Outsourcing Fundraising: when it's time to contact a consultant

Evgeny Zubov advises NPOs on marketing and promotion issues. He shares with the employees of non -profit organizations by training materials and launched the Mercy.agency agency. The expert told Teplitsa journalist Ekaterina Ulyanova when it is worth contacting a consultant how to work with him and what results to wait.

Why did consultants appear for NGOs

A consultant is a person who comes with his luggage of knowledge to a certain project. Evgeny Zubov says that he does not just answer questions from NGO employees. For him, this is more of design work than just consulting. Therefore, for some time, the expert becomes part of the team:

• gets acquainted with employees;
• analyzes the work already done;
• sets tasks and deadlines;
• participates in the process;
• is responsible for the result.

Evgeny Zubov believes that NPO employees are usually concentrated on a social effect - they spend their main efforts on the solutions of the problems that the organization is engaged in. At the same time, they simply have no time to master marketing tools and technologies.

For example, NPOs helps children without parental care. Employees of the organization are well aware of how to help the family in a difficult life situation. And they can even write a competent and catchy post on this subject on social networks. But no one will see him. The consultant will tell you how to configure advertising, change the design of the group and increase coverage.

“The consulting sector will only expand. NPO employees are increasingly coming to the fact that their problems with promoting and attracting a new audience are outside of their understanding. So, the demand for specialists will grow up who will help to deal with these tasks. ” Evgeny Zubov

When NPOs contact a consultant

Typically, NPO employees turn to the Mercy.age team for help in the following cases.

• The organization received grants for a long time and worked calmly. But at some point they did not give a grant, and there are not enough money attracted from donors for sustainable work.
• NPOs had several large philanthropists who ensured the organization of the organization. They have ended resources or priorities have changed, and employees do not know how to interact with private philanthropists.
• The team understands that she rested on the ceiling, and she does not have enough of his knowledge for further development. Employees are ready to act, but do not know how and in what sequence.

At the same time, Evgeny Zubov does not cooperate with NPOs that were created recently. He believes that first they need to learn how to independently go to any results and understand in which questions they need additional knowledge and skills.

“People who have just started work in the non -profit sector have too many myths in their heads. And I do not want to be the author of their destruction. New NPOs think that they can copy the work of large organizations, and this will work. And this is not so. That's when they fill the bumps and understand where they hurt, we will come and help. ” Evgeny Zubov

Why do you need free training materials

On the portal Mercy.agency, Evgeny Zubov posts training articles and lectures into open access. The expert says that customers often turn to him with the same problems. In order not to repeat the same things to all organizations many times, he decided to make a portal with materials on all relevant topics. “The funds that turn to us almost always have problems with the site. And in 80% of cases, the same things are poorly arranged in them. Therefore, it is easier for me to write an article on this topic once and give a link to it to new customers, ”says Evgeny Zubov.

More on the topic: 106 ways to improve the NGO website .

Info -businessmen record lessons to show their expertise. With the help of training materials, they usually attract new customers. For example, a consultant is engaged in seo optimization. He writes an article in which he talks about several tricks. And at the end, posts a link to his online course on searching for sites.

MERCY.AGENSY materials are created to teach the customers of the agency. Therefore, they are detailed, do not look like advertising and solve the real problems of readers. “Learning also needs our actions to be understandable to the NPO team. If we do not synchronize with the client an understanding why we do this way, and not otherwise, most likely, we will not come to the result. We will have to overcome the resistance that the organization creates, ”says Evgeny Zubov.

Full -time employee or consultant

NPO is now very difficult to hire an employee in the state, says Evgeny Zubov. Everyone needs fundrays, marketing specialists and PR, but no one responds to these vacancies. Because there are almost no people with successful experience in the third sector in the market. And NPO employees turn to consultants.

“A person is trying to find a solution to the problem himself. For example, he wants to increase fees through the VKontakte group. The employee sees that we are engaged in this topic, we have a ready -made solution, because we have already dealt with this task. We also say when there is a result, and give guarantees. Not every full -time employee can do it. ” Evgeny Zubov

To hire a specialist from a commercial company is also not always a suitable solution. It will still have to work it, and some organizations need a result here and now. In addition, in a large company, a person could only respond to one narrow direction, for example, SMM. In NGOs, his circle of tasks will most likely expand significantly, and he will have to not only write involving texts for social networks.

“In a non-profit organization, as a rule, one rarely works poorly. For example, the fund has an active and good group on Facebook. But employees post a link that leads to donations not adapted to mobile devices. A person goes from the group, he is ready to make a donation to the fund, but he does not succeed. And the SMM specialist will most likely not be able to correct the site. ” Evgeny Zubov

When to pay a consultant

The first consultations are Mercy.agency employees for free. At the meetings, they find out what work has already been done and what mistakes are made. After the preparatory stage, experts discuss a plan for further actions with the NPO team. Evgeny Zubov says that the first 5-6 meetings are needed so that consultants and employees of non-profit organizations begin to speak the same language.

“NPO employees know for sure that it is necessary to spend 100 thousand rubles on equipment that will help a thousand well -being. But not everyone has an understanding that 100 thousand rubles that they will spend on the work of the consultant will bring them a million. Therefore, we need to explain the basic things. Sometimes we tell our ideas, then the organization of the organization discusses them for another six months, studies our materials. And only then they ripen. ” Evgeny Zubov

Then the consultants conclude an agreement with the organization and draw up a technical task, which indicates the amount of work and the terms of their implementation. NPO employees must first pay for the services of an expert and only then get the result. Evgeny Zubov believes that such a scheme of work is not suitable for some organizations, and he plans to change it.

“We want to launch an outsourcing fundraising. First we will attract funds for NGOs. At the same time, use only those methods and tools that we consider effective in work. And already from the raised funds to take your percentage. ” Evgeny Zubov

Why do not interfere with the consultant

One of the most frequent problems faced by Mercy.agency is an inappropriate initiative by employees or supporters of the organization. “We do not work with customers in the same city and cannot follow all the processes. For example, the director of the fund has a familiar programmer who has a very low qualification. And instead of contacting us for refinements and changes in the site, NPOs go to him. Nobody tells us about this, the displayer programmer interferes with the work, makes mistakes, and the overall result disappears. ” Evgeny Zubov

The expert believes that this is a typical case, because most often NPOs are created as a response to a social challenge. Teams are formed on the principle of trust in each other and first of all think how to solve any problem. And only then they think about marketing, promotion and attracting qualified employees.

“In my opinion, we must turn this situation. When creating NPOs, there should be competition - who will more effectively solve a certain social problem. When to be the head of the non -profit organization will become as fashionable and cool as an entrepreneur, then many problems will be resolved. And maybe consultants will become less in demand. ” Evgeny Zubov