(photo of a brainstorm listing some possible fundraising strategies)

Earlier in the year, I worked with the leadership at LA Voice and SOAR Charter School to create fund development plans for their organizations.  If you’re organization is about to engage in this very important process, I suggest the following 10 tips:

1. Engage your Board:  Creation of a fund development plan is a great way to get your Board involved with fundraising.  If they help create the fundraising plan, they are more likely to implement it.

2. Decide how much you need to raise:  It’s easier to get folks involved to raise funds to meet a specific goal, rather than just having some vague sense for how much you need to raise.

3. Diversify your funding sources:  Discuss different sources of funding and choose to pursue at least three sources (individuals, foundations, government, corporations, earned-income, etc).

4. Prioritize:  While there are lots of good ideas out there for fundraising, you can’t do them all.  Prioritize strategies your organization has the capacity to do that yield the strongest results.

5. Create a Workplan:  Fill out a workplan that contains the following details:  What action you will take, when will that action occur by (month/year) and who will be responsible for carrying out that action. 

6. Give yourself time:  Putting together a fund development plan can take anywhere from one to three months, depending on how frequently you meet with other folks creating it.

7. Evaluate your past fundraising:  Just because you’ve “always” done some fundraising strategy doesn’t mean you need to keep doing it.  Evaluate past strategies and decide if the benefits outweigh the costs.

8. Learn from this Process:  A fund development planning process gives everyone involved the opportunity to build their capacity as fundraisers (something even veteran fundraisers can use).

9: Don’t forget about your Plan!:  Refer to your fund development plan on at least a monthly basis and make sure the workplan you created from it is integrated into your workplan.

10. Follow-up:  Make sure your Executive Director and at least one board member commit to engaging everyone else in the organization to implement the plan.

If your organization can use the services of an experienced consultant to create your own fund development plan, please contact me.