Here are six simple steps to get your organization started with a fundraising plan.
- The Fundraising goals
You should have goals for the amount of money you need to raise and what the money will be used for. Is it for overhead costs, to fund a new program, to build a new facility or for a future rainy day?
You should have a number of different goals and you will want to develop a fundraising plan for each. Your goals should be developed with your board of directors and have their sign off.
- The Fundraising Plan
You should write down your fundraising plan. Your fundraising plan should state how much you need to raise, from what sources and how you will do it. This plan is a work in progress and should be updated through the year.
You should start with your current programs and current funding. Ask yourself, is that amount of money covered or is there a gap? Do you want to do more but lack funds? This preliminary accounting will help you determine what your fundraising monetary goals are.
- The Costs
You will need to estimate how much your fundraising program will cost. Include all costs such as postage, administration, staff, overhead, agency fees, website maintenance and running special events.
You should try to be as realistic as possible when estimating these costs. Most experts recommend that your fundraising and overall administration costs do not exceed 24 per cent of your overall operating budget. Meeting with your board of directories, regularly will help you keep on track of your budget.
- The Timeline
You will want to work on either a calendar year or your organization’s fiscal year. Be specific with all of your fundraising activities and identify who is the lead of each project. Develop timelines for each fundraising activity such as direct mail, online or special events. Timelines will change throughout the year but having a baseline will ensure that you get something accomplished.
- The Sources
Identify your current funding sources and review them to see if they can be leveraged to produce more income. Ask yourself; are there audiences that you are not targeting? What about government or foundation grants, product sales, civic groups or mobile giving?
Ask staff in the offices as well as your family and friends, how they made their last donation to a charity. If any of their answers are a source that your organization doesn’t do, look into and see if it fits with fundraising plan.
- The Evaluation
Evaluate your fundraising plan throughout the year. This will help improve your results and let you know what works and what doesn’t. Aim to evaluate your fundraising program every few months. Use criteria such as amount raised, number of new donors and number of solicitations. What were the biggest challengers? What accounted for the biggest successes?
Once your organization is comfortable with having a fundraising plan, you will want to move on to multi-year plans, higher goals, more sophisticated strategies and newer techniques.
