Donor Organizer Hub

Donor Organizer Hub: Who We Are

Donor Organizer Hub is a capacity building, training, and support organization that builds lifelong donor organizers by providing joy, transformation, and community to build political power that is people powered. We support:

• Organizations and coalitions in building their donor organizing programs and capacity
• Individuals seeking support in implementing their donor organizing work (donors, volunteers, board members, staff)

We believe in multiracial, cross-class movement building, with donor organizing as a key opportunity to welcome people into our movements.

We focus on organizing donors that are not invited to major donor white glove service (traditional donor networks, 1-on-1 cultivation and stewardship, galas). This can range from someone donating $1 to join the donor class for the first time to an upper middle class individual changing their resourcing strategy from one-off $20 panic donations to their first 4-figure check.

Key Values

• Fundraising is for everyone: Anyone can ask, and anyone can be asked.
• Fundraising is organizing: A fundraising ask is an accessible welcome into our movements, and donor organizing provides a relationship- and values-centered approach to that welcoming.
• Movements for everyday people should be funded by everyday people: Our collective liberation won’t come from depending on funding from foundations and major donors. It will come from building leadership of everyday people that share our values and invite people they know to join us.

How We Build Capacity: Training + Ongoing Support

We are here to support you in building donor organizing capacity for your organization in a way that reflects your values, resources, and capacity.

By collaborating with Donor Organizer Hub, you are building out donor organizing capacity not just for your organization but for our movement: proceeds from our training and ongoing support programs provide donor organizing training and support to organizations, projects, campaigns, and individuals who could not otherwise access them.

Trainings

Donor Organizer Hub’s trainings bring an organization’s stakeholders together to develop like-minded language, values, and a foundational base in their donor organizing efforts.

These trainings are designed to meet stakeholders of your organization where they are - including but not limited to those who have:

• Questions or concerns about how donor organizing can be movement-, relational-, and values-centered
• Fears or anxieties around donor organizing
• Little to no prior experience with donor organizing
• Previous fundraising experiences centered on transactional practices that do not reflect the organization’s values

Attendees are welcome to be volunteers, donors, board members, staff, or whichever combination of individuals you feel suitable from your organization. Coalition, affiliate, or chapter members are also welcomed.

Trainings can be offered as one-time or multi-session depending on the needs of your organization. These generally last 60, 75, or 90 minutes long depending on the programming.

Topics for a training could include but are not limited to:

Building a Donor Organizing Program

• What is donor organizing and why should our organization care about it?
• How can our organization build a donor organizing program?

Implementing Donor Organizing Practices

• Donor organizing 101: How do I get started with donor organizing in my communities?
• Special topics: How do I work through my money anxiety? How do I make a fundraising ask? What are best practices for donor organizing via [1-on-1s, house parties, social media, email]?

In them, we find it successful to incorporate one third to one half of the training with interactive learning opportunities. This could include: asker-askee role play pair exercises (traditional or improv-style), reflective journaling exercises, small group discussions/action planning sessions, or other activities the organization would like to do together.

Our process generally entails:

1. 1-3 stakeholders of the organization and Donor Organizer Hub have an initial sync to identify the training topic, training goal, and general makeup of the participants to answer: What are they excited about? What are they concerned about? What support can be provided for them to overcome their concerns to align with and achieve the goal of the training? (generally 30 minutes)
2. Donor Organizer Hub creates an initial draft deck and/or plan focused on supporting participants to the goal of the training (generally 6-8 hours)
3. Stakeholders of the organization provide feedback on the initial deck; Donor Organizer Hub incorporates this feedback (generally 30 minutes-1 hour)
4. Donor Organizer Hub provides the training session to your organization (generally 1-1.5 hours)
5. A quick debrief of how it went and what next steps feel supportive for your organization (generally 15 minutes)

Ongoing Support

We recognize that implementing a donor organizing program can take more than a one-time training or series of trainings to implement. This ongoing support is flexible based on your organization’s needs in building and nurturing your donor organizing capacity.

This could include but is not limited to:

• Facilitating brainstorming/strategic planning sessions around donor organizing programming
• Supporting the development of a leadership development program for donor organizing program participants (donors become donor organizers, donor organizers become trainers, trainers become decision makers)
• Creating resources and templates for donor organizing program participants
• Developing “action hour” sessions for donor organizing program participants to carry out their goals together
• Hosting office hours or 1-on-1 support for donor organizing program builders or participants of your donor organizing program

Free Resources

Donor Organizer Hub is committed to making fundraising available for everyone. For more information, see our events page.

Supplement: DO Hub Glossary

Donor: anyone who contributes greater than $0 to a cause

Donor Organizer: anyone who organizes their communities (friends, family, extended networks) to contribute to a cause they care about

Donor Organizer Hub: a capacity building, training, and support organization that builds lifelong donor organizers by providing joy, transformation, and community to build political power that is people powered

Donor Organizing Program: a committed ongoing effort by an organization, campaign, or coalition to recruit, train, support, and empower donor organizers on behalf of their cause