GoodmakerU hosted the first meeting of their third cohort for Raise NWA last week. It’s a 12-month training program tailored to nonprofits hoping to grow their fundraising efforts in partnership with Walmart and the Jones Center.
GoodmakerU selected nine northwest Arkansas nonprofits to be part of this year’s program at the Raise NWA kickoff event last week. GoodmakerU CEO Jessie Lane explained how he personally got into the business of helping local nonprofits.
“I’ve just always had a passion for helping those that are passionate about helping. My passion is to see nonprofits fulfill their mission and their vision. I hated seeing so many stuck without the resources they need, struggling to get by, and I wanted to see them grow and have greater impact and be able to do more good. I realized the number one issue was the lack of fundraising expertise, and I wanted to solve that.”
Lane says the past two cohorts led to significant growth for the nonprofits that were involved.
“Nonprofits were raising five times to 10 times more during their fundraising campaigns than they ever had before. Most of the organizations saw record-breaking results. A lot of the nonprofit leaders grew in their confidence in how they communicate and tell their story, how they fundraise, how they approach donors, and steward those donors in those relationships. We saw many of those organizations get more resilient because they had the funds and the support from the community they needed to grow their impact, grow their teams, and ultimately survive the ups and downs that a lot of nonprofits face.”
He says they received many applications from nonprofits in the region for this year’s cohort, but those who apply do have to fit certain criteria.
“The selection is made through a committee that comes together and does a blind sort using a few criteria. We take off all the names and organizations and look at their answers to the applications and use those to determine who we feel are the right fit, the right size. They’re the right place in their life cycle to benefit from the program. Some organizations might be too small to have the capacity to execute what we teach. Some may be so big that their teams are already so specialized that a lot of this information is something they’re already doing.”
Cedric Fonville is a board member of Partners for Better Housing, an organization focused on enhancing resources, education, and advocacy for homeownership and economic mobility for lower-income individuals. Fonville says while there may be uncertainty surrounding fundraising for nonprofits at the moment, that’s even more reason to learn the skills to improve fundraising.
“We have a strong dependency here in northwest Arkansas — it’s a curse and a blessing — on foundations. Whenever those foundations change their strategic focus on how they fund organizations here, it creates a lot of hurdles because we have that dependency on them. I think now more than ever, organizations are having to learn to generate sources of income from individuals. This is a good time to put us in a position to do that with actual success.”
Elizabeth Stein is the affiliate director of The Call in Northwest Arkansas, an organization that mobilizes local churches to focus on supporting foster families and youth in foster care. She says she believes nonprofits in northwest Arkansas are particularly advantaged when it comes to raising funds.
“Well, I think we live in the perfect area to raise funds. Here in northwest Arkansas, this area is so blessed with resources and education and just the businesses and the people we’re surrounded by. They’re all generous and giving. I think we already have a step forward here in this corner of the state because of that. I think that with the Raise NWA working with nonprofits, it will help develop our skills and engage in the community in even more meaningful ways than they already are.”
Cedric Fonville says he’s most excited to learn what goodmakerU has in store for this year’s cohort.
“I love to learn and I love to learn with accountability. These mastermind meetings, the sense of community, the checking in on us to make sure we’re applying what we learned — I love that. That way we don’t just get excited and motivated for two hours and then go do nothing different. We’ll have that check-in and accountability throughout the process to make sure we actually do the work we need to be doing.”
For more information about Partners for Better Housing, visit partnersforbetterhousing.org. To learn more about The Call in Northwest Arkansas, visit thecallinarkansas.org. To learn more about the Raise NWA program with goodmakerU, visit goodmakeru.com.
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