What the World Cup Can Teach Nonprofits About Fundraising

Like so many fans across the world, the Dala team has enjoyed watching the World Cup this summer. Dala's own Stuart Williams, Senior Fundraising Consultant, has been cheering especially hard after having lived in Argentina, where he caught a handful of matches in person. Now he's rooting for the Argentinians ahead of Sunday's final between Argentina and Spain. And the more we watched, the more we noticed something: fundraising and futbol have a lot more in common than you'd think.

Both are long games. Both require preparation and the right strategy before you make a move. And both reward the players who persist, adjust when necessary, and collaborate as a team. Here at Dala, our Dallas-based fundraising consultants see these same patterns play out with nonprofit clients across Texas and beyond. The wins that look sudden are almost always the result of consistent groundwork.

Here are three things fundraising and the beautiful game have in common, and what they mean for your nonprofit's fundraising strategy.

Key Takeaways

• Patience wins gifts. Major donor relationships often take months of cultivation before a gift materializes - persistence, not luck, drives results.

• Passion beats volume. Identifying the right donors who genuinely connect with your mission matters more than reaching everyone.

• Depth wins games. Nonprofits need a full roster of fundraising specialists, and fractional fundraising support makes that possible without a full-time hire.

1. Patience: The Big Gift Rarely Comes Without Persistence

Ninety minutes can go by with barely a shot on goal, and then suddenly, out of nowhere, a breakthrough. Nonprofit fundraising works the same way. You can spend months cultivating a donor, having coffee, sending updates, making the case, before anything moves. It can feel like nothing is happening. But that quiet buildup is the work.

This month, our team helped a client secure a six-figure gift, but the relationship behind it started seven months before the check ever arrived. The big gift, like the game-winning goal, rarely comes without persistence.

2. Passion: Find the Donors Who Show Up Every Match

Not everyone is going to be a fan, and that's okay. The goal isn't to win over every single person in the stadium. It's to find the ones who are the right fit, the ones who will paint their faces and show up to every match.

In donor cultivation, that looks like identifying the donors and champions who genuinely connect with your mission. Multiple times, our team has identified individual donors and foundations already sitting in a client's database and reengaged them, resulting in major gifts to operating and program support. Sometimes the biggest opportunity isn't a new prospect. It's a relationship your organization already has.

3. Playmakers: Why Nonprofits Need Fractional Fundraising Support

The best soccer clubs don't win with one star player. They win with a full roster of specialists - strikers, midfielders, defenders - each brought in to play the role the moment demands. Nonprofits need that same kind of depth on the fundraising side, but building a full in-house development department isn't realistic for every organization.

That's where fractional fundraising support comes in. So what is fractional fundraising, exactly? Fractional fundraising is when a nonprofit hires an outside fundraising consultant or team on a part-time, project, or as-needed basis - for services like grant writing, donor stewardship, prospect research, or major gift strategy - instead of building out a full in-house development department. Rather than carrying the overhead of an entire department year-round, your organization gets specialized expertise exactly when and where it's needed.

This is different from hiring a full-time development director. A development director is a single, permanent hire responsible for every fundraising function at once. Fractional fundraising instead gives you access to a full roster of specialists, each with deep expertise in one position, for exactly the amount of time you actually need them. For small to mid-sized nonprofits, that roster depth is often more effective, and more affordable, than trying to fill every position with one generalist hire.

Nonprofits typically bring in fractional fundraising support when they need specialized expertise, like grant writing or major gift strategy, but don't have the budget or workload to justify a full-time hire. It's also common during a leadership transition, ahead of a capital campaign, or any moment when a specific position on the fundraising roster suddenly needs covering fast.

At Dala, we act as an extension of your team, stepping in for prospect research, grant writing and management, donor stewardship, or major gift strategy, whichever position the roster is missing. You get the specialists when you need them, without carrying the cost of a full bench year-round. It's a fractional fundraising model built for nonprofits in Dallas and beyond that need major-league results without a major-league payroll, and yes, it's exactly the kind of fractional fundraising service our Dallas-based team provides day to day.

If your organization could use help designing or implementing your fundraising strategy, talk to our Dallas nonprofit fundraising consultants. We work as both a coach and a player to move your team forward.