In this special episode of the Drug Prevention Power Hour, Jake White from Vive18 shares practical strategies for building financial resilience and creating sustainable funding for prevention organizations. Drawing from Vive18’s experience, Jake explains how individual donations, business sponsorships, organization donations, and fundraising events can help organizations grow beyond grant funding. He also walks through the presentation that helped Vive18 raise $40,000 in just three months through individual donations, offering actionable tips for connecting with donors, building credibility, and communicating your mission effectively.
Key Takeaways
- 4 key strategies for fundraising
- How to grow individual donations
- Building business sponsorships
- Leveraging organization donations
- Planning successful fundraising events
- Tips for creating a compelling fundraising pitch
- Building sustainable funding for prevention
Introduction to Financial Resilience in Prevention Organizations
Jake White: Hello and welcome to a special episode of the Drug Prevention Power Hour. I’m your host, Jake White from Vive18. And today I’m actually gonna give y’all some insider tips on how we started this whole organization and how we became sustainable. I mean, in today’s landscape, especially in prevention, it’s largely, I would say it’s largely relied upon grant funding. There isn’t—
Jake White: I mean, you know what? The ones that are being creative, that are getting sponsorships and individual donations, building partnerships are far, I would say few and far between. And so I want to give you some tips. This is stuff that we were able to raise forty thousand dollars in just three months with individual donations. We were able to save tens of thousands of dollars from getting corporate sponsorships.
Jake White: And so you can do all of these things in your local community. And it’s not that difficult. So I’m going to share the secrets on how we do this. And I’m also going to give you basically the four ways that we think about fundraising within Vive18 and with our partnerships. And so this will be a really good episode about financial resilience and building sustainable funding.
Jake White: So if you were on our Prevention Innovators Conference—you know, the one on the cruise ship that went to Bermuda?—you got this content. But I’m gonna give you the 15-minute recap here. We’re gonna breeze through it, and I’m gonna share some best practices. But if you are listening in a car, that’s totally fine. Soak it up. And then if you wanna rewatch it later, go on YouTube so you can see some of the examples. I’ll actually go through the exact slide deck I used to raise that $40,000 in just a couple months, so you can, you know, model yours off of that.
Jake White: So let’s dive right in. I am calling this financial resilience, basically securing sustainable funding.
Four Key Strategies for Fundraising
Jake White: All right. Here are the four ways to raise money. And obviously, this is not exhaustive, but these are four great ways for prevention organizations to raise money.
Jake White: The first is individual donations. And individual donations is great because you get to connect with people, their hearts, and their passion. It’s such a fun way to build your capital as well. This was one of actually my favorite parts of running a nonprofit. And today, you know, spreading our organization, just getting to connect with people and find out, hey, what do you care about? What are you into? What are your passions, and what’s your story? Because there are millions of people out there who have been impacted by addiction and by substance abuse. And they would love the chance to donate to your organization.
Jake White: The second one is business sponsorships. And a lot of people can get scared about business sponsorships, but in reality, this one is a lot easier than you think. And I’ll teach you why. Basically, what you do with this one is you resonate with their brand and their goals, and therefore they’re willing to support you and your mission.
Jake White: The third one is organization donations. Now, it’s a lot like business sponsorships, but instead of, you know, kind of helping them with their business and aligning with their brand and goals, you’re aligning with an organization’s values and mission. So it might be another nonprofit like you, it might be a communal organization, like Kiwanis or Rotary Club or Elks Club or the YMCA, things like that.
Jake White: And the fourth one is fundraising events. This is one where you coordinate with your team to raise funds through a fun experience or maybe even an annual event, something like that. So let’s dive into them.
Deep Dive into Individual Donations
Jake White: First, individual donations. These account for $196 billion per year. You heard that right. Billion with a B. $596 billion is donated every year from individuals. The reason why this is so great is because we all know people.
Jake White: So there’s literally no barrier to entry. Anyone can raise money from individuals because we all know people. It also has a lot of potential because this is a huge chunk of charitable giving. $596 billion. This is actually the largest category.
