Charity Overhauls Fundraising Approach to Bring in Gifts for Tough Causes

Convincing donors to give to a local charity supported by a global billionaire philanthropist is a tough sell.

But the success of the Open Society Institute-Baltimore in attracting homegrown support beyond George Soros’s $26.5-billion fortune shows how foundations with international reach can build self-sustaining programs while solving local problems.

In the decade since Mr. Soros challenged the institute to raise $20-million on its own over five years or risk losing his support, the group has built a fundraising strategy that openly wields advocacy; builds partnerships with government, corporate, and nonprofit leaders; and promotes investment-minded approaches to reforming policies for addiction treatment, public-school discipline, and prisoner reentry into society.

Winning local individual, philanthropic, and business support for the Open Society Foundations’ Baltimore office has led the New York umbrella organization to support similar local offices in three other cities this year, a program called Open Places.

“It shows that there is a real role for national foundations to work locally,” says Diana Morris, who leads the Open Places Initiative and the Baltimore office. “But you have to do that with local people.”

A Long Way

Donors have contributed $28-million to the Open Society Institute-Baltimore since the 2005 challenge. The money has come from 45 foundations, 47 businesses, and 401 individuals. And new fundraising efforts snagged another billionaire along the way: Former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg gave $5-million in 2012 to help boost graduation rates in Baltimore.

Donations to the Open Society Institute have increased by at least $300,000 a year, reaching $2.95-million in 2013, says Tricia Rubacky, the group’s top fundraiser. Mr. Soros typically matches the amount raised but last year gave $4.6-million, taking his total gifts to the group over 15 years to $90-million.

Ms. Rubacky expects donations to jump by $400,000 by the year’s end. A strong sign: In March, Atlantic Philanthropies pledged $500,000 to help Maryland public schools adopt a new policy to reduce the use of out-of-school suspensions, an idea championed by the Open Society Institute. Mr. Soros will match the gift, but Atlantic Philanthropies is also requiring an additional $250,000 from other donors.

Ms. Rubacky says she is working to secure a $250,000 gift from the city’s newest big corporation, Exelon, the energy provider.

Such a significant request from a company with new ties to the city demonstrates how far the organization has come since the 2005 challenge.

At the time, the organization had no development staff and no corporate supporters.

“I didn’t know the first thing about fundraising,” says Ms. Morris, who has led the Baltimore group since its founding in 1998 and had built a board of policy experts such as federal judge Andre Davis.

Engaging Leaders

When Mr. Soros first issued his $20-million challenge to the Baltimore group, a newly hired, three-person fundraising team soon attracted substantial sums from other grant makers in Baltimore, such as the Annie E. Casey Foundation, that were eager to see the group continue its work.

The charity managed to quickly raise $10-million from such organizations by November 2007, when Ms. Rubacky took over as director of development.

“It wasn’t a typical fundraising shop to come into, when the first $10-million of the $20-million challenge had been raised in gifts of $100,000 or more,” says Ms. Rubacky, former development director at Advocates for Children and Youth, in Maryland, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, and Maryland Nonprofits.

The support from other philanthropic institutions was aimed at helping the group meet its goal but didn’t carry a promise of perpetual aid. Ms. Rubacky knew she had to build a pool of affluent donors to provide additional support, especially among business leaders.

Ms. Morris, a former Ford Foundation program officer, had built a board of directors steeped in policy expertise to help award grants.

But Mr. Soros’ fundraising challenge made the Baltimore group’s Achilles’ heel obvious: Business leaders, by and large, were not involved in its work.

Engaging those leaders, the charity learned, would not only help it make progress on its mission but raise money too.

“We realized how critical it was to engage the business community—not just for the money, for the influence,” Ms. Morris says. “They have the ears of leading government officials who make decisions.”

A ‘Turnaround Strategy’

So the charity added three new board members: two from T. Rowe Price, an investment giant that has headquarters in Baltimore, along with Eddie Brown, the founder of another financial firm, Brown Capital Management. Ms. Rubacky aggressively got those board members to reach out to their networks of wealthy associates. The charity asked board members and others to host small, intimate gatherings to discuss the serious social challenges the organization wants to solve. Fundraisers also emphasized Mr. Soros’s finance background and asked new donors to think of their gifts as investments.

