February 6, 2020 | Read Time: 7 minutes
Crafting a development plan is key to successful fundraising. Yet many charities skip this basic step when seeking support to achieve their mission.
In fact, nearly a quarter of nonprofits — and more than a third of small groups — lack a formal strategy, according to a survey of more than 2,700 charities by CompassPoint and the Evelyn & Walter Haas Jr. Fund. Among those groups the survey classified as “high performers” in fundraising, only 7 percent operate without a plan.
To build a smart fundraising plan for your charity, experts say, first define its purpose. Consider your organization’s needs and goals as well as external factors, such as trends in philanthropy or a change in legislation, that relate to your fundraising. For example, you might need to focus on adapting to a leadership transition at your nonprofit, bolstering a specific source of giving that has declined because of a new law, or simply formalizing your existing efforts so you can better measure and convey your results.
You should also ask your leaders how they hope to use the plan, says Maleka Lawrence, a former chief operating officer at the National Summer Learning Association, which works to close achievement gaps among low-income children. “That will help you understand what they want to see and what sort of metrics you’ll be held accountable to.”
If you’re creating a blueprint for the first time, or you work at a small organization, experts recommend plotting a 12-month timeline rather than trying to plan farther out. But keep in mind that a fundraising plan should be a “living document,” says Kara Logan Berlin, founder of Harvest, a fundraising consultancy. “Things are going to change, and that’s OK.”
Be prepared to revisit your strategy throughout the year and tweak it as needed. Fundraising is unpredictable, Logan Berlin says, but having a strong structure in place will allow you to adapt as circumstances change, and to take advantage of opportunities.
A fundraising plan should be thorough, experts say, but not too long and complicated to be useful. Logan Berlin tries to help her clients create a “comprehensive road map” — often 65 to 70 pages — to ensure success even as staff members come and go. “If everyone gets hit by a bus,” she says, “the next person could pick up the binder and know how to raise the money.”
Elements in Your Plan
Here are a few elements every development plan should include:
An executive summary. Logan Berlin often advises groups to create a three-page summary document to use as a tool when sharing the plan with board members to build their confidence in it.
An introduction that describes your approach. To provide context, you can include information about effective efforts from the previous year, Lawrence says.
A separate section for each source of income, such as individuals, companies, foundations, marketing, and events. “The big thing is to think about every single one of these revenue streams as its own thing,” Logan Berlin says. Look at your data on each source to understand who your donors are, what they need or want, and how you can deliver that.
Outline specific goals, activities, and timelines for each type of revenue. This is crucial to ensuring that you can achieve your goals and demonstrate your progress to your organization’s leaders, Logan Berlin says. If you’re focusing on major gifts, for example, define how many meetings with potential supporters you’ll need to have throughout the year, what that looks like on a monthly basis, and how many conversations you should request each week to get there.
A calendar of activities, so you can map what needs to be accomplished each month to advance your annual goals.
Steps to Take to Ensure Success
Here are tips from several fundraising executives and experts to help you create an annual development plan that delivers.
Make the case for your plan. Include a section dedicated to helping fundraisers and leaders understand the reasoning behind the strategy — and why it matters, says Ann Marie Almeida, vice president for development at the New York Women’s Foundation. For example, you may need to explain why it’s important to involve trustees in annual giving, or to focus on making events more engaging.
Provide historical context. Share information about your fundraising tactics and results for the past few years, says Janine Quijije, chief development officer at the “I Have a Dream” Foundation. This will push you to critique past efforts and ensure that your revenue goals are realistic. If you’re setting out to raise $1 million at a gala and the organization’s events have never brought in even half that amount, you’ll need to either reconsider your objective or show why you think you can reach it.
Putting your strategy in context also can help new fundraisers get up to speed by revealing which approaches worked well — or didn’t — in the past and how the current goals compare with results achieved in previous years.
Identify prospective donors as you build your plan, Logan Berlin says, so you can spend the rest of the year focusing on accomplishing it. For instance, if you’re building a gala event into your strategy, take time to identify possible honorees, rank them in order of preference, and decide how much you would ask each donor to contribute.
Describe how you’ll measure — and share — your results to foster accountability, Lawrence says. Consider inviting employees in other departments to listen to your reporting, she suggests, so they’ll “feel ownership of the successes.”
And as you track your progress, Almeida says, make sure to reflect on what’s working and what isn’t, so you can adapt your plan accordingly. For instance, the data may reveal that you need to find more prospective donors for a certain revenue source.
Develop a blueprint for each fundraising role. Mapping efforts at the individual level — and connecting them to the department’s goal — can help the top development officer determine each staff member’s priorities at any given time and measure each person’s progress, Almeida says.
Specifying roles and responsibilities in the plan, Lawrence says, also can help you set clear expectations about the support needed to ensure success.
Build an inclusive planning process. Meet with people throughout the organization to explain why you’re creating a fundraising plan and how they can participate, Lawrence says. Give them a chance to share feedback and ask questions — perhaps set aside time at staff meetings — and listen to them.
Having these conversations can help you build “extra will and support” for the plan, Lawrence says, and also can help ensure that staff members in other departments feel included in the process. “Everybody has something to offer,” she says. “You never know what gems you’ll find.”
To maximize results in the long term, Almeida says, your strategy must include providing training and support to fundraisers. “Development teams work hard, they run fast, and they need care and rest,” she says. Making sure fundraisers feel engaged in their work, supported, and part of a team is essential to preventing turnover, and can even help you increase revenue over time by building — and keeping — a stronger team.
That means helping employees develop their professional skills and supporting them as human beings. For example, if you have single mothers or others on your team who sometimes need to work from home, Almeida says, try to accommodate that. “It’s what we would do in any relationship that you respect and honor.”
