“A goal without a plan is just a wish.”
—Antoine de Saint-Exupery
Your organization has a mission, and to accomplish it you need to raise money. But where do you start? That’s simple: with a plan. You need a clear set of objectives, and a map of how you aim to get there. Your fundraising plan will be unique to your nonprofit. Every organization has different needs, goals, strengths, and priorities, and your fundraising plan will address and incorporate these in a written document.
Being strategic about fundraising in this way generates better results, creates efficiency, and ensures everyone involved is on the same page and accountable. It will also allow you to evaluate progress and assess the effectiveness of different fundraising channels, facilitating strategic shifts when necessary.
The rest of this book will help you understand each of the various fundraising channels and tactics, enabling you to make informed decisions when creating your fundraising plan. But before you dive in, remember to take stock of what you have going for you and your cause, and to look at what you’re already doing successfully if you’ve already launched the organization. Your plan is a living document wherein you’ll spell out your proposed recipe for success, and its goal is helping you focus on your strengths, while challenging you to identify new opportunities. Be mindful of the resources you have and don’t stretch them too thin, but also bring an open mind to considering assets you’ve underutilized or ignored and look at how you can put them to work.
To learn more about the basics of creating a nonprofit fundraising plan, I sat down with Andrea McManus, president of the nonprofit consultancy The Development Group, and she outlined the six things you need to know to succeed when creating an effective fundraising plan.
Creating a fundraising plan means answering two basic questions: How much money do you need to raise? and Who do you plan on raising it from? In your plan, you’ll create realistic program goals based on the expenses of running your programs and organization today—assuming you have some past experience with the work—as well as aspirational goals that inspire your team by clarifying exactly what kind of additional impact is possible if you secure even more resources and support.
Your plan will also be a vehicle for detailing your sources of revenue and how much income you expect from each, whether it’s individual donors, corporations, foundations, the government, or earned income. It is critical to have multiple, diverse sources of revenue, so that if you unexpectedly lose one, you still have others to rely on.
Once you’ve identified your revenue sources, perhaps benefiting from the rest of the book to determine which channels are most appropriate for you, you’ll articulate your strategies and tactics for each source. If you plan to raise money from individuals, will you be cultivating and asking major donors, running an annual fund, doing direct mail, online fundraising, or utilizing other approaches? Will you be soliciting businesses and corporations for gifts of cash or in-kind donations? While many of the remaining chapters of this book, especially those related to marketing and donor communication, propose a “less is more” style, when planning for success, the more detailed your vision, the more likely you are to succeed.
Now that you have a sense of everything your fundraising plan is meant to accomplish, and some of the various sections it will include, let’s get into it. Knowing how much money you need to raise starts with good financial planning. You can’t create a fundraising plan without a budget. How much does the work you do cost? What are your programmatic, fundraising, and overhead expenses? Once you know your expenses, you need to figure out how you will pay for them; in other words, how will you raise the money to pay for them? And don’t forget that fundraising itself costs money. You can’t raise money without spending money.
Developing an effective fundraising plan cannot be done in a silo by the fundraiser alone. Involve your executive director, senior staff, and board members. Assemble your team and outline the process you’ll go through to create the plan, so everyone knows what to expect. Here are the steps McManus suggests:
Once you’ve outlined your process, assign responsibilities and create deadlines. Keep people accountable by assigning them duties and clarifying who is personally charged with ensuring the fulfillment of each tactic, as well as deadlines for each.
Once you’ve gone through the steps in this process and answered all the relevant questions, it’s time to document your plan. Without a written plan, you have no plan at all. This document should be specific, but also as short as possible and easy to read. Organize the plan by two to five goals and associate each goal with three to six objectives, and then associate each objective with tactics. Assign a lead person and deadline for each tactic.
Here is an example:
Donor prospecting is absolutely crucial to fundraising. So much so that we’ve dedicated all of Chapter 5 to it. Your prospect list will be critical to the development and implementation of your fundraising plan. You will need it to assess your current donors and determine where to focus your efforts, as well as to identify new opportunities. Ideally, this information should be stored in your CRM or database (see Chapter 6), but you should export it into a spreadsheet to visualize the full list and better prioritize and discuss it with your team.
Assign a lead fundraiser to each prospect, so you know who is accountable and can provide updates during regular reviews. Create separate tabs for each type of prospect, especially foundations, companies, and individual donors. Add to the list regularly and review it frequently with your team to measure progress and identify fundraising opportunities. As detailed in Chapter 5, it’s helpful to implement a ranking system, even a simple one, to help you prioritize prospects and determine where to focus your efforts. How connected to your cause and organization are they, and what’s their giving capacity? Focus first on people in your inner circle, such as your board and close connections. Then think beyond the usual suspects, like the wealthy donors in your town known for their philanthropy. Try to identify people off of the radar who are connected to your cause, and devise a strategy for your most important prospects.
Once you’ve spent precious time and resources creating a solid fundraising plan that secures board approval, the worst that can happen is for it to sit on a shelf. Your plan must be a living document that guides your activities, and it must be updated or at least reviewed annually. At each review, involve the board, key staff, and volunteers and evaluate whether you are on point or falling behind. This will allow you to hold people accountable, make strategic decisions, and shift tactics as needed. It will also enable you to recognize and celebrate your successes, something too few of us fundraisers take the time to do! Use your objectives to create key performance indicators and include them in your organizational dashboard, as outlined in Chapter 7, so that evaluation of your fundraising efforts is integrated into the evaluation of your overall organizational health.
Muhammad Ali once said, “The fight is won or lost before I even get in the ring.” To succeed in fundraising you need to know where you’re going and how you’ll get there. How much money are you trying to raise? and Who are you going to raise it from? You need to be strategic and think long-term, but also clarify the interim steps required for you to succeed. Prosperity for your cause typically doesn’t come quickly; it comes from hard work, a well-conceived strategy, diligent execution, and the investment of time and resources. You need to identify your revenue sources, your resources, and your prospects before you get started to ensure a more mindful approach. Be crystal clear on both your strategies and tactics, and hold yourself and your team accountable to concrete deadlines. Engage key leadership, like your board, and volunteers in your efforts, and revisit your strategy and progress regularly with everyone involved. Create the systems to measure progress, learn from shortcomings, and celebrate successes. When done right, a fundraising plan will do all of this for you; it’s simply a matter of creating it thoughtfully, keeping it alive, and holding yourself to it.
Do. . .
Don’t. . .
Andrea McManus is president of The Development Group and a recognized leader in the nonprofit sector. With more than 29 years of experience in fund development, communications, media, public relations, and marketing, McManus has particular expertise in environments where major changes, restructuring, or transition require innovation, leadership, creativity, and an entrepreneurial attitude.