Sara Jane Lowry

Coaching and Consultation

  • Individual Coaching
    • Coaching Testimonials
  • Small Business Coaching
    • Coaching Testimonials
  • Nonprofit Consulting
    • Organizational Assessment
    • Leadership Coaching
    • Resource Development
    • Executive Transition
    • Clients I’ve helped
    • Testimonials
  • Workshops
  • Free Tools
    • Blog
    • Productivity Worksheet
    • Capital Campaign Success Steps
  • About Sara Jane
  • Contact me
    • Schedule an Appointment
  • Privacy Policy

Do you want to raise more money? Fundraising plan steps to success [Part 2]

July 14, 2017 by Sara Jane Lowry

wooden steps on grass with text overlay: Fundraising plan steps to success

This is the second part of a posting on fundraising plan steps to success. Go back and read part one so you can understand the income reliability buckets referenced below.

Now, if you’re ready to start thinking about your fundraising plan steps, here is how to get started:

Figure out what areas of your funding pie chart you want to grow.

Individual giving:

First of all, be reasonable. If you’re only raising $10,000 in individual giving, don’t set an unrealistic goal for what you can achieve in one year. Be creative, but put it in historical context. Donor acquisition is challenging. So, begin by looking at your current donors and developing a list of key attributes that will help you think through where to reach people who might also have those attributes.  Please don’t read the list of attendees of a major fundraiser event by another charity and assue they will care about your mission. Your fundraising plan steps should include spending some time looking at lapsed donors – and considering why they have lapsed. Review your donor data for the last three years:

  1. Revenue by category (annual fund, major donors, corporate contributions, corporate sponsorships, grants,memberships, events, planned giving, etc.). Then, figure out your numbers so you know your trends:
  • Total number of donors for each year
  • Calculate the number of new donors from previous year (this is important – what’s the plan to keep them?)
  • Review the number of donors that lapsed from the previous year
  • Total revenue from online giving for each year
  1. Your fundraising plan steps should also include ways to interact with donors through your thank you letters and notes, online stories, newsletters, annual reports and more (see communication below).

Grants

Hopeing to win a grant is not a planned approach. You are probably already writing grants, but planning this part of your plan will make it more strategic. Some steps to consider:

  • Create a prioritized project list that you are seeking funding for.
  • Target prospect research to those projects. Make sure the match between your program and funder is a good one.  Don’t waste time with a scattershot approach to funders.
  • Quality writing.  Less is more in making your case. Answer the questions succinctly. Get a fresh eye to read it.
  • Develop a relationship with your funders. Let them see you as their partner in solving the community needs.
  • Plan out your year with grant deadlines and report deadlines for the funders you will be approaching.
  • Prepare ahead with organizational documents that most funders require like organizational and project budgets, plans for evaluation, board lists, etc.
  • Gather data related to the need you are addressing, and data on what other nonprofits are doing and what is unique about your methodology. If collaboration makes sense, begin that process in advance, and get an MOU in place or letters of support.
  • Strategize your evaluation methodology, and ask for funding to implement it.
  • Lastly, think though how you will sustain the project after the end of the grant funding.

Fee-for-service:

If you want to look at fee-for-service, you need a business plan. Consider what you have to offer and who might be willing to pay. Best if the service ties to your mission to avoid paying taxes. You may need support in conducting a market analysis to decide how much to charge at the nonprofit level (IRS rules). You might start with suggested donations, a sliding scale, or membership fees. Make sure you know what your break-even point is. Determine roles and responsibilities, and what human and other resources you need.

Corporate Charitable Contributions (not sponsorships):

Why not sponsorships? It’s a low-level income reliability factor. Corporations are interested in building their brand and making sales. It’s marketing dollars, and most small-to-mid-sized nonprofits can’t deliver a big enough audience. But there are ways to engage corporations in giving, and you can research and make a plan:

  1. Most corporations have employee matching programs, and volunteer matching programs. Do you remind your donors or volunteers regularly about matching gifts? Also, do you have board members who work at corporations with matching policies?
  2. Corporate contributions are also more likely if they have selected ways in which they want to invest in solving community problems, or building community. Before asking, research their corporate giving page to see what their guidelines say.
  3. Get employees involved with your organization’s activities in a meaningful way.

