Development Plan Toolkit
Your Three-Step Guide to Strategic Fundraising
Introduction: Why Make a Plan?
Your nonprofit requires resources to accomplish its mission, whether it’s to rescue animals, support veterans, or provide access to education for children in a developing nation. Meeting that challenge has become even harder as the number of donating households shrinks and new modes of giving have taken hold. Many nonprofits begin life confronted by this dilemma and immediately begin the task of raising funds anywhere and any way they can. In doing so, they are starting at the end.
Development is more intentional, strategic, and all-encompassing than just raising dollars; it’s about raising ambassadors who will join the cause and remain loyal for the long haul. Savvy organizations recognize that meeting their fundraising goals such as cultivating major gifts, retaining donors, and attracting new supporters requires that they be steadfast and intentional in building agile strategies that create and maintain lasting relationships.
Fundraising is not simply an input, but an outcome of an integrated and enterprise-wide process designed to build relationships with diverse stakeholders and establish a consistent brand. In this toolkit, we will explore some of the processes and strategies you can adopt for a successful resource development program.
Successful resource development starts with a well-conceived and executed plan, much like building a home requires a blueprint. The development plan:
- Clarifies expectations, roles, and goals.
- Outlines specific actions and budget to achieve those goals.
- Establishes the metrics that will determine which elements work and which offer opportunities for improvement.
Creating a plan has one other benefit, the need for which organizations often overlook: It helps illuminate the importance of organization-wide participation in resource development.
A development plan is an investment. The input of some time, effort, and thought on the front end can save even more time and effort throughout the process and improve the likelihood of success. Creating a development plan is not just the province of the development team; it must be an enterprise-wide process to capture all the expertise necessary for success.
Creating Your Development Plan
Step 1: Assess the Previous Year
Before looking forward, it is useful to look back and identify the successes and failures of previous fundraising efforts.
As Lord Byron said, “The best prophet of the future is the past.” The first aspect of the development plan requires the feedback of various stakeholders in addition to any metrics that can offer objective guidance. The finance office can help determine the utility of grants; programming staff can offer input on the role of events; IT staff can weigh in on the plausibility of virtual fundraising tools; marketing can support message development; and so on.
Together, review the revenue mix and determine whether it is appropriate for the organization and if it is sufficiently diversified. A good rule of thumb is that no one source should account for more than one-quarter of an organization’s revenue. Anne Wallestad, President and Chief Executive Officer of BoardSource® notes in the Blackbaud Institute’s The Right Mix: How Diverse Income Models Influence Giving how this concept relates to a critical question. “What percentage of our operating budget would be left unfunded if we lost our organization’s top five donors? For some organizations, this question reveals tremendous vulnerability and fragility. Without their top five donors, they would cease to exist. For others, it documents that a change in the giving of one donor—or even five—would be unlikely to create organizational distress.”
One way to diversify revenue streams is to employ a broad mix of the following so that losing one stream does not cripple the organization:
- Private grants
- Government grants
- Events
- Planned giving
- Major gifts
- Annual giving
- Special initiatives
- Fee-for-service
- Direct appeals
- Sponsorships
- Alternative sources, such as DAFs or real estate
Spending some time in retrospect will help with informed, rational decision-making about whether to accelerate, minimize, tweak, overhaul, or eliminate strategies and tactics employed in the past and whether to consider alternatives or additions. It’s part of the continuous learning and growth that all organizations must experience to thrive.
People and Teams
Conclusion
In short, to build a successful, long-term resource development, you need: a culture of philanthropy that involves the whole enterprise; a commitment to the process from before the beginning through after the end of each campaign; a radically collaborative approach; a focus on building relationships with all stakeholders; a detailed plan and calendar that create expectations and guide workflow; and objectives and measurements to determine the success of the venture’s various elements.
Resource development asks for a blend of art and science, so your results will depend upon the extent to which you adopt these guidelines and employ experience to adjust your strategies and tactics. By focusing on the process, and the culture required to support it, you’ll find the money will follow.
Development Plan Toolkit: Your Three-Step Guide to Strategic Fundraising is the product of many great minds who have contributed to numerous assets along the way, shaping the framework of this resource. Here are a few of the key contributors:
- Ashley Thompson, Managing Director, Blackbaud Institute
- Barry Waldman, Big Fly Communications
- Kate Averett Anderson, Senior Content Manager, Blackbaud Institute
With special thanks to:
- Lawrence Henze, Engagement Strategy Framework
- Carrie Watkins, Aligning on a Revenue-Wise Strategy: A Conversation Guide for Nonprofit Finance Leaders
We’re glad you’re here!
Please share a little info to keep reading this Blackbaud Institute resource.
All fields required