Climate Change and Fundraising

Alden F. Briscoe, MAT

Heatwaves, droughts, melting glaciers in Greenland, rising sea levels, forest fires, larger icebergs breaking off from Antarctica, earlier springs, later falls, less snow for recreation or water replenishment, diminishing water for irrigation, electrical brownouts, and disappearing lakes are a few of the effects of climate change. Even some of the climate change skeptics are muting their cries of disbelief. It does appear this stuff is real.

So how does this affect fundraising?

Some organizations are trying to decrease the use of fossil fuels so they produce less carbon dioxide in the air. One way to do this is to do less travel. What are the implications for fundraising?

• Does this mean that we don’t travel to visit with major donors?
• Does it mean that we station our major gift officers regionally so they can meet with major donors with less travel?
• Can we do all cultivation/solicitation virtually?
• Has our experience in the last few years with COVID meant that people are more receptive to virtual cultivation?
• Do we need to do more segmentation by age so that we continue to meet in person with Baby Boomers while we communicate with Millennials only by text?
• Is there a hybrid model of annual or semi-annual visits with major donors with the rest of our cultivation being done virtually?
• Should our approach vary by sector with hospitals traveling less, but human service organizations or arts organizations traveling as much as ever?

Some organizations are trying to use less paper. One way to do this is to communicate totally or mostly by electronic means. What are the implications for fundraising?

• Do we only send thankyou notes by email (or text)?
• Do we segment by age as suggested above with Boomers getting letters and young donors getting only electric communications?
• Do we segment by gift size with Major Donors – each organization defines what a Major Donor is for its organization – getting a letter while smaller donors get electronic thankyous?
• Here, too, is there some kind of hybrid segmentation in how we thank people?
• Do the cost savings of electronic cultivation/stewardship make up for the loss in the quality of stewardship?
• As above, should this vary by sector?

A big producer of carbon in the atmosphere – and therefor global warming – is commuting to work. What are the implications for fundraising?

• Should we have all of our fundraising staff work virtually?
• Are there certain activities – database management? research? annual fund? – which can be done virtually without losing quality while other functions must be done in person?
• Given two plus years of experience with COVID, have we learned how to manage virtually?
• Do new hires need to spend time in the office so they learn better how the organization works and how fundraising works?
• As we are learning with COVID, is there a hybrid way to do this?
• Does this also vary by sector?

How “green” should we be?

• Do we need to do an audit of our everyday processes to make sure we are being as green as possible?
• Do we put strictures on our donors so that we won’t accept gifts from people/organizations which are not green?
• Do we require our staff to be green, whatever that means to us?

These are a few of the questions we have. We would be interested to learn what other organizations are thinking about this issue?