They pitched the nonprofit’s plans for the city as a “turnaround strategy,” using terms familiar to investors, Ms. Rubacky says.

“Here’s your chance to be the George Soros of Baltimore,” she would say to donors.

She notes, “There were people who didn’t buy it. But we were successful with that pitch.”

Then the economy tanked. And yet the strategy worked. The Open Society Institute-Baltimore raised $16-million by 2010, just $4-million shy of the goal. That was good enough for Mr. Soros.

“George Soros was elated. He didn’t even blink an eye,” Ms. Rubacky says.

He honored his $10-million pledge—but wanted the group to continue to demonstrate local support for its mission.

‘Sunday Suppers’

One thing was clear: A consultant told the charity that because of its complex mission, direct-mail appeals to donors were not going to work. The consultant conducted a direct-mail test that produced barely any returns.

“It’s too dense an issue that we focus on,” Ms. Rubacky says.

The group continued with its strategy of wooing potential supporters at small gatherings.

Concise communication has been critical to the effort. Debra Rubino, director of strategic communications, uses the group’s mailing list of 3,000 people to distribute publications about the group’s work, its grantees, its donors, and other issues. She uses social media and other outlets to tout the fellowship program that the Open Society Institute sponsors to train future leaders of social movements.

“At the same time we fundraise, we’re trying to change people’s opinions about social change,” Ms. Rubino says.

To help explain the Open Society Institute’s work, board members invite friends and associates to what the group calls “Sunday Suppers” to discuss thorny public-policy issues. At one dinner, three men who had served long prison sentences offered ideas on changing the parole system and helping people with criminal records thrive after they serve time. Connecting such real-life examples to the policy work is powerful for donors, Ms. Rubacky says.

Each year the group hosts a donor-appreciation event that features the top local leaders in Baltimore, such as the police commissioner, the superintendent of city schools, and others. Other events feature celebrities such as the journalist Soledad O’Brien and author Taylor Branch, an Open Society Institute board member. Mr. Soros himself often visits such events as well.

Says Ms. Rubacky, “Sometimes we don’t ask for money until people have been to two or three events.”

Connecting the Dots

But a big part of the effort centers on Ms. Rubacky’s ability to analyze the ties her board members and other big donors have to potential supporters.

Just last year, she realized that one of Baltimore’s top philanthropists, Willard Hackerman, was a friend of a board member. The board member and Mr. Brown, of Brown Capital, spoke to Mr. Hackerman, a construction-company chief executive who primarily supported arts organizations. Mr. Hackerman, who died in February, gave the group $100,000 last year.

“I wish I had more time to figure out how to connect these dots,” she says.

Corporate Sponsors

Ms. Rubacky says the institute has been ramping up its focus on gifts from corporations.

The group’s 15th anniversary event in October, called “Big Change Baltimore,” featured an afternoon of speakers offering ideas on issues like how to improve schools. Ms. Rubacky and her colleagues attracted 15 corporate sponsors—nine of which had never supported the group before. And the event sold all of its 550 theater seats, bringing in $120,000, with $90,000 from businesses.

The charity raised $250,000 from companies in 2013, $50,000 more than its goal.

Despite partnerships with T. Rowe Price and other Baltimore firms, Ms. Rubacky says the corporate strategy is not “where I want it to be.” A second “Big Change Baltimore” event this year will aim to expand support from businesses.

“It’s about where we fit into their agendas for their own giving programs,” she says. “It’s still a work in progress.”

Use the Language of Businesspeople and Other Tips to Bring in Money for Difficult Causes

• Make an effort to speak the language of business leaders recruited as board members or donors. When possible, talk about the charity’s mission in terms they are familiar with, such as “turnaround” and “investment.”
• In place of big galas, hold several small gatherings of potential supporters. Use the intimacy of the setting to explain the nonprofit’s work in detail.
• Give donors opportunities to keep learning about the charity’s work.
• Don’t ask for money at every event.
• Think hard about whether the charity’s work lends itself to every type of fundraising appeal. Some missions are too complex to be conveyed through direct mail, for example.
• Showcase real-life examples of the group’s work in action.
• Find out who’s in the personal and professional networks of board members and top donors, and prepare to pursue those connections.
• When reaching out to supporters by email or social media, communicate concisely and spotlight specific programs.