A leader of an IVU member society sent in this edited excerpt from a discussion among the society’s board members about fundraising. How does your organisation approach this issue?

Board Member 1: To be honest, I’ve never been very optimistic about our fund raising efforts. I’ve never been able to feel who our target donours are. Putting myself in the shoes of potential donors:

1. If I’m concerned about the environment, I would give to Greenpeace or some other environmental organization.
2. If I am an animal lover, I would give to the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, or a similar organization.
3. If I care about world hunger, I would give to Oxfam or another development organization.
4. If my main concern is health, I would give to a cancer society or a heart foundation.
5. If religion is my main reason for being vegetarian, I would give to my temple, church, etc., not to a vegetarian organization.

Board Member 2: On one hand, I agree that a vegetarian organisation isn’t necessarily the best choice for someone’s donation if they have a single focus, such as the environment; however, we could argue that because veg helps in so many different ways, a donation to VSS is actually one’s best donation investment, because vegetarianism addresses the environment, protection of our fellow animals, world hunger and health.

One way to make our appeal for donations more focused is to highlight a particular project we are doing or plan to do. An example of a success focused donation appeal was conducted by IVU when it asked for funds to support a West Africa Vegetarian Congress.