Fundraising experts participated in a round table on “the keys to raising European public funds and private funds for the third sector”. In this meeting, moderated by John’s WhiteCoordinator of the TSC Chair and the Master in Fundraising Management, in which she has participated Begona Gomez, director of the TSC Chair and Co-director of the Master’s Degree in Fundraising Management; Isabel BalbontinDirector of R+D+i Projects at CE Consulting; Silverio Ageageneral director at the Spanish Association of Foundations and Louis MartinCEO of CE Consulting, have agreed that the sustainability of organizations will depend on the professionalization of the third sector.
This professionalization encompasses, according to experts, different aspects. On the one hand, a good fundraising strategy, capable of responding to different challenges and demands of society. As explained by Begoña Gómez, director of the TSC Chair and Co-director of the Master in Fundraising Management, “This strategy needs to be implemented by a multichannel strategy: face-to-face, digital, telemarketing; because today there is no acquisition strategy without a loyalty strategy”.
Isabel Balbontín, director of Projects and R+D+i at CE Consulting, added in her speech that a fundraising strategy must have, mainly, a very clear mission of the foundation -regardless of the resources-, the problem you want to solve, the measurement of its social impact, as well as its return. Namely, “a proposal should be brief, clear, with realistic and measurable goals; and, in addition, have a vision of the future. In other words, that what was invested in has continuity over time”.
For his part, Silverio Agea, General Director of the Spanish Association of Foundations, emphasized the implementation of the principle of subsidiarity, that is, collaboration between the company, a non-profit entity and the public administration. “A way of working together in which companies act as initiative partners, mission or organization, but not as funders”.
Along the same lines, Luis Martín, CEO of CE Consulting, pointed out that there is a lack of visibility of third sector projects. “Despite everything they do, only 10% of them are known”. Thus, he indicated that entities should make a greater dissemination of their actions and also of the impact they generate with them.
Thus, Luis Martín and Begoña Gómez ended the event pointing out that organizations could experience a great opportunity in raising funds and creating value alliances that watch over society, the environment and sustainable development, if they generate meeting spaces with SMEs, which represent 99.8% of the Spanish business fabric.
