Real Fundraising provides not-for-profits via remote, hybrid, and on-site services locally and nationally with "real time" solutions to real problems and challenges, with special emphasis on fundraising.

At the real heart of fundraising is the need to have "realtime" assistance and information with

• problem areas or concerns
• potential major gifts
• how-to methodologies

all focused specifically for your organization and its goals.

Real Fundraising provides all of this, both electronically via the Internet and through personal interaction. You can have both the speed and convenience of the Web coupled with the involvement and interest of a real human being locally based and available for consultation.

Real Fundraising's President, Dr. Jonathan Spinner, has over 40 years executive experience in a wide variety of not-for-profit and for-profit venues, large and small, local and national in scope.

Dedicated to providing solutions to all your fundraising and not-for-profit needs, including:

• Solicitation training of volunteers and professionals
• Personnel hiring and other human resource concerns
• Fundraising programs and methodologies
• Organizational restructuring and budgeting approaches.

Real Fundraising can help you with feasibility studies, capital campaigns, endowment fund and planned giving operations, major gift programs, foundation and corporate grant approaches, grant writing, and much, much more!

Q: My Board doesn't seem to understand their role in fundraising. How do I get them to help my agency raise funds?

A: Ask yourself a question - were they told this was their job when they came on the board? Frequently, boards get members for all sorts of reasons. Some members have special skills, others "look good" on the masthead, and some give large sums. All of them should help with fundraising, but you need to make sure that they explicitly knew this before they joined or you'll have some very "interesting" meetings. Now that they're there, even if they weren't told this was part of their job, you want to ensure that they have a comfort level with fundraising. Board training is an important tool to bring people up-to-speed, but you can use other methods to make them feel comfortable that the task is doable and enjoyable. Remember, volunteers - like professionals - don't enjoy failure.

Q: We need to hire some professionals to handle new tasks as well as old ones in our management areas, but need some help in preparing the job descriptions. What should we put in our ads?

A: Start by looking for basic templates that will give you launch points by looking on the web or in professional journals at other agencies ads. How different are your needs, how similar? Second, review your needs -- you know you want people who have experience in the specific field, but will experience in similar areas do? That might expand your horizon of ad placement and bring in some new people for you to interview. Finally, think about how you will supervise this individual - do you have enough skills to understand or appreciate what you define in the ad as part of the job? If not, maybe you should rephrase the ad or rethink the jobs you are trying to fill.

Q: We've never done fundraising before, aside from a special event or two. Where do we start?

A: You may have already started if you've gone after foundation grants. Preparing those grants forced you to define your service and your delivery systems, so you've got the basis for a brochure or fact sheet. Take a look at your human resources, both paid and volunteer. Ask your staff - including secretaries and delivery of service professionals who they know and start making a contact list. You should try to do the same with your volunteers, but they may have a hard time doing this without some training or a limited request - one or two names. Look at your client or customer lists. Do any families or personal names jump out at you who have already experienced your services and are grateful? Grateful clients or customers will usually want to help. Once you've a start-up list, try to sort it by potential and then steel yourself and try for your first appointment.