From Crisis to Strategy: How a $400K Loss Led to a Fundraising Revamp

Nonprofits have faced an array of challenges this year, from federal funding losses to an uncertain economy. When huge grants disappear with little warning, it can prove disastrous for nonprofits that have relied on them for years. Filling those funding gaps can seem hopeless. But with the right strategy, some groups are finding a way forward.   

Aspire Afterschool Learning, a nonprofit that provides after-school and summer learning opportunities, lost  a large federal grant earlier this year. Such grants were often considered among the safest types of funding since the government could be counted on to fulfill its commitments. But that is no longer the case, and what was once a responsible strategy for diversifying revenue streams has become a liability. Now the group is shifting its fundraising focus in hopes of making inroads with donors who can provide more sustainable revenue.

“You have to let go of some of the ideas of what you wanted [the situation] to be so that you can respond to what it is,” Paula Fynboh, CEO of the organization.

A $400,000 Loss

With the Trump administration’s shift in funding priorities earlier this year, Aspire lost nearly $400,000 in funding for AmeriCorps members to assist with their programs out of a $1.8 million budget.

“We were supposed to end all of their terms of service and essentially shut down any programming that day,” Fynboh said of the cuts that came at the end of April. Instead, they asked staff to stay on for two days to give the leaders time to find a solution. Fynboh huddled with the board and development director Maggie McCoy to figure out if they could fundraise their way out of it.

They decided to go all-in on fundraising, asking a community the group had nurtured and counted on for 30 years to come through for them. 

Aspire immediately launched an online fundraising campaign and caught a break when it  got local media coverage of the loss and its impact on the program. Past and current board members joined forces and raised $100,000 as a match to spur other gifts, Fynboh says. 

The kids who participated in the program chipped in. “Our kids organized a lemonade stand and bake sale and art sale and sold stuff from their community garden and were on the news,” she says. The organization was able to keep 15 of its AmeriCorps staff as contractors.

Lessons Moving Forward

By summer, Aspire had raised $317,000 to plug  into its budget hole, Fynboh says. That covered most of the work the AmeriCorps-funded staff had done, though the organization did have to slim down its summer program. 

But leaders knew this one-time surge was not a sustainable approach. They would need to think differently about fundraising moving forward. Instead of relying so heavily on a big federal grant, they wanted to find new, more predictable sources of long-term support. 

The group is working on various fronts to raise additional money. 

Since the cuts, Aspire started a more concerted push for monthly donors, realizing that having that predictable income is important. It has added monthly donor requests to its fall and year-end appeals.

The organization is also enlisting those it serves to help it navigate these challenges. While it can be tempting to want to avoid burdening current or former clients, McCoy says staff learned so much when students stepped up and said they wanted to help in the aftermath of the cuts.

“Having our students and families be partners is crucial,” she says. “Making sure to lift their voices up so that it isn’t just something that we are doing on their behalf, but something we are doing with them together.”

Aspire also realized that it needed to do a better job of explaining its long-term thinking to donors.

“How can we make sure that we’re shifting the focus so it’s not quite on the funding cuts, but, ‘Here’s what your support will allow us to do in this coming year’?” says McCoy, who also serves as the communications director.

More nonprofits are doing a better job of thinking long term and looking forward, says Max Friedman, CEO of the fundraising platform company Givebutter.  “Having that ability to invite donors to give in a more sustainable way is something that we’re seeing a big growth in,” he says.

Aspire is letting donors of every type, including corporate and foundation funders, know that it is seeking money not just for this year, but for future years as well, so it can have a more stable financial footing in years to come. “We are trying to solicit more multiyear funding commitments,” Fynboh says. “We’ve gained a couple of them through this. And just greater donor cultivation and donor growth.”

With some of these principles in mind, Aspire built on the emergency-funding measures with a fall fundraising event that netted more than $220,000.