Plans Make the World Go ‘Round

Published on Thursday, October 01, 2009
ARTICLES

One of Morton Blackwell's "Laws of the Public Policy Process" states: You can't save the world if you can't pay the rent. To which I add, you can't pay the rent if you don't have a plan.

These challenging economic times give all nonprofits an opportunity to sharpen operations. For us development folks, this means re-evaluating our fundraising plans - or making sure we have one - to ensure we're on the right track and focusing on the highest value priorities.

So, what makes a good fundraising plan? Certainly, there are a great many things one could include; that said, I recommend a plan include the following six elements.

Goals and Strategies. This is the place to list your broad fundraising goals for the year and, generally, how you plan to achieve them, essentially your broad mission/mandate for the department. Goals could include specific dollar amounts as well as increasing the number of donors, renewal rates and so forth - anything that you plan to measure.

Listing of Resources. It's important to know what resources are at your disposal. Which staff are focused on fundraising? Who can do donor visits? What responsibilities and expectations are connected to each? In addition, this might be a good place to put the overall development budget.

Marketing Schedule. This section should layout the basic donor mail/marketing calendar for the year. Things to consider include: major events, housefile mail dates, informational/update mail dates and key foundation deadlines.

Tactics Breakdown. In these next several sections, break down each specific tactic. Give a brief description of each area, with specific goals attached (though understand, of course, the most important goal is that revenue number at the end of the year, so don't hold too fast to those sub-goals). You would likely include sections on direct-mail prospecting, housefile solicitation and cultivation, foundations, corporations, individual major gifts, planned giving and online/email solicitation and cultivation.

Processes and Procedures. The fundraising plan is a good place to put down on paper the development department's basic procedures. How are contributions acknowledged, and how quickly? (Within 24 hours, I hope!) How are contributions processed and how are they entered into the database?

Priority Lists. This is the most critical component of a good fundraising plan. Get in a room with all the people on your team involved in fundraising with a white board and some snacks. List your primary financial supporters and key prospects, work your way down, then put them in descending priority order. Include every "category" together: foundations, corporations, individuals or whomever. Assign a specific dollar goal to each, along with one or a series of projects, or general support, most likely to be of interest to the prospective donor. Then, assign an owner to that relationship (who will have primary ownership for cultivating that relationship and making the ask) and one or a series of "next step" action items. It should be noted, this can change as our supporters tell us what they're most interested in, or not interested in, and we learn more from them.

Of course, they key to all this is to have broad organizational buy-in to the plan and, most importantly, accountability. Everyone from the CEO and key board of directors members to the development interns and volunteers should know the plan and have specific ownership for some specific parts for which they are held accountable.

Finally, review the plan - and particularly the priority list - regularly. Having and regularly revisiting a plan like the one above will help keep you on track and focused on those highest value producing opportunities. It also serves to hold each team member accountable for his or her part in meeting the broader fundraising goal.

After all, at the end of the day, you've got to pay the rent to save the world.

Daniel J. Erspamer is vice president for development at State Policy Network. Write him at daniel@spn.org for a fundraising-plan template.