Jake White: Now, the challenge of doing fundraising this way is a lot of people are scared of it. If you’re sitting there thinking, like, Jake, wow, that’s a lot of money, but I cannot ask my friends for this, you’re not alone. A lot of people are kind of scared of this.
Jake White: But if most people are scared of it, then that means you could be the few that are actually benefiting from it. This is where the opportunity lies, is what you know, most people aren’t willing to do what it takes to be successful. And if you ask me, the life-saving mission of prevention is absolutely worth getting scared over.
Exploring Business Sponsorships
Jake White: The second one is business sponsorships. Business sponsorships account for $23 billion, and that’s in North America. The cool things about business sponsorships is they’re mutually beneficial, meaning the businesses are looking for opportunities to showcase their products, their brand, and gain loyalty from people.
Jake White: And you’re looking for opportunities to maybe get donations, maybe even, like, product donations or service donations, because, all right, we don’t have an accountant, but could we have a partnership with an accounting firm? We don’t have food or supplies or vendors for our next event, but could we have a partnership where we trade for—they show up and they give us these things?
Jake White: And then in return, we help them reach more people.
Jake White: Another bonus is that it’s easy to ask. It often takes a simple request to ask for business sponsorships. So there is a relatively low barrier to entry for this one. And the lucky thing is businesses are run by people, and we connect with people. So that’s great.
Jake White: The challenge for this one, and I wouldn’t even call it a challenge, right? It’s like the part that you have to choose wisely if this is what you want to do, is because business sponsorships are actually like a trade. It’s not just free money most of the time. If that’s pretty much a donation, then the business sponsorship is kind of a, hey, they should be getting back some type of publicity, or they should be getting back some eyeballs that are going to be on their business through your email campaign or your event status, or they get the microphone for five minutes to share about their new service.
Jake White: So it is kind of a trade, and you’re helping each other.
Leveraging Organization Donations
Jake White: The third one of organization donations, this accounts for $990 million. Okay, so almost a billion, not quite. But that $990 million, that’s just accounting from Rotary and Kiwanis alone. So it actually is more than a billion, but I didn’t know how to find the money from everybody out there. So I just added up these two with their annual giving.
Jake White: So the bonus of these ones, definitely their local focus. Like, these might be worldwide organizations that do a lot of good, but they have local chapters that want to do good in your local area. So you’re trying to improve the community? So are they. Great person to help, or I guess great group to help.
Jake White: The also-added bonus of this one is it’s a really safe place to practice your speech, your presentation, you know, your sales pitch or your donation pitch, because they’re looking for people to visit them and to do these things. And oftentimes they have weekly and monthly meetings that you can go and be a guest presenter.
Jake White: I would say the biggest bonus of organization donations is they also provide a lot of volunteers. So, I mean, if you can avoid—not avoid hiring staff, but I mean, we’re all limited by funds. So you have your staff and you have your capacity that you can do. But when you align with these organizations, they have dozens or sometimes hundreds of people who want to volunteer with you. Like, they’re looking for volunteer opportunities.
Jake White: And that could save you hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of labor every single year. Now, the only downside or the thing to work with when you’re working with these organizations is realizing that they each have their own set of rules. You might have to become a member of the organization. They might have rules on how you can ask for money. Like, you can’t ask for it in person during your presentation, but you can give a presentation and then you gotta fill out this form.
Jake White: So again, it’s not like a big deal. It’s just something to look out for.
The Power of Fundraising Events
Jake White: And the final one I’ll talk about is fundraising events. And this accounts for $550 billion. And this goes hand in hand with individual donations. They kind of share the pie because when you’re doing your events, you also will get individuals to start donating to you.
Jake White: The pros for this is it builds excitement for your organization and your mission, right? People come to experience the event, they hear about your organization, they see your brand everywhere. They’re like, great, this is awesome. I love this mission now and these people and all that they do.
Jake White: It’s also a great way to get media. So you might have TV stations or newspapers, radio stations that want to come and cover your event because it’s something really fun and awesome for the community. And added bonus, now you can shout out those business sponsors that are, you know, helping you out. So it’s a win-win for everybody.
