Integrated fundraising is a discipline that smashes silos and breaks barriers. Put more gently, it is a vast donor-centric biosphere and integrated fundraisers are like bees who cross-pollinate the entire ecosystem.

Integrated fundraising is inherently non-linear and can seem overwhelming. It engages a 360-degree view of Annual, Foundation, and Capital streams, and projects that are high priorities for your organization.

Islands in the stream 

On the morning of March 16, 2013, I didn’t wake up thinking about receiving an island. I didn’t have an island strategy. But by the end of the month, my organization would be receiving a gift of an island.

This journey started with a prospect, a life-long educator, who wanted to make a difference. After exploring various gifting opportunities, we structured an endowment fund to support a specific educational course. When discussing ways to make the contribution, he asked, “What about an island?”

At first, I thought he said, “What about a diamond?” After I got over my surprise, I connected with professional advisors who had previously helped me structure gifts of real estate, and we finalized the donor agreement.

The elevator pitch 

On another occasion, I approached a large accounting firm with a proposal in hand - options to recognize the prestigious firm as one of our Corporate Partners. A few minutes into my pitch, one of the senior partners interjected with cool efficiency, “So, what’s the elevator pitch?” In the moment, I blurted out,

“Exactly. An elevator.” “What?” he asked. “Name an elevator and you’ll always have a captive audience,” I replied.

It wasn’t the sponsorship gift for our annual campaign that I planned for, but at that moment, it worked.

After many meetings to close the gift, it also led to the establishment of a substantial endowment - a story for another day.

Passion is the bridge that takes you from pain to change

At the same time, I was involved in a $330 million Capital Campaign. An opportunity presented itself to name a bridge connecting two of our campus buildings.

On the surface, a bridge is just another piece of inventory. You name an atrium, you name a boardroom, you name a bridge.

But this was different, comprising of 14 simultaneous naming opportunities. To pull it off, we had to look at a bridge beyond bricks and mortar. The symbolism of a bridge, a way to get from there to here, would be the key narrative anchoring these multiple gifts.

Why? The organizations we approached are well known to many ethnic communities who immigrated to North America in the early decades of the 20th Century. These immigrant groups banded together to create mutual benefit societies. In this case, the society members fled persecution and their life stories and families were steeped in survival against all odds. The theme survival and hope would be a foundational pillar of the bridge naming.

What followed were years of meetings, listening to heart-wrenching stories, and passionate negotiations that led to what was eventually named the “Bridge of Hope.” But a name alone wasn’t enough, and we knew that, having internalized the stories. We knew the biographies had to be visualized, so we turned a simple bridge into a vivid, historical tableau.

Now, when you walk across the bridge, you walk through the historical timelines of these benefit societies, who bridged pain to change and built new lives in the New World.

Do you want number one or number two? 

My next Capital Campaign gift ‘plunged’ me into the unexpected. I could not have seen this one coming. It involved a couple, loyal Annual Campaign donors and lovers of arts and culture. Due to our long and warm relationship, and the research I had done, I took them on a tour of our new 200,000 sq. ft. community centre. Tucked into my briefcase were personalized proposals for the Arts & Culture Pavilion as number one, or the Pottery Studio as number two.

The building included swimming pools, art studios, gyms, yoga rooms, special needs facilities, an early childcare education centre and more. I was excited to show Mr. & Mrs. S. these bustling spaces but to my disappointment, nothing seemed to resonate. Until we turned a corner to the early childhood education centre.

Confession: like a real estate agent staging a home showing, I planned this tour to the last detail. I arranged the timing to coincide with busy arts classes, programming in yoga studios, and asked the daycare head to seat the toddlers in a circle and, when they heard us entering, to start singing.

My donors were warming up. They smiled and held hands while the cute children sang a traditional song. But despite my choreography, the closer was totally unexpected. At the end of the tour, we walked past the day care classrooms’ washrooms. Mrs. S. was captivated by something. What, I wondered? It turned out to be miniature pint-sized training toilets. That was it! My grand tour, showing off a fully accessible community centre with state-of-the-art equipment... and it all came down to toddler training toilets!

When I woke up that morning, I never thought I would be closing a gift because of toddler toilets. But In the moment, I had to realize what was happening and completely embrace it – the moment, not the toilets!

We went for a coffee to close the deal. When I proposed naming one of the toddler classrooms, Mrs. S. quickly asked, “Does that include the little toilets?”

With that question, I had my answer. The gift was closed. The couple named the Toddler Suite and the Centre benefited from a six-figure gift.

I felt flushed. 

Here is some of what I’ve learned after navigating the integrated ocean:

• Know your industry. Know your products. You can’t present something until you understand it

• Plan your work and work your plan, but be prepared to pivot when you face the unexpected

• Work with professional advisors that can complement your skill set

• Emotions, feelings, and associations will drive your numbers

• Build long-term relationships in favour of short-term goals

• Seek out professional development

• Find the connections

If you’re stuck on your plan, or if you’re not versed or comfortable with fundraising in different streams, you might miss unseen opportunities, just around the corner. If I hadn’t had the experience of working with advisors, I wouldn’t have opened the endowment fund from the gift of an island, and if I hadn’t felt that a naming opportunity can have deeply symbolic resonance, I wouldn’t have succeeded with the Bridge of Hope. Integrated fundraising makes connections that lead to meaningful donor-centric experiences. Sometimes it’s a story, sometimes it’s deeply symbolic and sometimes it’s spontaneous. In integrated fundraising, you never know but you always have to be ready.

BECOME A SPONGE - ABSORB EVERYTHING AROUND YOU AS INSPIRATION. SOAK UP EVERYTHING YOU CAN, BEYOND THE TECHNICALITIES OF YOUR JOB. FUNDRAISERS ARE IN THE BUSINESS OF THE HUMAN HEART, SO OPEN YOURS UP TO WHAT MOVES YOUR DONORS.

"Passion is the bridge that takes you from pain to change" – attributed to Frida Kahlo

Janice Benatar, CFRE, MFA‑P is the VP, PHILANTHROPIC DEVELOPMENT for the UJA FEDERATION OF GREATER TORONTO