Interview! Sandy Rees, Founder and Chief Encouragement Officer – Get Fully Funded

“I’ve always felt deep in my soul that I’m here to help lots of people. I have a sensitive heart and can’t stand to see anyone suffer.”

Sandy Rees helps nonprofits and charities who have been used to nickel and dime fundraising work  get to six or seven figures on their bottom line! She shows her students how to find ideal donors and connect with them through authentic messaging. One of the greatest challenges for our listeners is fundraising, and Sandy has many of answers we need to do the jobs we are trying to do for our community cats!

Sandy fell into this career by accident and didn’t go to school or classes that teach nonprofit management. There really weren’t any around! But she went on a tour at a local rescue mission and ended up asking lots of questions. She was soon asked to join their board and a year later, joined their resource development office.

Soon, she jumped into fundraising and never looked back! She found was able to apply a lot of corporate marketing skills from her earlier career to her new one and she soon blossomed.

In 2005, Sandy started Get Fully Funded and was able to pick specific clients that she loved and connected with. From farm animals to dogs and cats, Get Fully Funded can cover it!

The bottom line is that people are passionate about helping animals, but often don’t know how to raise money to help. So she retrains her clients to turn fundraising into something that makes people want to help. She gets donors excited!

She also believes in working by the 1/10/1000 Rule.

• Plan ONE fundraising event a year and do it really well!
• Get TEN grants a year. Stop leaving grant money on the table. Grants are out there—so apply!
• Build your donor base up to about 1,000 donors. This will set you up for sustainable fundraising long-term. It’s also good because if you lose one donor, you’ll be able to weather storms with your base of stability.

Sandy also talks about ARF Club, which focuses on small organizations and training opportunities for these groups. They are able to work together with animal welfare groups through private Facebook groups and other Q&A sessions where they can connect and collaborate.

Learn more at http://getfullyfunded.com/arf-club/ and arfclub.com.

Listen to Episode #226 Now