Finding and raising money is akin to gardening or gathering a harvest. Friend and fundraising is both art and science and may look easy, but takes more work and time than one might expect. It isn’t just a matter of picking the apples off the tree in September, or cutting roses for a centerpiece in June. You have to consider all the stages that get you to the point of harvest and how each of those stages contributes to its abundance. In farming, you clear the land, enrich the soil, choose plants suited to your planting zone, fertilize, and prune. The proper tending of the garden precedes any harvest and directly affects its quality. You also need to harvest at the right time and in the right way. Anyone can stick a flower in the ground or plant a tree and hope it will grow. But optimal results take time, care and attention. This metaphor works in the world of development. Donors need to be identified just as do proper plants. We use a farming term to talk about work with potential and actual donors in that they need to be “cultivated.” In the fundraising world, cultivation involves the work of identifying likely donors, their interests, passions and desired levels of engagement. When we talk about securing a gift from donors, we speak in terms of an ask, but the positive result in the form of a gift is similar to the harvest. Properly done, fundraising offers a high probability of success, because we have done everything needed to cultivate the donor. In fundraising we use the term stewardship to refer to how gifts are received and how donors are managed. The gift itself needs to be used for its intended purpose. The donors need to be reminded regularly of the  Finding Money and Raising Funds D.J. Trela, Richard Finkelstein and Lori Vermeulen 4