Fundraising: Find What’s Right For You

Deirdre Murphy, NICVA's Fundraising Advice Officer offers some advice on fundraising.

You know how much you need to raise (or do you?) you have a million things on and fundraising is just one part of everything else you do. How do you decide your fundraising strategy?

What will work for you?

  • Look back, assess what has worked and note learnings from what hasn’t worked.
  • Evaluate the now: what are you doing? How much are you fundraising using these techniques? What resources do you have? What is your Unique Selling Point?
  • Look to where you want to be: how much do you need to raise to sustain your services? Where would you like to see your organisation in one year, three years' and five years’ time?

Marry up these three and you have a perfect fundraising strategy!

So, what are your options?

Here goes! Community, Corporate, Major Donor, Events/Challenges, Trusts/Grants, GrantTracker, Regular Giving, Gift aid, Online, Direct Marketing Fundraising, Trading, Social Enterprises, Tenders, User Fees and Partnerships are just some of the opportunities out there. And that’s what they are opportunities! Fundraising is all about ensuring you can deliver your services and make a difference – it’s a positive thing, not a means to an end.

Making the right decision

To assess which options are right for you, look at the skills and resources you and others have in your charity. Get buy in from everyone, agree on what makes your organisation different and then decide on the most efficient audiences to sell to.

If you have a robust database of volunteers, Community Fundraising might be right for you. If your Board has connections to companies and high net worth individuals, then Corporate and Major Donor Fundraising could be a more obvious choice. If you have a service/product/skill you can skill then setting up a Social Enterprise could be more appropriate. Have a look at one example on the Guardian website.

Final thoughts

Don’t put all your eggs in one basket (have a fundraising mix) and find a way to dove tail each fundraising tool to form a committed way of giving.

For further advice, contact Deirdre on 028 9087 7777 or email [email protected].

Follow Deirdre on Twitter: .

 

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