Fundraising User Guide

Welcome! This page is an introduction to fundraising and our work around it at oikos.

Authors: Stephen Snider, Carolin Lemke Involved: Everyone Linked Circle(s) & Roles: Fundraising Support Circle, Fundraising Focus Circle Latest Update: November, 2023

WHERE TO START? Fundraising can be a complicated process and it can be quite scary starting out. Give yourself some time to learn about the organization and learn to be comfortable trying new things. It is very helpful to review documents that have been previously used to fundraise and learn how to talk about oikos in general. You’ll also find plenty of resources on how to research leads, identify contacts, and propose funding opportunities. Good luck. And remember to have FUN with this.

FUNDRAISING AT OIKOS

(1) Our internal fundraising structure

(1.1) Fundraising Focus Circle

Fundraising at oikos in the past has been typically centralized around one or two people. To make the work easier for everyone and more central to our work a new Fundraising Focus Circle has been created. This Circle hosts representatives from each of the oikos Initiatives, plus our Volunteers and Board Members that are interested in helping us fundraise.

The Fundraising Focus circle is an attempt to bring all of us together, making things transparent, keeping everyone aware of what is going on, sharing responsibilities, and making things less centralized. We use our Fundraising Circle to coordinate and meet together twice a month to advance the many fundraising efforts we have in place to support our programs. This Circle touches each of the other organizational circles of oikos.

People belonging to this circle are usually engaged in the following fundraising activities:

• Lead research

• Grant writing

• Corporate fundraising

• Alternative fundraising

Learn more about how we got here in this slide show: Fundraising Finance Basics Process Structure - Focus Call

Our circle structure. Want to learn more about Circles at oikos International? Check that out here on our Wiki page.

(1.2) Fundraising Support Circle

The Fundraising Support Circle belongs to the wider Admin & Support Circle. It is meant to enable successful fundraising for the whole team. It is needed to have someone to host the team, keep an overview and keep up the energy for the team.

Responsibilities of the circle are:

• Hosting the FF circle meetings and the team

• Strategizing and inviting the rest of the team for it

• Providing structure and processes with the help of the tools available to us (Airtable, Google etc.)

• Managing fundraising volunteers

It currently contains of 1 co-president, 1 board member and 1 employee.

---

(2) Focus areas in fundraising

Fundraising work streams or areas of focus can include the following areas:

• Foundations & Grant Writing

  • Large foundations

  • Medium-sized & smaller foundations

  • Best practices

• Businesses, banks and other private institutions

(2.1) Foundations & Grant Writing

(2.1.1) Large foundations

oikos has worked with a few larger Swiss or European foundations to fund major oikos projects. Grants have been recently written to groups like P4NE and Movetia with a larger budget and in-depth programming, using grant-specific applications. These foundations are oftentimes either governmentally funded or consolidate smaller foundations/donors under one roof. Grant processes are usually more formal, require detailed information and thus, take more time. Though once received, the funding can secure our activities over a longer period of time. Furthermore, detailed reporting on our impact and how the money was used is usually required. For a successful grant application, work closely with the program’s circle to design an application that meets grant characteristics. There are a couple larger foundations out there to apply to, be targeted and well-researched, and develop relationships with the foundation personnel. See our Current, Research & Past donors for more info.

(2.1.2) Medium-sized and smaller foundations

Next to the larger foundations out there, the foundation landscape is broad. Foundations can take any size, grant requirements, potential funding sums & criteria, so there is a huge diversity and no "one-size-fits-all" answer to the perfect grant proposal. For medium-sized and smaller foundations, the application processes are oftentimes much less formal. In some cases, they might still have an online portal or documents to fill. Others require you to send a self-made project/program proposal including a budget via email that meets the descriptions of oikos projects and goals of the organization. These processes are less formal, take less time, though also the funding sums are usually smaller. Especially tor these grant applications, we have fliers and other materials that can be used to apply.

Best practices for grant applications with foundations

(2.2) Businesses, banks and other private institutions

Program Proposals

Applications to smaller foundations, corporations, and partners may require simpler, non-formulaic applications that meet the descriptions of oikos projects and goals of the organization. Recent proposals included funding for Basecamp, sustainable finance programming from Aviva Investors, a budget for Camp 2023 from Isaac Dreyfus, and the oikos Academy. Often times you’ll need to create a flier with your proposal, a document describing program specifics, and a budget. The level of detail depends on the relationship and needs of the organization.

Best practices for corporate fundraising

(2.3) Donor Management

Check out the Partnerships Circle and User Guide for more information on how relationships should be managed at oikos. With applications, you’ll want to develop connections through email and calls to ask questions, review proposals, facilitate donations, report on programming, and hand over projects. Check out notes on AirTable, Salesforce, and in the project, documentation to track important information. Check out our map of Donor Relations on Miro for more (LINK) and our Drive for Outreach Support.

(2.4) Alternative Fundraising

Learn more about it here:

Alternative Fundraising

Workshops/Training

We’ve been trying to provide opportunities for internal workshopping, learnings, and improving the process we work with. There are lots of resources available online that might be of use Communities for Future, Opportunity Desk, Funds for NGOs, and others. Check out our Fundraising Google Drive for Trainings and previously used resources.

Ways of getting involved

There are many roles you can be involved with to help move fundraising forward. Some are below:

• JOIN the FUNDRAISING CIRCLE - Every two weeks we meet to talk specifically about fundraising efforts and provide updates to each other. Here is a great chance to work on the things most important to our circles' fundraising efforts. The event is always on the oikos calendar and our meeting minutes are below so you can follow along.

• RESEARCH LEADS - Lots of help is needed to check the many potential fundraising opportunities that we come across on a regular basis.

• Review AirTable for background information and add research notes you find.

• Check SalesForce for past connections to individuals/companies.

• Browse the organization’s website and determine if its values align with ours.

• Find key individuals on their website and on LinkedIn

• Read about their Sustainability and Impact in any useful Reporting you find

• Suggest leads that are good for outreach to and document what needs to be submitted for a successful application.

• MAKE OUTREACH - Connect with potential donors and partners to request support. Utilize the resources that each initiative and circle at oikos creates to tell the stories about the work we do. You’ll see some resources below on fundraising specific to our different programs.

Connect through:

• Grants and Applications

• Direct Contact and Email

• Proposals and Fliers

**Please coordinate with your teammates and the fundraising circle to inform others on what outreach you are making.

• DONATIONS - Donations to oikos can be made directly to us using our bank details or through our donation pages. Also, we are often running crowdfunding campaigns that

TO DO - ADD LINK FOR DONATION PAGE -

• IMPACT and RELATIONSHIPS - oikos has a pretty big community and part of our work should include developing these connections to be supporters of our work. There is also a network of partners

NOTE - What areas are we forgetting about that you can help us with?. –

Impact and Relationships

oikos has a pretty big community and part of our work should include developing these connections to be supporters of our work. There is also a network of partners to develop connections to and from.

What is needed for our donors

• Demographics & impact Data!!!

• Impact Matrix

• Engagement Data ← should go on Impact Matrix

  • Social Media - click through rates, followers, engagement

  • Website - views, connections, SEO ratings

  • Newsletter

ADD EXAMPLES -

Alumni

Spider Humans Airtable and past LEAP Participants Airtable

ADD AIRTABLE LINKS -

REPORTIN