In today's world, political, social and cultural divides often hinder listening and understanding. Despite these challenges, bipartisan fundraising for social causes remains crucial. It is unfortunate that political ideologies can create conflict when addressing important issues such as social justice or human rights—or, in our case, even childhood literacy and educational content. However, although we live in a very polarized country, especially during an election year, I believe the majority of Americans can agree on the significance of working together to support disadvantaged individuals facing challenges through bipartisan fundraising.

In this article, I'll explore some strategies for bipartisan fundraising organizations can use to promote ideas in a way that mitigates controversy and that is more likely to garner support across partisan lines.

In a time often dominated by misinformation and sensationalism in the media, bipartisan fundraising for initiatives like education faces significant challenges that have arisen almost overnight. Misleading narratives that cater to biases often overshadow the real issues we aim to address, making it difficult to foster genuine connections with our fundraising efforts. To counteract this trend, organizations must adopt strategies that prioritize accuracy, factual information and rigorous research.

Personal Insights Into Effectiveness in Bipartisan Fundraising

At the organization where I lead, our mission focuses on improving reading comprehension by creating and providing free resources to teachers and students. Despite our content being grounded in verifiable facts, we have encountered skepticism toward the accuracy of educational materials, which occasionally forces us into the position of having to defend truthful information.

To combat misinformation effectively, it's important to emphasize transparency in your internal processes and utilize data in your board reports. This helps redirect attention to the overarching goal: in our case, ensuring access to free high-quality reading materials. We emphasize our case by highlighting research-based evidence on the efficacy of our platform. This includes teacher feedback, student outcomes and comprehensive case studies. Additionally, we prioritize less controversial nonfiction educational content that presents information in a neutral and unbiased manner. Overall, the goal should be to build confidence in informing funders of the impact of your work rather than trying to persuade them.

Read the full article about bipartisan fundraising by Terry Bowman at Forbes.