Jetlag + Insomnia have me in a vice. I’m currently on a fundraising trip in the US and wanted to share the work behind the scenes.
This is an article on fundraising as a social entrepreneur.
Grab a coffee or tea and let’s dive in.
You probably already know this, but social entrepreneurship is hard. Entrepreneurship of any sort is hard. For most of us, we’re navigating a dream that won’t let us rest until we see a problem solved. And this dream keeps us awake, night after night, month after month, year after year. Not only must we convince ourselves to walk this journey, but we have to convince people to walk with us, starting with our friends and family who join when we have nothing to give back, but support us regardless, because they believe in us and/or they believe in the dream.
But even more importantly, we have to convince funders and investors to support our work. The lifeblood of any organisation or business is pure, cold cash. We have to share the importance, urgency and worthiness of our vision with everyone who will listen. Almost always, we’re trying to convince people who are initially total strangers but eventually can become your closest confidants and allies as you build growth and traction. They can become your champions and share your dream as if it were their own, because you share purpose. There are generally three types of funders/investors you’ll meet.
- Some will get it instantly, but are initially skeptical (in this work, everyone is initially a sceptic), but they trust YOU. They are drawn to the heart, story, passion and purpose of you and your team.
- Others don’t care about you or your passion. They want to see business systems and impact numbers. They make their decisions using purely data and results. And if the data is good enough, they want to help you push those numbers up (which can be a double-edged sword).
- Others don’t care. At all. They’re not interested in you, your work, your industry, your country, etc. They empathize with what you’re doing, but frankly have other priorities. They wish you well. They can seem rude or dispassionate, but you have to not take things personally.
Founders/entrepreneurs are generally jacks-of-all-trades, especially during the early stages of our organizations. However, as our teams grow, as we get better people to fill up senior roles, for many of us, our work slowly shifts to the arduous business of fundraising. And we learn to navigate this world slowly and painfully. Making mistakes, failing all the time, getting rejection after rejection after rejection (it’s A LOT of rejection) until eventually, it starts to make sense. Then we find our tribes and the doors finally start to open.
Often, your tribe is made up of your team and fellow entrepreneurs with whom you share battle stories, or your board members who champion your work and help you build the organisation. Or funders who are so attuned to your purpose that they sing your praises from the rooftops.
More often than not, that entrepreneur you see taking flights to all these fancy and exotic places is exhausted beyond belief, has been burnt out for 5 or ten years and is running on coffee, hope and the prayers of their teams at home. Fundraising trips are 98% work and 2% fun. A typical trip starts months in advance, setting up meetings and booking calendars, figuring out the cheapest flights and accommodation and meals. And when things are really tight, asking friends and allies if we can crash on their couch for a few days. Everything is expensive.
Often, strong ally funders will bring their grantees together for annual meetings or events for the specific purpose of helping them meet more funders (and share their stories). These funders (thankfully) typically cover the costs of accommodation and flights. Abeg, let us not talk about visas. That one is a topic on its own.
Interestingly, many founders (myself included) are introverts and very socially awkward and would rather be at their desks working. But nothing drives you out of your comfort zone like a dream that has you in a chokehold. Actually, no. Lack of money does that much, much better. But the most painful thing we funders who focus on fundraising have to learn to deal with is rejection. It comes fast, it comes often and can be heartbreaking. The trick we all learn is to never take it personally. Just keep pushing forward. It’s a lot easier said than done.
Funders have all sorts of reasons for not giving you money, and it often boils down to many things like:
- Not enough cash, so they prioritise for maximum dollar impact.
- No strong alignment (demographic, org size, etc.), so they look for a better fit with other organizations.
- We founders do struggle to communicate our work convincingly enough.
- Racial biases. Put bluntly, some funders generally prefer to fund white-led organizations. This is rampant in the NGO space. Thankfully, it’s being increasingly called out by several donors and investors.
- Organisational capacity. Some funders want organizations that have well-established systems that can support large grants. For this, many small organizations (like Fundi Bots) learn to build up their capacity over time with support from their existing funders.
Bottom line: founder work, especially fundraising is hard, soul-crushing, and is a delicate balancing act between managing your finances, increasing your impact and building your organization to stand strong. Don’t let the rosy pictures and selfies fool you. We fail. All. The. Time.
On the plus side, these fundraising trips are a great way to see the world, and (if you can afford to) a good opportunity to relax. Every single trip I’ve taken outside of Uganda since I started Fundi Bots eleven years ago has been a fundraising trip funded by amazing partners. I look forward to one day taking a trip for me, purely for fun and relaxation and to take a much, much-needed break. One day. For now, reports, schedules and 4AM management meetings call. And we power through with coffee, sleep deprivation and prayers.
For now, we build.
This article was originally published as a Twitter thread by Solomon King, the Founder and Executive Director at Fundi Bots. You can also check out this poll on rejections gotten by funders/social entrepreneurs/entreprenuers.
