Developing a fundraising strategy
A fundraising strategy forms part of the wider business plan for an organisation. As with a business plan, it’s useful to plan fundraising in broad terms three to five years ahead – and have more concrete targets and plans 12 months ahead.
Why is a funding strategy useful?
- Helps focus, prioritise and diversify fundraising activities.
- Ensures that there is a shared understanding of your priorities and objectives and how these will be reached
- Prevents you from wasting time and resources
- Helps trustees to consider the risks associated with any fundraising actions.
- Supports the requirements of Statement of Recommended Practice (SORP) requirements.
- Enables potential funders to determine the viability of your organisation and whether their money will assist in achieving your intended purpose.
Things to think about:
- Where are we now?
- Where do we want to get to?
- How are we going to get there?
What to do:
- Outline the main aims and objectives of your project – or your project’s mission statement.
- Review what is happening externally – eg current economic situation, what the ‘market' is doing
- Consider what resources do you have available internally
- Think of where do you want to be and start developing a plan for how to get there
- Research possible sources of funding
- Consider are the extra resources you will need in order to fulfil your plan, such as extra volunteers or training.
- Monitor progress and measure your success
Some questions to ask:
- What kind, and how much, funding do we need?
- What kinds of activities (and costs) do we need to fundraise for in the next 12-24 months and how much funding do we need for each area?
- What are the funding or finance options that we could use to deliver this activity?
- How might we improve our profile?
- Do we have a clear case for support that outlines what we need (and why) to potential funders?
- What other resources will we need?
- Can we monitor the impact of our activity and demonstrate our success to potential funders/donors/supporters?
- What will other staff and volunteers need to do to support fundraising?
- How might Trustees support fundraising?
If you would like some training and support in this area Developing a fundraising strategy half day training session is available on 2 February 2017.
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