Fundraising plan steps also include these essential tactics:

Infographic showing 12 elements of nonprofit management
Click on image to see larger

Write your case statement.

What’s a case statement?  It’s your opportunity to sell hope. What donors really want to see is hope and how you’re making the world a better place.

It’s probably not the one you have been using in your grants.  Definitely not the one you’ve been using to please an internal audience of board members, or anyone else in a position to approve since they are NOT your target audience. Your target audience is your donor.  In other words, it’s written as a story about how your donors are changing the lives of your clients through you. Your work is secondary.

Your case answers the questions “Why should I give you money? What will happen to those in need if I do?” Will it make a difference?

It’s full of the stories that feed your fundraising communications. Bring everyone in the organization into the idea of capturing your best stories.

Create good internal systems

You will need processes for soliciting gifts, managing gifts when they arrive, thanking people, and tracking relationships. Donors need to be thanked multiple times and in multiple ways before they are asked for a second gift. Your systems should include ways to do that.

Please invest in a good fundraising database system, there are many good ones out there now that don’t cost a fortune. You want a system that can grow with you, and allows you to save important information about your donors as you get to know them better.

Begin to create a workflow chart so everyone understands what needs to be done, when and who will do it. Fundraising plan steps include on on building accountability into your structure. How long does it take you to thank your donor, and how do you do it?

Communicate more often and in a way that appeals to donors

Donor engagement can and should happen in multiple ways. But it’s not just you talking at (or writing at) your donors. Consider ways you can listen too. Get out and talk to donors, or consider a donor survey of current donors on how they want to communicated with.

  • Donor communications is a system of communication, not just “a newsletter when you can get to it” or an email appeal.
  • Remember your case for support? Are you focusing on stories of donors and how they are making a difference in the lives of the people you serve? How are you using them in a strategic way?
  • Fundraising plan steps include budgeting for freelancers to help you build out content for your social media calendar, or e-newsletters. And, when was the last time you updated your website?
  • Face-to-face is most effective in building relationships with donors, and sharing successes. How about a cultivation-only event like a house party that’s more intimate to get to know them?
  • Your focus on relationship building will help donors become part of your team. Show them how they can help you create a new future, invite them to share their thoughts.
  • Donor communications include how you ask for their investment in the work. Please don’t say “Dear Friend” in an appeal. Take the time to set up your appeal to include the right salutation. You can learn more about donor-centered communications here.
  • Have you called your donors just to say “thanks?” This is an easy way for board members to build relationships with donors.
  • Make a plan for meeting with people who might be interested. Fundraising plan steps include individualized strategies for cultivation. Treat them as human beings, not checkbooks. Identify your most passionate donors and spend more time with them.

There is so much more to building a fundraising plan. You don’t want donors to give once and go away. You need a program that grows and succeeds each year because it’s well-planned, and sufficiently-resourced (Board, staff, volunteers).

If you need help, let’s talk!

 

Filed Under: Fundraising, Grants Tagged With: Fundraising, Fundraising plan, Grants, Strategy

Grantseeking? Follow these tips to avoid pitfalls that get you rejected

April 10, 2017 by Sara Jane Lowry

Grankseeking seems easy – they have to give the money away, right? If you’re planning on visiting a foundation to ask for funding for your program, your nonprofit, your project, prepare to bypass these grantseeking pitfalls that are checkboxes yes and noeasily avoided. Program officers are people who have the unenviable position of rejecting some 50% of the grants that they’ve agreed to accept. Why make it easy for them to reject your proposal? Here are some tips to consider beforehand:

Did you follow the directions on the website for what format to follow?

Or did you decide that section wasn’t that important to answeer. (Hint: if you don’t have an evaluation plan, don’t submit until you’ve worked one out. Consider paying an actual evaluator for a couple of hours to talk through some ideas.) When you are grantseeking, make sure you check the website for how they want to be approached. And don’t send a full proposal if they prefer a letter of intent first.

