Raising money is critical for every nonprofit, but the fundraising tips to stand apart and a solid plan to make it possible are what lead to results.
A fundraising plan is a roadmap to success, breaking down your organization's fundraising goal into simple, actionable steps. With a clear fundraising strategy, you can achieve your goals and raise more funds within a specific timeline.
In this guide, we'll explain the importance of a fundraising plan and provide the steps to create one.
What is a Fundraising Plan for Nonprofits?
A fundraising plan outlines a nonprofit's fundraising approach to supporting its initiatives. It strategically organizes your fundraising efforts over a given period (usually one year).
Think of your fundraising plan as a roadmap you can rely on. It will move with you as you build and evolve to the given landscape, economic fluctuations, and donor preferences. Thinking ahead in this way gives you a sound strategy for making the most significant impact possible with your campaigns and donation efforts.
Your fundraising strategy should be aligned with your nonprofit's mission, values, and vision.
Your fundraising timeline can break things out by day, week, month, and season, depending on what works for your team. The best fundraising calendar type is one everyone on your team can read and adjust in real time.
Define a timeline and address specific questions, such as:
- What kind of fundraising campaign will you launch?
- What is a good time to begin and conclude?
- What will your team look like? How many volunteers and donors?
- How much will you need to spend?
- How much revenue do you need to raise?
Why Do You Need a Fundraising Plan?
Having a fundraising plan in place helps your nonprofit in the following key ways:
- Establishes clear direction: A fundraising plan has defined goals, strategies, key performance indicators (KPIs), and other essential details that help your organization take concrete steps and make informed decisions.
- Assists in problem-solving: Whenever there's uncertainty about a fundraising campaign, your comprehensive fundraising plan template can provide clarification and guidance. It gives your team a resource to turn to for help when unexpected circumstances push the campaign off track.
- Better organization: A fundraising strategy illuminates the roles and responsibilities of staff, board members, and upper-level volunteers, ensuring everyone is on the same page. Each member is aware of their roles and how their work relates to the overarching goals, enhancing accountability.
- Improved time management: Map out deadlines and benchmarks throughout the year. With these insights, you can establish priorities and shape your daily operations around tasks that advance your goals. This ensures your nonprofit manages its time and resources efficiently.
Ultimately, well-defined fundraising planning will help nonprofit organizations boost fundraising revenue, expand their donor base, and achieve their goals.
11 Steps for a Successful Fundraising Plan for Nonprofits
Each nonprofit's annual fundraising event planning template will be unique, but most will incorporate these basic steps.
1. Define the Goals of Fundraising Strategy
The most important step in creating your nonprofit strategic fundraising plan is to define specific and tangible goals that align with your nonprofit's mission.
For instance, if your mission is to build schools for girls, an achievable goal could be to raise enough funds for one school.
However, not all goals are achieved through funding. Here are some notable examples of the different types of goals to set:
- Major donor stewardship: These are the largest contributions your nonprofit organizations receive. How many major gifts are you aiming to receive, and what amount would you want each gift to be?
- Donor retention: It refers to the number of recurring donors that contribute to your nonprofit from year to year and fundraising campaign to campaign. What is the donor retention rate you’re targeting this year?
- Donor acquisition: It refers to the number of new donors you secure over a period. How many new donors would you like to bring on board this year?
2. Conduct Prospect Research
Prospect research involves identifying donors with the capacity and willingness to donate, attend events, and support fundraising strategies. Since 80% of a nonprofit's revenue comes from around 20% of its donors, conducting prospect research is essential to spotting loyal donors and meeting fundraising goals.
Scan your database to find out how many donors rank high on the following parameters:
- Instances of involvement as a volunteer or board member.
- Ample financial resources, such as high-income careers, SEC holdings, real estate ownership, and business affiliations.
- A personal connection to your cause that motivates them to support you or solid relationships with your board members or existing donors.
These indicators show that your prospect is committed to giving their money and time to causes they care about. Your donor relationships can tell you which fundraising initiative will be most impactful.
3. Decide on the Fundraising Campaign to Execute
Your fundraising plan should define the core campaigns you intend to run throughout the year and relevant details for each campaign. Factor the following in:
- Plan the type of campaign: Peer-to-peer fundraisers to auctions, walk-a-thons to galas, and campaigns to bake sales; there are many fundraising ideas for nonprofits to pursue. When picking one, take note of your donors’ and nonprofit's budget. Focus on campaigns that resonate with your ideal donors and persuade them to donate.
