Giving Compass' Take:

• In this Medium post, I.G. Advisors reports on the success the London-based, mental health-focused charity MQ has had in fundraising with a small staff. It's all about trust and patience.

• What can other organizations learn from MQ's example? One lesson is that true sustainability takes time, and another is that the talent for relationship-building must be a key component in staffing.

• When it comes to fundraising effectiveness, hunches aren't enough.

MQ is a London-based charity with a mission to create a world where mental illness is understood, effectively treated and ultimately prevented. Through their network of committed supporters, they champion and fund research into the mental health space, and this only continues to grow with their excellent fundraising team of seven that raises just under £2m ($2.59m USD) per year. MQ was established in 2013 through an unrestricted £20m ($25.92m USD) grant from the Wellcome Trust ...

It’s no secret that relationship-building is critical to major gift fundraising, and it’s a proven fact that most major gifts take between 12–18 months to close. However, most organizations don’t (or aren’t able) to fully trust in this process and wait it out.

While MQ does have the cash flow benefit of the Wellcome grant, they, like most charities, still have had to convince their board to have faith in this process. To trust in the 12–18 month timeline. And to not back out when cash isn’t immediately rushing through the door.

To top it all off, when MQ launched there was just one major gift fundraiser on staff for the first two years: Paul Stein. One fundraiser meant to manage all of these relationships, transition them into gifts, grow the team, and ensure the eventual sustainability of the operation. Wellcome or no Wellcome, any fundraiser can agree this is no small task ...

What’s brilliant about MQ’s approach is that it’s working. With their faith in the relationship-building process, and ability to convince their Board to have faith along with them, at exactly the 12–18 month mark, the gifts started coming in.

Read the full article about faith in relationships for British charity MQ by Rachel Stephenson Sheff at I.G. Advisors, via medium.com.