At nonprofits like Human Rights Watch, budgeting is an important part of our financial reality. How have you managed a tight budget in the past?

"As Program Director for a new afterschool ballet program for at-risk youth, I acquired a major gift of 50,000 from a departed donor's bequest. Since this is a new program, I had several items left to purchase that would enhance our capacity for more students, including a larger dance space in our community center and a mini-bus to transport students to-and-from the center. I created a presentation for a city council meeting to request funding to offset the cost of the community center expansion, explaining how the investment would return in the form of better youth programs in the city. We received the funding, and I was able to use the 50,000 to purchase a mini-bus."

"As Director of Development for my previous organization, I understand the extreme importance of generating funds through fundraising to assist with operating costs and program support. I was given a budget to go over with the rest of my team every year, and that would dictate what fundraising events we could pursue. In the past, I was given 200,000 to finance these events. My team had used that funding to conduct four different small events that each generated 55,000. Therefore, we profited 20,000 from putting on these events. When you consider staff and volunteer time devoted to these events, that likely broke us even. So, I decided to use the funding to sponsor one small event and one large, major event. Because of the grand scale of the larger event, we were able to procure several corporate sponsors, saving us thousands of dollars. This event also netted us 60,000, so the return on our investment was much stronger than it had been previously."

For some perspective, Human Rights Watch spends 71.9% of its annual budget on program expenses. This leaves about 28% to spend between administration, fundraising, program growth, and asset-liability costs. That is a very small amount, and much of this needs to be used creatively to generate even more funding for the organization. That is likely why Human Rights Watch spends 17% on fundraising, slightly more than the average nonprofit. Focusing on being more efficient with fundraising costs specifically will likely enhance your response.