- Set a budget: Consider your previous fundraising campaign expenses to see how much you must allocate for activities in the coming year. Attention to administrative, marketing, fundraising, programming, and additional fees.
- Follow a timeline: Set a date and time for each campaign, even if it's a rough timeline. Decide when you will execute your campaign so that your events are correctly spaced. You don't want to host campaigns back-to-back or leave too much time in between.
- Create a fundraising plan calendar: Visualise how your plan will play out throughout the year. Compile documents essential elements of the planning phase, including fundraising activities, staff responsibilities, deadlines, and estimated revenue and expenses per phase.
This fundraising calendar can guide your day-to-day operations and keep your team focused on the campaign fundraising goals. Share this fundraising calendar across the different departments of your nonprofit to keep everyone in the loop.
4. Create a Gift Range Chart
When developing your fundraising strategy, create a gift range chart to identify the donations required to achieve your fundraising goals.
A gift range chart describes the number and value of donations your nonprofit needs to meet its fundraising goals. Strategize and decide on the number of prospects and successful solicitations you must focus on.
Here’s how you can create a gift range chart:
- First, break down your gift sizes. Define different tiers of gifts and the number of donations you have to earn within each tier. The most significant gift must make up 10-20% of your goal.
- Add three to five prospective donors per gift.
- Fill in your chart downward based on what you know about your donors and their capacity.
The below gift range chart is for a hypothetical $1,000,000 fundraising campaign.
5. Delegate Tasks to Your Team
Assemble a team and delegate responsibilities across your nonprofit to achieve your fundraising goal.
When assembling your fundraising team, play to each member's strengths to maximize your limited time and additional resources. Assign roles that match their skills and expertise—for example, put your social media whiz on digital marketing and let your number cruncher handle the budget.
Get your board members involved, and have them share their knowledge with the team. By dividing tasks strategically, you'll work more efficiently and achieve your fundraising goals faster.
Here are some roles you may want to delegate:
- An event coordinator will oversee your fundraising initiatives and ensure everything flows smoothly.
- A marketing and promotion coordinator who can promote your fundraising campaign via various channels.
- A donor relationship coordinator for contacting significant donors and other supporters to build relationships.
- A volunteer coordinator is responsible for managing your volunteers, whether they're helping out at the events or in the office.
6. Spread the Word
Once you've defined your campaigns and other key elements, spread the word with a multichannel marketing approach. Using several channels will allow you to expand your campaign reach and attract more donors to your fundraising initiative.
Some popular channels to grow visibility around your fundraising campaigns are as follows:
- Social Media: Social media posts can supercharge your promotional efforts for any fundraising campaign. 55% of individuals who engage with a nonprofit on social media platforms take some action, and 59% make monetary donations. Choose one or two platforms that your supporters actively use to target a specific donor audience that is more likely to engage.
Here are a few ways to tap into the benefits of social media to promote your campaign:
- Create a unique hashtag for your nonprofit and supporters to discuss your latest event.
- Craft compelling marketing content for your campaign and post it on your social media pages.
- Partner with influencers with a targeted following that aligns with your ideal donor base to advocate for your cause.
- Email marketing: Promote events and direct subscribers to RSVP. Create drip campaigns to build hype for subscribers who signed up for your event and encourage those who have not signed up. Set reminders to update your donors about the upcoming event. Include a link to your donation page alongside registration to boost donations.
- Press release: A well-written press release generates media coverage and public awareness for your campaign. Create a concise press release covering relevant details about your campaign schedule and distribute it to news outlets and other media sources. This adds credibility to your nonprofits, announces your campaign's launch to a broader audience, and drives more traffic toward your event.
- Direct mailing: If you're hosting an event for your neighborhood community, direct mailing is an effective way to spread the word. Letters and postcards help your organization stand out and offer a personalized form of communication.
7. Make the Donation Process Easy
Once your fundraising strategy is in place, it's time to raise funds. Ensure the donation process is simple, convenient, and quick—you do not want your donors to turn back after they decide to donate because your method is confusing.
Since 63% of donors prefer to give online with a credit or debit card, they prioritize online and mobile fundraising.
With a virtual fundraising platform, you can easily collect online donations. Create mobile-responsive online donation forms, e-commerce stores, or crowdfunding campaigns to raise funds for your nonprofit organization.
