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What are your nonprofit organization's assets?

February 15, 2010 By Sandy

Step one in the Simple Success Fundraising Plan is to identify your assets.  What are your organization’s assets?  They are things that you have going for you that you can leverage in your plan.  Here are some examples of nonprofit organizational assets: 

  • Compelling mission (like feeding the hungry or housing the homeless)
  • Large donor base
  • Incredible organization name recognition (like Habitat for Humanity)
  • Well-known staff or Board members
  • Facility that lends itself well to a tour (like a clinic, shelter, or food pantry)
  • Organizational vehicles that are driven around town regularly
  • Website with LOTS of daily visitors
  • Opportunity for earned income (like a thrift store or gift shop)
  • Well-known local, regional, or national celebrity who supports your organization
  • Something else?

What are your nonprofit organization’s assets?

Want more info on the Simple Success Fundraising Plan?  Click here: www.getfullyfunded.com/simple-success-retreat.

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The How and Why of a Fundraising Plan

January 25, 2010 By Sandy

Before you begin any fundraising program you need a plan to guide you along the way.

A good fundraising plan is a roadmap to success and shows you how to allocate your precious resources of time and money.  It can also help keep you out of crisis mode and help you control the flow of work in your office.   This is a shift from being reactive to being proactive. When you’re proactive, you’re organized and focused.  You raise more money. 

A written plan should contain the Who, What, When, and How Much information about each fundraising strategy and goal you are working toward.  It should include the case for your organization, or the reason why someone might support it.  Your plan should clearly state your overall and specific fundraising goals along with potential sources of donors and strategies to reach those donors.  Be sure to include an implementation plan along with revenue projections and a way to measure your success.

Before you implement a plan, you need to have everything in place so that your plan is effective.  There are 3 basic things you need before you begin to plan.  You must know:

  • Your organizational strategic direction.
  • Your organizational goals for the year.
  • Your revenue/expense history and budget.

Gathering information before you start will help you create a fundraising plan that is supportive of your organization’s overall goals and needs.  Once you have a handle on the big picture, you can put together a fundraising plan that will help keep you on track for the year. 

Don’t be tempted to cheat and create a Fundraising Plan to “raise a lot of money” or “get lots of new donors”.  You need to have a clear picture of why you are raising money for your organization.  Fundraising plans must be tied to organizational goals and objectives.

Even though raising more money and getting more donors is ultimately your goal, you want your plan to be solid and effective so that more -donors and more money is the result of your plan. 

Itemize each goal so that you can work to achieve it.  It’s really simple. Just look at what your organizational needs are over the next year and think about separate funding goals in each of these categories:

  • Programs and projects
  • Administration
  • Equipment
  • Capital

This will help you evaluate funding opportunities and help you assign priorities.  When you start getting to know your donors and funders well, you’ll learn which ones prefer which kinds of gift opportunities.  It will make your fundraising more targeted, and your fundraising efforts will be much more fruitful.

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Get SMART about fundraising goals

January 22, 2010 By Sandy

As I kick off a series of posts on planning, I thought it would be good to talk first about goals.  Setting goals for your fundraising plan is the obvious first step.  Without them, you may wander aimlessly from one thing to another.

Is your goal to “raise more money than last year” or “get more donors”?  No good. Do yourself a big favor and make your goals SMART.

SMART is an acronym that will help you set yourself up for success. It’s a way to set goals that you can easily create action plans for and later determine if you’ve met them or not.

Here’s what the acronym means:

S=Specific.  Set specific goals for your fundraising activities, like “acquire 100 new donors this year” or “write 10 grant proposals in March”.  Answer the ‘who’, ‘what’, ‘where’, and ‘why’ questions to make your goals specific.

M=Measurable.  Make sure your goals are easily measured.  Establishing concrete criteria will help you determine if you are successful or not.  Think through questions like ‘how much’ and ‘how many’ to make your goal quantifiable.

A=Attainable.  Set goals for yourself that can be reached with the skills and resources you have.  Don’t set goals that are unrealistic – you’ll likely get frustrated and stop working on them.

R=Realistic. Set goals that you are willing to work on and that are reachable.  Otherwise, it’s just a dream and that won’t move your fundraising program forward. 

T=Timely. Create a timeline for reaching your goals.  If you plan to double your donor base, by when will you do it? 

Good examples of SMART goals:

  • Increase our donor base by 10% by June 1, 2009.
  • Recruit 2 new sponsors for our Spring Golf Tournament by March 1.
  • Find 6 volunteers to help sort donations at the thrift store on Mondays.  Orient them and have them in place before April 15.

By setting SMART goals, you’ll be much more likely to be successful in reaching them and raising the money your organization needs.

If you want more help setting your goals and getting your fundraising plan together, I invite you to join me for a free webinar on February 4 where I’ll share my “Simple Success Fundraising Plan.”  Here’s the link for more info and registration:  http://getfullyfunded.info/where-is-sandy/free-teleseminars.  See you there!

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