Jake White: The cons or the challenges, there’s actually two of them here. It’s very marketing-heavy and it’s very partner-heavy, meaning you’ve got to spend a lot of time on marketing, maybe even some money on marketing, and you really need to coordinate your volunteers well. It’s kind of an all-hands-on-deck situation. Make sure that you have capacity to bring together people to really pull this off.
Jake White: Don’t be doing fundraising events by yourself, right? That’s an easy way to get burnt out.
Choosing the Right Fundraising Strategy
Jake White: So the question becomes, which one should you choose? If you’re running an organization, there’s four ways that I’ve outlined that are popular ways to raise money and capacity and funding. Which one should you choose? And the answer might be multiple, but I would maybe ask, which one should I focus on next? Or which one should I focus on now?
Jake White: And I believe we can answer this question right here. First, if you’re wondering about individual donations, I think everybody should be doing this. Like, throughout the year, you should be making appointments once a week or a couple of times a month where you have a goal of meeting with a certain number of people and just telling them about your organization and asking them to become a donor.
Jake White: The reason why this is so important is because if it becomes a part of your habit and your lifestyle, then your organization is going to thrive. You’re going to have more opportunities, and people will know that they can get involved in different ways. Because maybe not everybody says yes to donating, but they become somebody on your email list. They attend an event. They become a volunteer.
Jake White: So just a good thing happens when you meet people one-on-one and you share what you’re doing and you learn about them and what their strengths are. So individual donations, I’m going to call that non-negotiable.
Jake White: For everybody, like, you should start doing it right now.
Jake White: Business sponsorships is if you’re planning an event or a fundraiser, or maybe you’re starting a new project or initiative that’s gonna come around soon, this might be an opportunity to start introducing business sponsorships. The great thing, too, is it could lead to a longer relationship with this business, and they could continue supporting you in other ways.
Jake White: So again, if you got an event coming up, a fundraiser, something like that, a project, you kind of need that, you know, a not a small chunk of change, but, you know, anywhere from $500 to $5,000 that you need to raise, business sponsorship is gonna be pretty good for you. And they can help you with those next initiatives.
Jake White: Now, organization donations. If you’ve just started your organization, I would say start here. Like, make sure you go and speak at these clubs. Share your mission, your vision, what you’re doing. And then you can also raise small amounts of money because maybe at the meeting you can’t ask for money, but I’ve gone and shared about a project and my mission. And then afterwards, I would have, like, the sweet, sweet old lady, you know, with a check in hand saying, “Jake, I just love this. I want you to have $500 for whatever you need it for. I’m just so inspired by what you’re doing, and I want you to have some seed funding.”
Jake White: Right. And then other times you have a project or an event coming up and they say, “Hey, this is great. You should really apply for us to support you. Go and fill out this form.” So organization donations, I would really encourage it if you’re just starting out. Don’t miss this one.
Jake White: And then finally, who should be using annual events or fundraising events? It should not be the people that are starting out. I would say if you’re focused on building your program and your capacity, like, you’re just learning what you do really well as an organization, the fundraising event shouldn’t be—you shouldn’t be focusing on that yet. Learn your craft really well.
Jake White: Once you have that solid thing that you do and you’re like, hey, we need to spread this and we need to build capacity, an annual event is actually a long-term play, and it’s very expensive. It’s very hour-heavy, capacity-heavy, volunteer-heavy. And so you need to have built your organization up a little bit before you tackle this.
Jake White: And you have to be willing—I’m gonna say this—you have to be willing to lose money the first year.
Jake White: I know that’s actually hard to hear, but if you’re hosting a fundraising event, it’s gonna take probably all three of these other things to actually afford your annual event anyway. And so this is for the people who have been doing this for a little bit and you’re trying to, like, think, hey, what’s an event that I can create that’s gonna be a staple in my community? What could I be doing five years running in a row and get people, you know, not just individuals in, but creating teams, and corporations are sponsoring us, and they’re bringing and buying tables or whatever it is.
Jake White: This is when you wanna tackle this. So now I’m gonna pivot. We’re gonna go quickly through a forty-thousand-dollar slide deck that I created.
