interact with decision makers.

I therefore asked 24 senior people in CSI and donor foundations to share their views: trends, what they like and what irritates them about fundraisers, their advice and tips. Twenty-two responded – crowdsourcing at its best!  Wow! And thank you. As promised, your anonymity will be respected.

Many said the same things, and I have grouped their comments into suggested ‘Don’t’ and ‘Do’ advice.

Don’t . . .

❌  Don’t approach us without a clear theory of change and MEL systems in place.

❌  Don’t neglect to tell us about beneficiary community consultation and involvement in planning of projects.

❌  Don’t nag after sending us an application – please. Our offices are inundated with requests, and we have limited time/staff.

❌  Don't beg or frame your organisation as a beneficiary, rather position it as a strategic partner. Those served are the beneficiaries!

❌  Don't exaggerate needs or impact. Use accurate, ethical data.

❌  Don’t ask us for overhead costs. We fund projects.

❌  Don’t try to hide reserves or endowment funding – we encourage these. They show sound stewardship and financial sustainability.

❌  Don’t ask for amounts that are out of line with previous year’s expenditure. We prefer to see steady organic growth.

❌  Don’t force top-down pressure onto us. Even if a board member knows our Chair or CEO, we don’t respond well to be told that we must fund a proposal.

❌  Don’t exceed our stipulated number of proposal pages and don’t send attachments not requested. These will not strengthen your chances; they will only irritate us as we must look though everything to find what we want and waste time deleting everything else.

❌. Don’t present obviously AI generated proposals. Embrace AI but make it your own. There are clear give-aways when AI has been used and not edited by a human. There are off-putting.

❌  We don’t have meetings. Our website clearly says so. Don’t pester us for meetings.

❌  Don’t seek urgently needed funding and don’t tell us that your NPO is ‘desperate’ for money.

❌  Don’t even apply to us if relatives are on a board or are bank signatories.

❌  Don’t use gimmicks. No matter how beautiful images are, they cannot replace vital facts, figures and information needed to make funding decisions.

❌  Don’t seek funding before an organisation is fully registered. Even if we like a concept, we will ask you to apply once the organisation is up and running.

❌  Don’t ask us to fund ideas, dreams, visions or anything else that is vague. We have stakeholders to whom we are responsible.

Do . . . 

✅  Do remember that no CSI office can fund all requests. Our budgets are limited!

✅  Provide all the information requested in our guidelines (but nothing else).

✅  Use legible font sizes. We stipulate the number of pages in funding proposals and a font size. This must be adhered to and not reduced to ‘squeeze’ more words onto each page.

✅  Only present one project. Focus an application on one of the problems your NPO addresses. We don’t want a ‘menu’.

✅  Insert spaces into key numbers, such as bank account and telephone numbers.

✅  Use our application form.

✅  Monitor our website for funding criteria and deadlines. Applications not in line with current criteria or those received outside of a funding window, are deleted – and we don’t respond to these.

✅  Write clearly and logically. Poorly written and confusing proposals are refused – we don’t have the time to follow up.

✅  Do show us NPO and project sustainability beyond grant funding and diversified revenue streams.

✅  We put substantial information on our website about what we fund, the provinces in which we fund and the organisations we have funded. Do study our website before sending us applications that fall outside of what we support.

✅  Do submit good reports in time and as stipulated in funding contracts. And not as part of a new ‘ask’.

✅  Do tell us who else is funding your organisation. This will not put us off – it will add credibility to your application.

✅  Do tell us if your NPO has been assessed by iZinga Assist.

✅  Tell us about how you have identified and will mitigate obvious risks.

✅  Some of the above is not what we want to hear. Nevertheless, it’s useful to know what impresses and irritates a cross section of donors.