While most platforms charge a transaction or processing fee, Zeffy's 100% free online donation platform offers a simplified way to collect donations without a fee.
Here are some additional tips to consider to make donating easier:
- Keep your donation form short by requesting only the necessary information.
- To make it easy for donors to contribute, include links to your online giving pages in your social media channels and email campaigns.
- Some of your campaigns may include in-person events such as bake sales, silent auctions, or school carnivals. For these traditional events, simplify the process with QR codes or tap-to-pay options at the venue.
8. Show Appreciation for Your Donors
A fundraising plan should not only focus on raising money. It should also cover ways to show appreciation to donors and engage with them regularly.
Setting up a donor stewardship process in your plan will help nurture long-term relationships with donors after they donate to your nonprofit. By stewarding your donors, you show them that your nonprofit values their support and contributions.
- Right after you receive their donations, send them an acknowledgment email with a thank you note and donation/tax receipt, if applicable.
- You can even give donors a shout-out on your social media, email newsletters, websites, or at another fundraising event.
- Use the donor information stored in your database to personalize the message.
- Include their name and reference their specific gift amount. Also, choose their preferred mode of communication, whether digital or direct mail.
9. Follow Up and Keep in Touch
Since recurring donors give 42% more than first-time donors annually, it's essential to strengthen your ties with people who support your nonprofit. Plus, more spending is involved in donor acquisition than donor stewardship. 97% of donors state that creating an impact is one of the major reasons for giving. Ensure you let them know how their personal donations helped.
Other steps you can take are:
- Coming up with exclusive memberships motivates your donors to stay involved with all your fundraising activities.
- Leaning on donor segments to retain those who give more. Offer some special perks to donors, such as free parking at events, branded merchandise, or exclusive gift cards.
- Sharing accurate numbers and cases of how their donations are being used and the impact they're creating.
- Setting guidelines on how often you will reach out to donors. For instance, when communicating with recurring donors, you might share monthly newsletters about your projects and upcoming events.
10. Track Specific Fundraising Metrics
For every fundraising campaign, choose specific KPIs to track that report progress towards your nonprofit fundraising goal. For instance, if one of your goals is to acquire 200 new donors, evaluate your numbers throughout your campaign to determine your nonprofit's success.
Some effective metrics to track include:
- New donors acquired
- Donor retention rate
- Average gift size
- Event attendance rate
- Donor lifetime value
Use these metrics to create a well-rounded, transparent report on your annual fundraising plan template, giving supporters and nonprofit boards a deeper understanding of the current position and results secured from your fundraising efforts on previous campaigns.
11. Simplify Your Fundraising Efforts with the Right Fundraising Software
Choosing the right fundraising software is crucial for streamlining your efforts and maximizing the fundraising impact.
Zeffy is a 100% free fundraising suite designed to help nonprofits plan and execute a wide range of fundraising events and campaigns with ease.
With Zeffy, you can manage your donor database and even open an e-commerce store for your nonprofit – all without any transaction or processing fees. This means that every penny donated goes directly to supporting your cause.
Zeffy's powerful features include:
- Event ticketing for groups and individuals
- Automated reminders and follow-ups for your fundraising events
- Seamless donor database and donation management
- Automatic tax receipt generation and sharing
- Peer-to-peer campaign functionality
- Donation pages to promote simple giving and capital campaigns
By choosing Zeffy, you can save time, reduce expenses, and focus on what matters most: making a difference in your community. Simplify your fundraising efforts and amplify your impact with Zeffy today.
How to Take Your Fundraising Plan to the Next Level
For anyone feeling even more ambitious, let’s talk about a few ways to take your fundraising plans up a notch to raise the most possible. It comes down to relationship building with a focus on the future so you can work smarter and not harder.
Keep a Running List of Fresh Fundraising Ideas
Even the best new ideas can catch on and become overdone or outdated, so it’s essential to elevate your current fundraising strategy with a running list to tap into. It never hurts to keep an inspiration list on your fundraising calendar even if you’ve mapped out campaigns for the entire year ahead.
Keep a fundraising ideas list that the entire team can jump into whenever creativity strikes to add their thoughts. Fresh perspectives keep your fundraising plan creative, flexible, and adaptable to anything that comes your way.