Building a Fundraising Presentation That Works
Jake White: And we were able to raise forty thousand dollars in three months with no forms, no online forms, no grants, no business sponsorships, just from individual donations. And I’m doing this because I really want you to take action to start asking people for money just to practice it. Because once again, whether they donate or not isn’t important. What’s important is you are spreading your mission and you are building capacity through other ways.
Jake White: And best-case scenario, maybe they donate as well.
Jake White: Okay, this is a slide deck that I use at the very beginning. And if you know my story, you know we started Vive18 by throwing sober house parties at college campuses. And this is the exact slideshow that I used. I would make an appointment with someone. I would sit them down and say, “Hey, thank you for meeting with me. I’m doing something that I’m really excited about that’s changing lives, and I wanted to invite you to be a part of it.
Jake White: “I’m gonna share a couple stories, some photos, these slides that I put together for you. And then I’m gonna ask you if you’d like to be a part of it, and there’s no pressure whatsoever. You can tell me yes, you can tell me no, but either way, I want you to be involved in whatever way you feel comfortable with.”
Jake White: Then I take them through these slides. So first, I ask them a question, and this is what I use: “What do you think is most important to students when they first step onto campus?” And the goal here is to start a conversation.
Jake White: I wanna hear what they think about being on a college campus, what they think about the audience that I’m serving, all those things, get into their brain a little bit. And I want them to know it’s okay for us to talk back and forth during the meeting. It’s not just like a sales pitch where I talk at them.
Jake White: Then I’m gonna answer that question, and it’s gonna set up our mission and how we do things. So I’m setting up our solution to a really big problem. So my answer is always, “Hey, yes, you’re absolutely right. That’s super important. Another thing that’s really important to college students is fitting in and having a place to belong.”
Jake White: And that sets up our problem. The problem is that a lot of students might go to these bars and house parties and start drinking or using drugs in order to belong. And because of that, we experience 1,800 deaths every year from alcohol-related injuries. And then I share a couple more stats.
Jake White: This one’s, you know, really quick. We’re sharing the problem, but then we start teasing the solution. I’m really excited to share with you, we’ve developed a solution to this problem that’s been covered by these media outlets, been sponsored by these brands. So you can see these slides are literally just logos.
Jake White: And that’s because our mission is to fill in the blank. So ours was: plan and promote events without drugs or alcohol, with the goal of educating youth about alternative ways to socialize.
Jake White: And so this is really different, right? You haven’t seen this before. Then I’m gonna share a bunch of photos and examples of our parties. I’m gonna share stories, how many people are coming, how much does it cost to host a party? What does it look like? What do we have? You know, games, DJs, competitions, fun people.
Jake White: And then I’m even gonna share the model. Like, hey, why does this work? Make, like, give them an insider’s view of what your organization does and why it works.
Jake White: Then finally, this is really, really important. You need to share stories. So I show pictures of people connecting and having fun. I share stories of people at our parties and what they told us, why it matters to them. And this is going to connect with different types of people.
Jake White: And if they have grandkids or kids that are of these age, like, they’re going to see their own children in their life in these quotes and these stories.
Jake White: And then before I ask for anything else, like a donation, after I tell some stories, I’m gonna show the impact. “Hey, it’s not just students that are impacted, but it’s the campus and the community as well.” So, like, how big is this thing? It’s actually bigger than we initially thought.
Jake White: And then finally, you’re gonna share the vision. And this is where you’re gonna make the ask, too. So realize that when you are asking someone for money or supplies or anything, you’ve gotten to a certain place without them. So you need to paint a bigger picture.
Jake White: So they say, “You need my money and my help because you’ve gotten this far, but in order to get this far, you need people like me.” That’s a reason to give. Now that you know this, if this vision is exciting for me, then great, I’m going to donate. And that’s the point.
Jake White: So I’m gonna teach y’all why this works, and then we will end today’s episode. And I’m gonna give y’all kind of a gift and a promo of an opportunity that y’all will have because you are here listening to this.
What Made the $40,000 Fundraising Campaign Successful?
