For most people working in nonprofit development, “fundraiser” is a role they’ve evolved into—as a part of their job as a nonprofit leader, or because they discovered they were good at raising money. No matter how much financial planning or nonprofit management training you receive, some things about fundraising have to be learned the hard way.
Three nonprofit fundraisers—Morgan Carpenter of Carpenter Nonprofit Consulting in Indiana, Jamie Rasmussen of By the Brujas, a coaching and consulting firm in Colorado, and Zahra Bokhari Hassan, Candid’s own senior development manager working in Pittsburgh and New York—shared their biggest fundraising mistakes and what they learned from them. Here’s what they had to say.
Learn about the organization
Carpenter transitioned to the nonprofit sector after growing disillusioned with corporate sales and marketing. She found a position at a local domestic violence shelter, where she reluctantly took on some grant writing duties. A strong mentor provided Carpenter with feedback, tools, and training, helping her advance to a capacity-building position at the local United Way. There, she learned a key lesson—the need for better communication between grant writers and program staff.
“I realized that I was comfortable with the writing, but that wasn’t the point,” Carpenter reflects. “I wasn’t connecting with the program enough to tell a consistent, accurate story about what we really accomplished.”
She soon realized that the most important element of fundraising communication is to share the real impact of the work the United Way did. The more Carpenter worked in collaboration with the other teams across the organization, the better she could tell the real story—rather than just a story.
Learn about the funder
Hassan says she unexpectedly became a fundraiser after working at the Greater Washington Community Foundation and later interning at Foundation Center (now Candid). While grant writing came naturally to her, understanding the funder who would read those grant applications was more challenging.
“I kept getting feedback—from my supervisors, and even from a kindly funder—that I was including too much information,” Hassan recalls. “Funders have limited time, specific interest areas, and short attention spans—concision matters!”
She cites a book titled Smart Brevity, which helped her improve her grant writing and avoid buzzwords and fluff. In short: “Direct is best!”
Learn about yourself
Beyond understanding your audience and organization, what additional knowledge is essential for becoming an effective fundraiser? “Don’t lose sight of your own values when you fundraise,” says Rasmussen.
Rasmussen’s work as a founder of The BIPOC Alliance in Larimer County, Colorado, led her to fundraise for spaces and programs that value and celebrate cultures. “I always felt reluctant to ask people to give by exploiting the suffering of others,” she observes. “I know that heartbreaking pictures of people in need stimulate giving, but aren’t they also exploitative?”
“I learned the better way to communicate the need is to root it in shared values: my personal values, the values I represent for my organization, the client’s values, and the donor’s values can all be respected and communicated,” Rasmussen explains. “It’s never simply about convincing a donor or enriching an organization—it’s about donor and fundraiser coming together to help clients achieve their ambitions.”
Part of the job of any fundraiser, it would seem, is to never lose sight of the values you care most about.
Prioritize clarity over complexity
Fundraising mistakes are common, but so is growth. In all the instances above, the mistakes seem to involve adding unnecessary complexity to the process: lack of one accurate, consistent story about the organization’s impact; too much information and complicated language; or impersonal communication. What is most effective is striving for consistency, clarity, conciseness, and shared values to connect more directly and personally with potential funders.
You can learn more about internal and external collaboration through these resources. Want to learn more about writing grant proposals without mistakes? Join Morgan, Jamie, and me in our upcoming Ask Me Anything Session on May 27, 2025.
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