How to Find Your First Donors When Starting a Nonprofit
TL;DR: Your nonprofit’s first donors will most likely come from people who already know and trust you. Start by making a list of at least 25 friends, family members, former colleagues, mentors, and other people in your existing network. Meet with them to practice explaining your mission and fundraising message. Those early conversations will strengthen your confidence, sharpen your message, and may also produce your nonprofit’s first financial supporters.
There is a moment at the beginning of your nonprofit journey that every Executive Director faces. The paperwork is finished, your nonprofit officially exists, you have a mission you believe in, and financially everything is sitting at zero: zero names in the database, zero donors, and zero dollars in the bank.
I call this ground zero, and one of the biggest questions at this stage is pretty simple: where does the first money actually come from?
For most healthy startup nonprofits, the answer is much closer than you think. Your first donors will probably be people who already know you.
Where Do Your First Nonprofit Donors Come From?
A lot of nonprofit founders assume their first financial supporters are going to come from somewhere outside their existing relationships. They start working on social media, tweaking the website, researching grants, building brochures, and trying to reach people who have never heard of the nonprofit before. All of those things may eventually matter, but they don’t replace the advantage you already have in the people who know your character, your heart, your competence, and your commitment.
Those people might be friends, family members, former coworkers, previous bosses, mentors, professional contacts, or people from your church or community. They may not know much about your nonprofit yet, but they know you. In the earliest days of an organization, that existing trust can become the bridge to your first financial support.
Of course, this is also where fundraising gets uncomfortable. Asking people you know can feel awkward because you don’t want friends or family members to think every conversation is going to turn into a financial ask. You don’t want money to complicate a relationship that matters to you.
But there is another way to look at this. The people closest to you are also the people most likely to want to see you succeed. Some of them may have watched this vision develop for years. They may know the story behind why you started the organization, and they may genuinely want an opportunity to be part of what you’re building.
You have to give them that opportunity.
Your First Fundraising Goal Is Practice
There is another important reason to start with your inner circle: you need practice.
Fundraising is a skill, and like most skills, you get better by doing it repeatedly. You can work on your message for hours by yourself, but the real learning happens when you sit across from someone and explain it. They ask a question you didn’t anticipate. They look confused by something you thought was obvious. They connect deeply with a part of the story you almost left out.
That feedback helps you get clearer, and clarity builds confidence.
So if you are sitting at ground zero right now, here is the exercise I would encourage you to do. Open a spreadsheet, a document, or even the Notes app on your phone and begin listing everyone you can think of who already knows and trusts you.
Don’t think about money yet. That part is important. The temptation is to immediately start evaluating people based on who you think has the ability to give. Instead, ask yourself who knows you, who believes in you, who understands your heart for this work, and who would give you honest feedback while still giving you plenty of grace.
Try to get at least 25 names on the list. Then come back to it later and organize those names based on relationship and trust. The people at the top become your starting point.
Before you start reaching out, you also need a simple fundraising framework that helps you explain the problem, the solution you are building, what you are asking people to do, why it matters now, and what action they should take next. This is where many new nonprofit leaders get stuck, so I’m now offering a complimentary coaching call for new nonprofit leaders where we will build your Fearless Fundraising Framework together. You will leave our time together with a clear, practical way to talk about the problem that your mission solves and how to confidently invite people to support it.
Practice Your Fundraising Message Before You Ask
Reach out to those 25 people and ask them to meet with you. The purpose of those first meetings is not necessarily to ask for money. Tell them you are building a nonprofit, working on how you explain the mission, and would like to practice the conversation with them and get their feedback.
Then share the problem your nonprofit exists to address, the solution you are building, and what you believe is possible. Pay attention to the questions people ask and the parts of your message that connect. After several conversations, you will probably notice that your message starts getting clearer and you become much more comfortable talking about the financial side of the work.
And yes, something else will probably happen along the way. Some of those people may decide they want to give.
They might ask where they can donate. They might want to become monthly supporters. They might simply tell you they have been waiting for the opportunity to help.
Those may become your first donors, but don’t measure the success of these first conversations only by the number of checks you receive. You are also building one of the most important skills you will need as a nonprofit leader: the ability to clearly communicate your mission and confidently invite people to support it.
Once you have those first conversations under your belt, you can begin moving farther down the list and become more intentional about asking for financial commitments. By then, your message has been tested, your confidence has grown, and fundraising will feel much less intimidating than it did when everything was sitting at zero.
If you are at ground zero today, your next step probably isn’t finding thousands of strangers. Start with the people who already know you, trust you, and believe in what you are capable of doing.
Open your contacts and start making the list.
And if you’re not sure what to say once those conversations begin, I’m offering a complimentary coaching call for new nonprofit founders to help you build your own Fearless Fundraising Framework. We’ll work through the problem you’re solving, the solution you’re offering, the ask, the urgency, and the action step so you leave with a clearer way to talk about your mission and invite people to support it. If that would be helpful, you can schedule a call with me and we’ll build it together.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where do most new nonprofits find their first donors?
For many startup nonprofits, the first donors come from the founder’s existing network, including friends, family members, former colleagues, mentors, professional contacts, and others who already know and trust them.
Should I ask friends and family to donate to my nonprofit?
Friends and family can be an important source of early support, but your first conversations do not always need to begin with a direct financial ask. Sharing your mission, practicing your fundraising message, and asking for feedback can help you become more confident before making more intentional fundraising requests.
How many potential donors should a new nonprofit start with?
A good starting goal is to identify at least 25 people who already know and trust you. Focus first on the strength of the relationship rather than how much money you think each person might be able to give.
What should I say to my first potential donors?
Explain the problem your nonprofit exists to address, the solution you are building, what financial support will make possible, why the need matters now, and what action you are inviting them to take. A clear fundraising framework can make these conversations much easier.
How can a new nonprofit get better at fundraising?
Practice is one of the most effective ways to improve. Having real conversations allows you to see which parts of your message connect, which parts create questions, and where your explanation needs more clarity.
Matt Stockman is a nonprofit growth coach who helps startup, small, and growing nonprofits build stronger fundraising, marketing, leadership, operations, programs, and financial systems. He has coached hundreds of nonprofit and ministry leaders throughout North America, and around the world.