AMA: Rick Holland, Fundraising expert and Director of Confident Philanthropy

By Toby Tremlett🔹, Rick Holland @ 2024-10-30T20:05 (+10)

This post was written by Toby Tremlett, with input from Rick Holland. 

Rick Holland, the Director of Confident Philanthropy, will be holding an AMA during Funding Strategy Week (formerly known as Funding Diversification Week). Leave your questions in the comments of this post, and Rick will answer them on Thursday the 7th of November. 

Through his consultancy, Rick has been advising organisations on their fundraising efforts for the past fifteen years, and has led the fundraising efforts at a variety of nonprofits for many years before that. 

In our conversations, Rick has said that although all organisations are different, there are many things that we can do to strengthen our relationships with our funders and supporters. Rick is open to questions that run the gamut about fundraising, whether about overall organisational strategy or day-to-day donor and gift management.

Rick has worked with VeganForTheAnimals, ALLFED, The Vagina Museum, GFI, Humanists UK, Otwarte Klatki (Open Cages), More United, and many other organisations inside and outside of EA circles.

I thought it would be particularly interesting to ask Rick questions during Funding Strategy Week, when the Forum will be discussing a wide range of funding-related questions.

Consider asking Rick about:

emmannaemeka @ 2024-10-31T04:38 (+1)

Hi Rick, it’s great to connect with you! I have a few questions and would really appreciate hearing your perspective on them.

  1. Given that I haven’t yet had much success in securing substantial support for my phage-related projects, what strategies would you recommend for balancing the trade-off between relying on major funders and building a network of smaller donors, especially in niche fields like phage therapy research?

  2. Could you suggest effective ways to uncover what truly motivates funders, particularly those who might be interested in high-impact, emerging biomedical solutions? This insight would be invaluable in refining my approach for phage therapy projects.

  3. Based on your experience with EA organizations, what are some common fundraising mistakes to avoid when pitching early-stage, high-risk research? I’m particularly keen to understand where others might have gone wrong, as I work to gain support for my own phage research.

  4. How can I tap into the knowledge and expertise of existing funders to strengthen both my research and fundraising efforts? Additionally, are there effective ways to work with current funders to identify potential new funding sources within the global health sector?