Zimmerman Lehman : "Getting Ready To Do Effective Fundraising"

"Getting Ready To Do Effective Fundraising: Long Term Fundraising Planning"

The first step in the solicitation process has nothing to do with raising money! Before you begin your fundraising--and certainly before you begin drafting letters and proposals--you must give some serious thought to the purposes for which you intend to solicit money.

Keep the following rule in mind: Program determines funding, not vice-versa. That is, you must decide what your organization hopes to accomplish in the next one to three years and what it will cost to meet your goals. These decisions have nothing to do with fundraising. In other words, don't worry initially about what interests funders. Concentrate instead on what you hope to accomplish, who will get you there, and how much money you will need. Once you've made these decisions, you'll be ready to "fine-tune" your approaches to interest prospective grantors.

...concentrate on what you hope to accomplish, who will get you there, and how much money you will need.

Does your nonprofit have a mission statement?

This one-paragraph description of the purpose and aspirations of your organization is an invaluable planning and marketing tool. Your mission statement should indicate who your clients are, the services or products that you offer, and the means by which these services are provided.

For example: The National Unicorn Society protects the rights, health and lives of unicorns and other mythical beasts through legal and administrative advocacy, the provision of health assistance, and targeted public relations. The Society's intent is to alert decision-makers and the general public to the importance of preserving the lives and culture of mythical animals.

This mission statement indicates who is to be served, what those services are, and how the services are to be offered. The purpose of the mission statement is two-fold: to articulate your goals for all to see, and to determine whether new program ideas fall within the scope of your organization. If the National Unicorn Society's executive director were to approach her board of directors with plans to initiate a program to protect the health of gorillas, this would fly in the face of the mission statement, since gorillas are not mythical beasts. The board of directors could then do one of two things: either reject the new program because it does not fit within the mission statement, or amend the mission statement to allow for the new program.

Assuming that your board of directors has a written and updated mission statement, you are ready to begin your analysis. Assemble a planning committee of executive staff and board members to review current projects and to make recommendations for the future. The Executive Director and Board President should serve on this committee, as should the development director, the finance director, appropriate program staff, and interested members of the board. If your board has a program committee and a fund development committee, representatives should serve on this new planning committee.

The planning committee's first job is to review your nonprofit's current projects. How many separate projects does your organization operate? How much staff time is devoted to each project? What does each project cost?

Are you having trouble dividing your organization into discrete projects? Don't despair: many nonprofits offer a pastiche of services that don't appear to lend themselves easily to such divisions. You must understand that effective planning and fundraising require the separation of your organization's work into distinct entities. This may strike you as "artificial" or "not reflective of the way we work," but it is critically important nonetheless.

For example, a storefront AIDS service agency may offer medical services, counseling for those with HIV/AIDS, a food delivery program, a recreation program and assistance in securing benefits from public agencies. Each of the nonprofit's five severely overworked staff members wears at least three hats: a staffer may run a counseling program on Monday mornings, drive a food delivery truck every afternoon and lead monthly excursions to local music venues. When asked to account for the time he or she spends in each activity, this staffer may well respond with a blank look. That person has never stopped to think about how much time is allotted to each activity. If this nonprofit is to do successful planning--and to win the fundraising game--the planning committee must be able both to describe each of the organization's programs and to determine each program's cost.

The committee must next consider what the organization will be doing three years from now. Which current projects will be continued? expanded? eliminated? What new projects might be initiated? Money is not a factor at this point. Inevitably, when your organization begins its systematic effort to raise funds, certain projects may fall by the wayside. At this stage, however, the planning committee should concentrate on the projects that your nonprofit hopes to operate within the next three years. Once all projects are listed, they should be arranged in priority order.

Now that you've decided what you want to raise money to do and how much you'll need, it's time for the planning committee to review your organization's fundraising efforts to date and to plan future development efforts.

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