Course Overview
Fundraising success isn’t about doing more—it’s about telling a better story and making each step count. Come as you are and get the tools you need to drive impactful, lasting change in your fundraising strategy. This course is designed to meet your organization at its current stage and support the achievement of your fundraising goals.
Course Description
As champions of philanthropy, you hold a unique responsibility to ensure funds are managed ethically, donor wishes are respected, and financial resources are available to drive your mission. In partnership with UNA and fundraising expert Scott Mietchen, this course offers practical, actionable strategies to enhance your fundraising capacity and meet the highest standards of ethical fundraising. Here’s what you’ll gain:
- Ethical and Effective Fundraising: Learn how to apply industry best practices and build trust through ethical and transparent fundraising approaches.
- Diverse Funding Strategies: Develop a balanced, diverse funding portfolio to strengthen your organization's financial resilience.
- Resource Planning and Evaluation: Master goal setting, planning, and evaluation techniques to ensure effective use of resources.
- Collaborative Staff and Board Engagement: Engage stakeholders strategically to amplify your mission.
Fundraising and Development will be held in January 2025.
Each of the nine UNA Credential courses is offered online, once in a calendar year.
Please check the UNA Event Calendar for all upcoming courses.
Cost:
UNA Member Rate: $180 for the first person/$40 for each additional participant
Not-Yet-Member Rate: $360 for the first person/$80 for each additional participant
Fundraising and Development Badge Requirements
In order to receive the Nonprofit Credential Badge in Fundraising and Development, the organization must complete submit the following items for review and approval by the Subject Matter Expert.
Ethics Policy
Provide the portion of your organization’s ethics policy that relates to resource development. Include revision or version date.
Ethics Training
Document proof of ongoing ethics training. A training calendar, sample of recent ethics training, document outlining how ethics trainings occur in the organization, or similar proof will satisfy this requirement.
Gift Acceptance Policy
Provide a copy of your gift acceptance policy. Include revision or version date
Donor Bill of Rights
Provide a copy of your organization’s Donor Bill of Rights or similar document provided by your organization to its donors which designates their rights as donors. The Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP) has a sample your organization may choose to adapt and/or adopt. Include revision or version date.
Donor Cycle
Document how you track where your organization is at with donors in each of the Donor Cycle stages (identifying, cultivating, soliciting, reporting). Your documentation will answer these questions: How do you track potential donors? How do you track donors from whom you are cultivating relationships and who is doing the cultivating? How do you track the donors to whom you have solicited donations? How do you track donor reporting deadlines and what needs to be reported?
Resource Development Planning and Goals
Document your organization's long- and short-term resource development goals and methods of assessing progress towards those goals. Examples of this may include a strategic resource development plan, a list of organizational priorities, a matrix citing goals and deliverables, a performance dashboard or similar proof.
Funding: Portfolio Diversification
Document ways in which you have diversified your funding portfolio.
Personalizing Solicitations
Provide two to three examples of how your organization personalizes its case for support to funders from broad range of backgrounds, interests and/or fields.
Internal Coordination
Document the ways in which your organization coordinates resource development efforts with financial management efforts and with marketing and communication efforts.
Role Descriptions
Provide a copy or template of your organization’s resource management role descriptions. Where applicable, provide separate role descriptions for staff, volunteers and/or board members.
NOTE: The documentation on the requirements requesting explanation need not be lengthy. Clear, concise statements on how the organization meets the requirement listed are sufficient. In most cases, three or four sentences should suffice.
Subject Matter Expert: M. Scott Mietchen, CFRE
Scott has more than thirty-five years of comprehensive experience in institutional advancement including fund raising, foundation and campaign management, consulting, executive search, public relations and marketing, and volunteer and staff management.
Prior to joining FRCI in 2006, Scott served as Vice President for University Advancement at Utah State University and President of the Utah State University Foundation, where he oversaw planning for the university’s first campaign for $300 million. During his tenure, private gifts reached the highest levels in university history. Before joining USU, Scott served the University of Utah as Executive Director of Development and Campaign Director during the planning stages of the university’s third comprehensive campaign for $1 billion. Scott was also a member of the executive staff committee directing the university’s second campaign which raised $760 million. Before managing these broad-based university campaigns, he created the University of Utah’s first comprehensive major gifts program as Director of Major Gifts, and managed or consulted on numerous college-based campaigns.
Preceding his work in higher education, Scott was Associate Director of Development for the Utah Symphony and Director of Development and Chapter Services for the Utah Affiliate of the American Diabetes Association. He is a Certified Fund Raising Executive by CFRE International, and has been a presenter at CASE, AFP, USFR and NIC Foundation conferences. He is an adjunct faculty member in the University of Utah’s master of public administration program.
In addition to working on the professional side of non profits, Scott has significant commitment to the volunteer side. He served as President of the Utah Society of Fund Raisers, President of the Tracy Aviary, as a board member of the Young Alumni Association at the University of Utah and a member of the Community Advisory Board of the Junior League of Salt Lake City. He has served as the International President of Phi Delta Theta International Fraternity and currently serves on the Advisory Board for the University of Utah School of Music.
Scott received a master of public administration and a bachelor of science in political science from the University of Utah. He was recognized as Fund Raiser of the Year in 2006 by the Utah Society of Fund Raisers. He lives in Salt Lake City with his wife and they have two adult children.