You might consider creating subcategories of cost-effective ideas, campaigns that donors respond well to, and fundraisers you’d run if funding became available.
Here’s a quick list to dig into:
- 101+ fundraising ideas for nonprofits
- 30+ fundraising ideas for schools
- 24 fall fundraising ideas
- 24 creative peer-to-peer fundraising ideas
Build a Community of Major Donors
Major gifts can result from any fundraising plan, but intentionally structuring your strategy around securing donors who give more can help you raise even more. Generous donors create a strong and reliable foundation for your nonprofit’s financial health.
In some instances, a few major donations can raise more than an entire campaign of smaller gifts. Consider areas of your fundraising plan that call for significant funding and how building relationships with donors can help you devote time and energy to more personalized activities.
The relationship-building piece is huge here. Major donors are typically very invested in an organization's mission and can show loyalty repeatedly when they feel valued.
A few tips to build major donor relationships that support your fundraising strategies:
- Personalize your outreach: Tailor communications to each donor’s interests and passions to show genuine appreciation and alignment with their values.
- Keep them in the loop: Provide personalized reports, project updates, and success stories to keep donors informed about the impact of their contributions.
- Offer exclusive access and perks: Offer behind-the-scenes tours, events, or one-on-one meetings with leadership to deepen their connection with your mission.
- Overly show your gratitude: Regularly thank donors with handwritten notes, personalized gifts, or public recognition to make them feel valued and appreciated.
- Get them involved: Invite donors to provide input or serve on advisory boards to make them feel like integral partners in your mission’s success.
Engage Corporate Sponsors
Engaging corporate sponsors is a great way to build a steady stream of support for your fundraising plan, both financially and in terms of time and resources. Corporate sponsorships can create consistency around funding, which supports the execution of longer-term projects.
Beyond financial support, businesses and for-profit organizations can offer more for nonprofits they’ve built relationships with:
- In-kind donations: Goods, services, or products that cut back on operational costs in tech, office supplies, or event space.
- Expertise and skills: Offering marketing strategy, legal, IT, or fundraising consultant to help nonprofits enhance their operations without a large cost.
- Employee volunteers: Staff will volunteer at events or projects that reduce expenses and help you accomplish more with each fundraiser.
- Brand awareness: Promoting a cause through company platforms, such as websites, social media, or newsletters, boosting the nonprofit’s visibility.
- Access to networks: Introducing the nonprofit to the company’s clients, partners, and stakeholders, potentially leading to more donors and partnerships.
- Marketing strategy: Running joint marketing campaigns where a portion of sales supports the nonprofit, raising awareness and funds.
Choosing the right corporate partner matters. Partnering with a reputable organization can strengthen your credibility, which will expand your reach and fundraising potential.
Place a Special Focus on Year-End Giving
When you consider a year of fundraising plans, the last months have the greatest potential to push you over the finish line of your goals. Giving Tuesday and the holiday season entice more giving and awareness of charitable causes among new donors.
Some big campaigns require more long-term planning, so you can consider how you want to attract and retain donors as the year ends. Appeals centered on a target audience for this season can bring in a large wave of funding while building relationships to funnel support into the new year.
You might get creative about a holiday-themed campaign but don’t feel like you have to. An organization's success during a year-end campaign is all about tapping into generosity and the spirit of giving back by highlighting your organization’s story and offering creative ways to get involved.
Support Efforts With Nonprofit Grants
As you create your fundraising plan, there’s likely a point where you’ll notice some financial restrictions or put projects on the back burner because of cost. This is where nonprofit grants can become an essential part of your strategy to be that major fundraising push you're needing.
A nonprofit grant can offer financial backing for a specific project that otherwise couldn’t be launched. It is a great way to pitch new ideas or initiatives to funding partners looking for ways to elevate the causes they align with.
Nonprofit grants can also support overall operational costs that can impact many projects throughout the year, bringing your fundraising plan to a new level and quickly scaling your organization.
Parting Thoughts on Getting the Most From Your Organization's Fundraising Strategy
While planning the fundraising process may take a lot of time and effort upfront, a plan provides the structure needed to stay on track and enhance your success.
Remember, your fundraising strategy can be flexible. Update your plan as you see fit throughout the year, adapting the planning process to unexpected challenges or new opportunities. Document your fundraising strategy so that everyone on the team can access it.
FAQs: Nonprofit Fundraising Plan
