Capital Strategists Group took a few pages from the corporate handbook when it realized that nonprofits face the same challenges as for-profits when it comes to raising money and keeping investors happy. CSG realized that in both worlds, the shorter the distance between what goes in (money) and what comes out (impact), the more successful the organization. This not only involves integrating transparency and accountability into both your plan of work and the fundraising process, but moving from delivering outcomes to demonstrating the value of those outcomes. When investors in nonprofits are shown that their money is making a difference, that their investment is paying off, the more likely they are to keep investing.

We do this by:

1. Helping craft a program of work that respects your mission and provides potential investors with a reason to invest
2. Determining the true value of your efforts
3. Relating that value to those most likely to invest in your outcomes
4. Test marketing your program with confidential interviews
5. Evaluating test market results
6. Integrating potential investor concerns into your program of work
7. Launching a campaign based on sound fundamental fundraising principles, information revealed in the test marketing, and investor motivations
8. Managing, staffing, and completing the campaign that focuses on creating a truly sustainable organization

Though nonprofits and fundraisers have successfully used emotional appeals in the past, both now realize that they must move from a charity mindset to one of long term financial sustainability. If you are not including value propositions, economic impact, and social values in your case, you are not doing all that you can to encourage financial support. More importantly, you are not raising the money you could, and should, be raising.