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GRASSROOTS FUNDRAISING JOURNAL • WWW.GRASSROOTSFUNDRAISING.ORG • 1-888-458-8588 • 3781 BROADWAY, OAKLAND, CA 94611
J
ust as a bee makes honey to survive through the winter,
so must every nonprofit raise money to accomplish its
goals and to prosper. But nonprofits have an advantage over
bees — we can (and must) raise money all year! This is often
a hard truth for the board of a small nonprofit to internalize
and act upon, but it is essential for an organization’s survival.
The organization that puts all its energy into issues but
neglects to stock the financial honeycomb will surely starve
in short order. And to ensure that our nonprofits make honey
at every possible opportunity, every group needs to formu-
late an annual fundraising plan (see sample on page 31).
GETTING STARTED
When formulating a fundraising plan, it is important
to get input from board, staff, and volunteers. Hold a
special meeting of your organization to brainstorm and
gather input. It is very important to get your board and
staff involved in this process from the beginning so that
they will take ownership. Some organizations delegate this
function to a fundraising committee, but with small orga-
nizations, it is better to involve the entire board. Without
board and volunteer involvement in fundraising, most
organizations wither and die. Fundraising must be a
shared responsibility. If you have board members who say
that they just don’t do fundraising, the board needs to con-
sider whether those unwilling members’ contributions are
so important as to merit exemption from this important
board obligation. Morale will be high if everyone pitches
in, but if some don’t, morale could suffer.
SETTING GOALS
There are two approaches to establishing an overall
income goal for your fundraising plan. The first involves
putting together an expense budget and using the total
expense figure (plus a small additional amount to serve as
a modest surplus) as your fundraising target. The second
is to look at last year’s income, analyze this figure to see if
it includes any special income that might not be repeatable
(such as a special bequest), then increase this figure by a
modest amount to allow for reasonable increases in most
of your fundraising categories. You can do an even better
job here if you look at income over the past several years.
As you compare numbers from one year to the next,
you will see definite patterns emerge that will give you a
good idea of how much of an increase it is feasible to
project for the upcoming year. Later, once you have laid
out the specific strategies and monetary goals for each
fundraising activity, you may adjust this figure slightly. In
the meantime, this figure-analyzing process will give you
an overall number to shoot for.
CONSIDER YOUR ASSETS
Assets are not always monetary. In putting together
your fundraising plan, you should consider any special
fundraising assets that your board, staff, or volunteers have
to offer. For example, perhaps someone on your board owns
a whitewater rafting company, a restaurant, or a beautiful
country home. Think about how you can use these special
assets in your fundraising plan. Here’s an example of how
you would incorporate one of these assets into your plan:
Strategy: Hold a party at the riverside home of John
Smith, board member
Action: Select a date and time; plan the event; compile
invitation list; prepare and mail out invitations; hold event;
do follow-up
Who: John Smith, with help from board and staff
When: November
Other examples of the kinds of fundraising assets to
look for include:
• People with special talents (writers, artists, singers, etc.)
• People with access to good mailing lists that you
might use in member recruiting
• Business owners who might donate items for a raffle
or premium
• A strong corps of volunteers willing to sell tickets for
a raffle, etc.
How to Plan Your Fundraising Strategy:
Keep Your Organization Financially
on Track with a Year-Round Plan
By PAT MUNOZ and LIZ RAISBECK