Where can I learn more about fundraising planning?
As national reports on funding trends indicate year after year, foundation support (i.e., grants) accounts for only a small percentage of the overall funding picture in the nonprofit world. It is therefore essential for nonprofit organizations to investigate and incorporate a variety of potential revenue sources. This process is known as fundraising planning.
Fundraising planning involves a number of important steps:
- Taking stock of your organization's strengths and assets 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?
- Creating a case statement, or case for support, involves detailing the argument for why your organization deserves support, usually by outlining the organization's programs, current needs, and plans.
- Setting realistic fundraising goals is the next step of fundraising planning. Before you can approach prospective funders for support, you need to know how much money you need.
- Diversifying your funding mix means building a base of support from individuals, the government, foundations, and business. These four groups comprise much of the funding landscape.
- Preparing a fundraising calendar or timetable to chart your fundraising efforts, and to help you think through the details of who, what, when, where and how.
To learn more about fundraising planning, watch our recorded webinar, Introduction to Fundraising Planning. Watch now:
See also our related resources on the topic of Fundraising.
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Raise-Funds.com
Fund-Raising Planning
Tony Poderis' web site contains sample fundraising planning tools, including calendars, division of labor, goal-setting, methods, and tracking tools and general development plans.
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Fieldstone Alliance
Managing the Ending of a Funding Relationship
Recommendations for creating an effective funding exit that adds value to a project and leaves grantees in a strong position. NOTE: This is an archived version of the original page.
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Measuring Fundraising Effectiveness - BoardSource
This new free downloadable toolkit for measuring fundraising effectiveness emphasizes how important it is to invest in strong and sustainable fundraising programs.
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WealthEngine [PDF]
Measuring Fundraising Return on Investment and the Impact of Prospect Research
Measuring return on investment can help organizations justify their prospect research and development budgets. It also can provide important benchmarks for understanding the overall cost of raising money.
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Movie Mondays for Fundraising Professionals
Get free, 3-5 minute videos every Monday with different fundraising professionals talking about how they raise money and overcome the many challenges of fundraising and working at a nonprofit.
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River Network
Sample Fundraising Plan
A downloadable sample plan in spreadsheet format showing potential sources of funding and board roles in fundraising.
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Winter 2018 Nonprofit Fundraising Study [PDF]
The Nonprofit Research Collaborative
This study examines U.S. and Canadian giving trends for all of 2017. Findings include overall giving, average bequest size, growth predictions and percent of nonprofits that reached their fundraising goals.
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Fieldstone Alliance
When Times are Tough, Get Creative and Strategic
To help you survive in tough times and take advantage of the changing environment, this issue of Tools presents a logical, practical process to help you think through options and arrive at the best strategies for your organization. NOTE: This is an archived version of the original page.