Jake White: So this allowed us to raise $40,000 in three months because, first, we explained the problem and why we cared about it. The problem is evident. We saw it with numbers, and then the why we cared about it was from your story. So you always want to build that into your presentation so that your kind of your hook lands on the audience and they think, “Hey, this is—we should do something about this.”
Jake White: And luckily, they have you to do something about this. The second thing is we showed credibility, meaning, hey, if you fund this, you’re in good hands, right? We are gaining momentum. We have people coming to this, we have sponsors, we have media, and basically you can take anything that you have going for you.
Jake White: If you have a team of people that are incredible and well respected, if you have an idea that everybody loves, or if you have a survey you did and it has been validated, all these things can be really important.
Jake White: Then you shared why you have a solution and the evidence that shows it works and then why it works. Finally, you’re sharing your vision. You’re asking them to imagine what the world could look like with this new world you’re building together, and you’re asking them to donate.
Jake White: So if you follow these four steps that I have outlined here, you could have similar results to what we had. And obviously there’s more to this. If you want, I will give you a bonus at the end of this episode. You can go and see the full presentation I did on the Prevention Innovators Conference with details and everything like that.
Asking for Donations and Taking Action
Jake White: Now, my final thing I want to leave you with before that teaser that I gave you is I want you to think of individual donations as flipping cards. So every card deck has 52 cards and there’s four aces. Those are the best cards usually. And listen, you can’t just flip over four cards and expect them all to be aces unless you just open the deck, right?
Jake White: But in life, it doesn’t work like that, right? Everybody’s shuffled together. You never know who you’re gonna meet. You can’t assume you know things about people; you don’t know their stories. And so we are gonna have to flip a bunch of cards in our deck before we find these aces, which basically I’m saying, hey, I want you to ask everybody to sit down with you for 15 minutes and give them your quote, your pitch. Share what you’re doing, ask them to be involved.
Jake White: Y’all, I’ll do a little spoiler for you. I want you to ask for, like, double of what you want donation-wise, because your mission can use the funding and no one’s gonna give you more than you ask for. Everyone’s gonna negotiate down. Like, that’s a simple tactic.
Jake White: One of my friends, he raises money for a major university, and he said, “Jake, your ask, you should almost be nervous to ask for this much money. You should be like—it should scare you a little bit.”
Jake White: Because what’s going to happen is you’re going to set the bar with confidence, showing that, hey, our mission is worth this much money. And if you gift it to us, we will do great things with it. And most people will just drop it half at least, and consider that.
Jake White: So you’re going to ask everybody, and you’re going to ask for double what you want. And good things are going to come from it because even if they don’t donate, they will at least know more about your mission and be able to connect you with more people.
Conclusion and Call to Action
Jake White: So, my gift to you, if you are a part of our online community, we have a course that prevention pros from all over the nation join. We have monthly coaching calls. I build tools for you and resources for your youth clubs and organizations. You have advisor tools, you have student tools, you have training videos. All that stuff’s on our portal.
Jake White: If you’re a part of that, you actually have access to all of our sessions from the Prevention Innovators Conference. And my session, full session, is on there. So that’s gifted to you.
Jake White: If anybody is thinking about coming to the conference this year to get your CEUs, if you don’t know the details, go to PreventionInnovatorsConference.com. We’re going from Florida to the Dominican Republic this year and back.
Jake White: So it’s that one that’s on a cruise ship. Yep. And it’s gonna be incredible. We got such great reviews last year. Everybody wanted to go again and bring friends. So it’s gonna be amazing.
Jake White: If you sign up this year, I will also give you access to last year’s sessions for free. And also, my friend Mitchell Moore from Prevention Training Services is gonna give y’all tickets to his conferences where you’ll get some more CEUs at no cost.
Jake White: So anybody who signs up over at PreventionInnovatorsConference.com is going to get access to those.
Jake White: And y’all, this has been another episode. I hope it’s been helpful to you. Please share it with a friend who might need to hear about it as well. And please keep doing the great work. Don’t be afraid to ask for help. And don’t, hey, for this episode, don’t be afraid to ask for money, okay? It’s in good hands with your mission. So we’ll see y’all next Monday on another episode of the Drug Prevention Power Hour.