If you got a grant previously from the funder, did you submit the final report?

I once accompanied an executive director, who was new at an organization, to a foundation who had pr
eviously funded them. She was excoriated by the foundation for not submitting the final report for the previous grant, and trust me, that’s not how you want your visit to go. And don’t make the funder remind you that the interim report is due. You could use it as an opportunity to tell the funder what great things are happening in your project!  It’s your legal responsibility: you promised to do certain things in exchange for money.

Your funder is a professional, so you need to be one too.

Funders want to get to know you as a person and a leader. Please be professional. This is not the time to lecture them about not funding you in the last grant cycle. Or complain, whine, or show your anger. You want to turn the program officer into a passionate advocate for your cause. Why? Because they have to present on your behalf to their board. Give them all the information they need to do it. Show you have thought through your methodology and understand your cause better than anyone else.

Create trustGrantseeking means trusted by grantor

Grankseeking is more than writing the grant. Showing that you’re dedicated, competent, and someone who will get done what you say you will do, will take you far. If  you spend the money other than what you say you will spend it on, don’t expect them to trust you the next time around. Of course things change, but communicate with the funder to let them know when major budget items change, don’t just assume it will be okay. Dependability and accountability – they want to know that investing in your nonprofit will pay off in real social impact.

When grantseeking, tell the truth

You might think it’s okay to list 3 other foundations that are interested in supporting your project because you’ve sent letters of intent to them, but it’s not. Guess what – funders talk to each other when they’re considering your proposal. They’ll call and find out that in fact that funder doesn’t know anything about you or the project. Instead, let them know who you’ve identified that expressed interested in your project, who else you are planning to talk to, and who has approved funding. When grantseeking, you might be surprised that the funder might offer to help by making a call themselves founders you’re approaching.

If you are turned down, reach out to find out WHY

Grantseeking Rejection: Why? on yellow post-itEven if you were invited to submit a proposal, and you worked hard to meet the required demands, kept it within budget the funder wanted to see, and submitted all attachments, it was still just an invitation and it could be turned down. Take a deep breath, and call to see if you can find out why. It might be that they had more competition in your area than expected, or wanted to more deeply invest in a competitors proposal. Maybe the competitions proposal was more detailed in terms of methodology. Maybe it was just favortism, because that happens too. If they won’t respond to your request for more information, be sure to visit their website and look at recent grants to see what did get funded.

Grankseeking isn’t easy, and takes a lot of work. Make sure you don’t sabotage your organization with avoidable pitfalls. Be organized. Know your stuff. Follow Directions.

Filed Under: Fundraising, Grants Tagged With: Foundations, Fundraising, Grants

4 Simple Secrets to Achieving Goals for a New Year New You!

Here we are in 2021, and many of us start the year with renewed, or new goals and intentions in mind. Similarly, we are feeling inspired to create a life of purpose, growth, and intention. Or, we are eager to take our work to new heights of success and accomplishment. Secrets to achieving goals and […]

How to hold people accountable

“How to hold my people accountable?” is a question I hear from coaching clients. Their frustration level is usually high, and they are at their wit’s end. They’ve tried pleading with the staff, anger, telling the people they manage what and how to do their job, and in the end, everyone is miserable. So if […]

breathe when under stress

Under Stress?

It feels like you are stuck in the same cycle of behavior or situations when you are under stress. Do you find yourself with the same negative emotions, challenges, and issues, unable to take the steps you need to change or move on? We’re all capable of making the same mistakes over and over, because, […]

achieve your goals daily by tracking your time

Achieve your goals daily with these 3 things.

Are you achieving your goals every day? If not, then read on. The next 3 minutes will set your mind to creating a new day for yourself. If you are truly ready to attain your goals faster, by doing more in less time, then you need to plan your day and track your goals. Maybe you think you […]

© 2023 · Built on the Genesis Framework · Customized by Terri Orlowski