Your Organization's Fundraising Plan

Now that your new nonprofit is firmly established, you need a strategy for raising money. Having a successful fundraising plan in place is crucial to the success of your organization.


1. Establish your fundraising goals.
Your goals should be created with your board of directors, and have the board's approval. You need to determine how much money you need to raise, and what it will be used for. Some possibilities are operating expenses; funding of a new program or expansion of an existing program; or to build new or renovate existing facilities.

You might have more than one goal for the year. If so, create a fundraising plan for each goal. State what you ultimately hope to accomplish with each goal and list the specific steps toward accomplishing each goal. Those specific steps are called objectives. Where the goal is a broad, general statement, objectives are narrow, precise, tangible, concrete, and measureable.

2. Outline your fundraising plan.
Develop a written plan that states how much money you need to raise, how you will raise it and from what sources. The plan should have a certain amount of flexibility so that it can be modified throughout the year. Not all of your plans will succeed, or your funding sources may change during the year.

Be specific when outlining your fundraising plan. Determine just what type of fundraising you will do, and how frequently. For example, your organization may decide to have a membership drive, certain types of fundraisers, and apply for two grants per year. This will determine precisely how you will run your fundraising campaign.

3. Identify fundraising tactics
Some fundraising tactics work better than others. You might decide to use direct mail, telemarketing, email, or canvassing door-to-door. Social media such as blogs, Twitter, and Facebook works best when incorporated with other tactics.

4. Identify funding sources.
Define your target donors and customize your fundraising plan with those particular organizations or individuals in mind. For example, if you think that parents with young children will be more likely to donate to your cause, then your fundraising plan should target them. Make a list of people, businesses, agencies and organizations who might be interested in donating to your cause. Identify sources that you don’t usually tap into. Are you exploring grants from a variety of funding sources including the government? Local churches, colleges and universities are also possible sources.

5. Develop a timeline for your fundraising plan.
Identify a year's worth of specific actions and determine who will lead each project. Develop a separate timeline for each fundraising activity. Check throughout the year to ensure that major milestones are being met. The timeline will likely change during the year, but having one to start with will keep you on track.

6. Evaluate, evaluate, evaluate.
Evaluation of your fundraising plan is crucial to its success. Evaluate as often as necessary, at least every few months. Determine what you will measure such as the number of new financial supporters, the amount of money raised so far, whether you are on track for meeting deadlines for grant submission. Determine what programs have proven to be successful and what programs need to be changed or abandoned

As a new organization, planning is key to the success of your fundraising strategy. Once you have established your nonprofit organization, developing a fundraising plan should be one of your top priorities.