Fundraising Plan

MEANING OF FUNDRAISING PLAN
A fundraising plan is a document that organizes all of your fundraising activities over a certain period of time (usually 1-year). These strategic plans generally include campaign dates and strategies, donor-tracking plans, special event details, and a targeted communication schedule.
A fundraising plan is meant to keep you focused and on-task throughout the year.
IMPORTANCE OF FUNDRAISING PLANNING
Makes it is possible for organisations to:
 Prioritize funding needs
 Identify staffing roles and responsibilities
 Develop plans for restricted and unrestricted fundraising activities
 Select appropriate grant funding opportunities for specific needs
 Plan grant writing well in advance
 Develop and implement an appropriate record keeping and reporting system
 Build and maintain relationships with funders
FUNDRAISING PLANNING PROCES
1. Assemble the Fundraising Team
When creating a fundraising plan, you definitely need all hands on deck. Figure out who needs to be involved in the planning process. After all, your development team may be in charge of fundraising, but it takes the entire organization to produce consistent results. Larger
organizations that have many departments should focus on creating this plan with top-down support. Therefore, it is best to include the leadership team, the development department, and those working with communications.
2. Taking stock of your organization’s strengths and assets
This puts you in a position to represent your organization to funders in the best possible way. What does your organization do well? What skills and expertise make your group so important in your community? What do you still need to improve upon?
3. Set Your Fundraising Goals
Your fundraising goals should be based on what funds you need to keep the organization operating. It is best to start with what your costs were during the last 3 fiscal years. If that data isn’t available or you are a start-up, look to your estimated budget or check out the stats
of similar organizations.
4.Align With Your Mission
You’ve got the right team in place and a basic idea of the goals you need to meet. Now it is time to make sure these goals align with your mission Organizational mission statement should answer these questions:
1. Why is your organization in operation?
2. What types of change are you making in the world?.
3. Base your fundraising plan on how these dollars are helping put your mission into action.
5. Determine the Methods for fundraising
After you’ve aligned your goals and mission, it is time to describe exactly how you will be raising those funds. You want your fundraising plan to be so detailed that even those outside of the development world will be able to understand it!List the types of fundraising techniques you will be using. Include strategies such as: Crowdfunding campaigns, Face-to-face asks, Phone calls, Mail campaigns, Email campaigns, Fundraising events, Grants and matching gifts, Corporate giving and partnership development, Recurring donation campaigns, Month-long focus on endowments.
6. Align with the Strategic Plan
Does your organization have a strategic plan? If so, you’ll want to make that your fundraising plan aligns with it. Creating 1-year, 3-year, and 5-year plans is a best practice in the non-profit world, and you can do this with your fundraising plan as well. Your 1-year fundraising plan should be very specific. Detail every fundraising activity you will engage in over the course of the year. Your 3 and 5-year plans can be much more broad.
Highlight key activities for each month, as well as your ultimate goals. If you see your organization growing and needing additional resources in 5 years, then outline a basic schedule that includes the steps you need to take in order to meet this demand.
7. Diversifying your funding mix
This means building a base of support from individuals, the government, foundations, and business. These four groups comprise much of the funding landscape.
8. Draw out Your Calendar
You’ve written down all of your fundraising plan information in a document. Your team has come to an agreement on appropriate financial goals, aligned those with your mission, described your fundraising techniques in detail, and then put this information into in 1, 3, and 5-year plans.
Mark down your hard deadlines, action deadlines, communication schedule and your donor retention strategy schedule. Viewing these dates as inflexible will keep you on-task, even if you have to make adjustments here and there.
9.Document your progress so that if you are struggling, the bells start ringing early enough to change tack. Establish an evaluation strategy.
PARTICIPATORY FUNDRAISING PLANNING
Participatory fundraising is the strategy of using dozens, hundreds, or thousands of people, participating in a single even or campaign, to raise money for an organization. Things like walk-a-thons, collecting change (Operation Rice Bowl), and restaurant weeks where a number of eateries all donate a percentage of profits to a charity are all examples of participatory fundraising. Participatory fundraising is definitely hard work, and is always an organizational challenge Participatory fundraising events can be challenging to start and take lots of time to get rolling, but within a few years, many organizations have been able to make mass fundraising events an integral part of their fundraising plans.
Participatory Fundraising planning involves
1. Being Creative!
There is any number of ways to set up a participatory fundraising campaign for your organization. Some common examples include:
1. “A-Thons,” like walk-a-thons, read-a-thons, dance-a-thons, and bike-a-thons.
2. Retail Fundraising – Where a chain of stores, or a number of independent stores, all collect money for you, or donate a percentage of sales to your non-profit
These are just a few examples… in reality, the opportunities are limited only by your imagination.
2. Set up a Program
Don’t approach your participatory fundraising efforts willy-nilly. Set up a real program that you want people, or companies, to be involved with. Create a list of benefits that participants will receive and recognition/awards that you will offer, professionally designed marketing
materials, and a small booklet that tells interested prospects how to participate (where the walka-thon will be, how to run their own small event, etc.) The best participatory fundraising efforts are run as professionally as possible.
3. Market Your Opportunity
Once you have set up your program, you will need to aggressively market your fundraising opportunity to possible participants. The first year you run your program, it may be hard to find people or companies to be involved. Each succeeding year, it will become easier and easier. As you market your participatory fundraising event year after year, you will hopefully see similar growth.
The best ways to market your opportunity are by appealing to your current supporters, board, and staff, as well as past event participants, and to develop a prospect list of individuals and companies with whom your non-profit has a connection, and approach them and ask for their help for your mission.
Fundraising options
Fundraising options include:
 Grants – federal, state or local government, philanthropic and corporate grants. Use Our Community’s Easy Grants newsletter and database
 Sponsorship – Identify possible major and minor sponsorship arrangements your group could pursue. This could range from naming rights arrangements to sponsorships for
projects and programs.
 Membership fees – Tiered and differing levels of membership; each with corresponding fees, are a good way to recognise donors and encourage people to pay up and join up.
 Bequests – Provide general information or personal approaches to long-time benefactors and supporters about how they can provide an ongoing gift for your organisation.
 In-kind support – This can be in the form of goods, services or resources.
 Donations – set up your organisation to receive online donations. Pursue personal donations, general appeals, direct mail, appeals to your email database of all former players, members and supporters, etc.
 Special events – There are a huge variety of fundraising opportunities that fall under this heading – functions, dinners, awards nights, fetes, fairs, grand openings, launches, walkathons, rideathons, laughathons, etc.
 Sales/merchandising- sell your goods and services, or products carrying your name and logo