Are You Ready to Plan and Succeed in Fundraising?
BY ANNA DOERING, AD CONSULTING
ARE WE READY? Your strategic plan says you need to put a new and future-focused emphasis on fundraising. You must raise more from a diverse revenue base and start thinking about a major fundraising campaign. Fundraising success requires a significant investment of resources – people, time, and money – so make sure that your next step is the right one.
Remember – an effective fundraising program isn’t a“one-off”. You don’t want donors to give once and go away. You need a program that grows and succeeds each year because it’s well-planned, sufficiently-resourced (Board, staff, volunteers and administration), well-executed, advances the organization’s mission and supports important outcomes. It continually strengthens the base of support and furthers the goals of stability, sustainability and growth. Your program needs to meet immediate needs, create a culture of giving within and for your organization and helps to take the work of the organization to the next level.
Affirm your readiness, highlight and celebrate your strengths and identify areas of improvement (everyone has them!) by completing the Fundraising Checklist. This helps to create an objective baseline assessment of your current fundraising program (i.e. internal systems, case for support, financial position, staff and volunteer leadership).
We hope you’ll be pleasantly surprised at how many “Basics”you can check-off and that a number of the “Advanced Basic” competencies are already being employed.
Are there any unchecked items? These are among your areas of improvement. Our checklist is in a suggested priority order but the order and urgency of each depends on the organization. That said, we consider all of the “Basics” and “Advanced Basics” to be critical building blocks for short and long-term success.
Checking off the basics will lead to more questions and success for your program. You may now be asking: Is our “case” compelling enough for a major fundraising campaign? Should our emphasis be on endowment or annual unrestricted giving or both? Is our Board ready to give and raise more? Can we afford to add staff in key positions? What is a “major gift” to our organization? Can we offer comprehensive life income (planned giving) options for our donors? And much, much more…
We customize a complete review or fundraising readiness assessment to each organization, which can be useful at any point in the age of a program. But this more robust assessment is essential when determining where to make new or increased investments in infrastructure and/or if you’re ready for the increased public awareness, scrutiny, investment and expectations that accompany a major fundraising project or campaign. A sample of the outcomes of an infrastructure assessment is available upon request.
If you have questions about the Fundraising Checklist and/or are interested in a professional readiness assessment with recommendations, contact me at 412-352-0365 or [email protected].
(Anna Doering is a Nonprofit Consultant with expertise in Fundraising capacity assessment; Comprehensive annual and campaign planning; Board development; Training and coaching for Board, staff and volunteers; Volunteer recruitment and engagement)
Remember – an effective fundraising program isn’t a“one-off”. You don’t want donors to give once and go away. You need a program that grows and succeeds each year because it’s well-planned, sufficiently-resourced (Board, staff, volunteers and administration), well-executed, advances the organization’s mission and supports important outcomes. It continually strengthens the base of support and furthers the goals of stability, sustainability and growth. Your program needs to meet immediate needs, create a culture of giving within and for your organization and helps to take the work of the organization to the next level.
Affirm your readiness, highlight and celebrate your strengths and identify areas of improvement (everyone has them!) by completing the Fundraising Checklist. This helps to create an objective baseline assessment of your current fundraising program (i.e. internal systems, case for support, financial position, staff and volunteer leadership).
We hope you’ll be pleasantly surprised at how many “Basics”you can check-off and that a number of the “Advanced Basic” competencies are already being employed.
Are there any unchecked items? These are among your areas of improvement. Our checklist is in a suggested priority order but the order and urgency of each depends on the organization. That said, we consider all of the “Basics” and “Advanced Basics” to be critical building blocks for short and long-term success.
Checking off the basics will lead to more questions and success for your program. You may now be asking: Is our “case” compelling enough for a major fundraising campaign? Should our emphasis be on endowment or annual unrestricted giving or both? Is our Board ready to give and raise more? Can we afford to add staff in key positions? What is a “major gift” to our organization? Can we offer comprehensive life income (planned giving) options for our donors? And much, much more…
We customize a complete review or fundraising readiness assessment to each organization, which can be useful at any point in the age of a program. But this more robust assessment is essential when determining where to make new or increased investments in infrastructure and/or if you’re ready for the increased public awareness, scrutiny, investment and expectations that accompany a major fundraising project or campaign. A sample of the outcomes of an infrastructure assessment is available upon request.
If you have questions about the Fundraising Checklist and/or are interested in a professional readiness assessment with recommendations, contact me at 412-352-0365 or [email protected].
(Anna Doering is a Nonprofit Consultant with expertise in Fundraising capacity assessment; Comprehensive annual and campaign planning; Board development; Training and coaching for Board, staff and volunteers; Volunteer recruitment and engagement)