“Little did I know, as a high school junior, I was learning valuable lessons for a future career in fundraising.”

By: Greg Bowden

Fundraising is a business oriented around communication. As such, we often think through our life’s experience, trying to find good analogies to demonstrate some of the fundamentals we discuss on a daily basis. We often talk about how fundraising is all about building and keeping momentum by sparking some activity with positive results. The equations for determining physical momentum bear more than a little similarity to how we work to generate momentum in our development efforts.

It has been a long time since high school physics, but I had a good teacher in Jean Sharland, and so some of his lessons have stuck with me. If memory serves me correctly, the equation for momentum is,

• p = mv

• Where, p = the momentum of an object

• m = the mass of the object, and

• v = the velocity of the object

This is a relatively simple aspect of physics. The idea is that if you have an object with some mass, or weight, and if you get it moving pretty fast, it will have a large amount of momentum capable of being applied to a particular task. If something is very heavy, or moving very fast, or (preferably) both, it will possess a great deal of momentum.

This is applicable in fundraising, with simple corollaries between physical momentum and momentum in a campaign. Both are critical for getting any work done. In physics, as in fundraising, momentum is great for getting things done and producing some effect. In both arenas momentum can be passed on to another body. In physics, one moving body can strike another and pass some momentum to the second object. In fundraising, one person can use their momentum to push another volunteer and create some momentum in them.

The two components of momentum, mass and velocity, transfer directly to fundraising. The fundraising equivalent of mass would be the total “weight” of the potential solicitations. This is the cumulative mass of your prospect list. The more prospects you can identify, the more momentum you can add to your campaign. Identification of additional prospects is something upon which good development officers are always working. There has to be new raw material continually entering the pipeline in order to expect positive results. This is an ongoing process, and the goal should not be to exhaust your prospect list, but rather to continually add to it. In the campaigns directed by Custom Development Solutions, Inc. (CDS) our prospect list is often longer when we leave than it was when we arrived.

The other way to add “weight” to the equation is to increase the amount of money requested from each prospect. The easy way out in fundraising is to not place great demands on our potential supporters. Settling for a gift at any level is a trap that will rob a campaign of its momentum as surely as whittling down the weight of an object will take away its potential momentum in a physics equation. Instead, every prospect should be asked to make the most generous gift possible. In this way, each pledge will add the maximum amount of momentum to the overall campaign.

The other half of momentum is velocity. In physics, velocity is the speed with which an object is moving. If you look at the equation, it literally multiplies the mass of the object. In terms of fundraising, velocity is simply how quickly you can move through your prospect list. Speed creates momentum. It imparts a sense of urgency to a campaign. As in physics, velocity in a fundraising campaign multiplies the potential momentum. The “weight” of every solicitation in a campaign can be multiplied by the rapidity with which those gifts are closed.

Once the initial prospect list for a campaign has been determined, and the appropriate “weight” has been assigned to each name, it is incumbent upon the leaders of the campaign to move through that list as quickly as possible. The faster the process goes, the more momentum will be generated for the campaign.

If handled properly, all of these factors combine to create a campaign that is a juggernaut and is running full speed ahead. With enough momentum, obstacles will be more easily swept aside and everyone involved will have a sense that they are part of a winning project. You will begin to see a representation of another law of physics: an object in motion tends to stay in motion. In other words, once something has a good amount of momentum, it tends to want to keep moving, almost with a will of its own. Successful fundraising campaigns are like that as well. They will start to feed on themselves, adding energy to their own progress. Like a rock rolling downhill, its own momentum provides additional speed, which in turn adds more momentum.

This physics equation does nothing more than illustrate one of the first rules on fundraising: campaigns succeed in part based upon the amount of momentum they generate. As in physics, this momentum is created from two primary components: weight and speed. Provide the greatest possible amount of weight and speed for your development efforts and you will be rewarded with a campaign that possesses a tremendous level of momentum.

Greg Bowden was formerly a campaign director at Custom Development Solutions, Inc. (CDS). CDS is one of North America's most sought after fundraising consulting firms specializing in the strategic planning and tactical execution of capital campaigns for non-profits throughout the United States and Canada. More information on CDS can be found on the web at www.cdsfunds.com. If you have a fundraising question, please call 800-761-3833 or send an email to lcs@cdsfunds.com.