A lot of nonprofits struggle with fundraising, in spite of their success and community support. Usually, you just can’t afford to hire someone to do fundraising, so you’re stuck in this catch-22.
What’s the solution? Your organization has all the potential it needs. You just need to coordinate all your functions towards this deceptively simple two-part goal:
- Keep and grow a list of supporters who consent to hear from you
- Several times a year, ask each of those supporters to make a donation
Now, how do we get there from here? The details are different for every organization, but here’s one way to go about it:
1. Admin/Operations
- Compile all contacts into one database
- Review/audit of procedures, bylaws, etc
2. Fundraising/Communications
- Identify your organization’s key goals and timelines, and what you will need to achieve them, as specifically as possible (e.g. board members? Volunteers with X skills? $XX in new funding?)
- Come up with some things you can offer people in exchange for their support as part of this process (e.g. information/newsletters, events and activities, discounts from sponsors, etc.)
- Develop communications materials and plans to support this
3. Launch
- Plan an “event” (could be online or in real life) which gives you the opportunity to reach out to all of your contacts to:
- Let them know about your plans and your needs
- Make sure they know about all the reasons they should engage with you further
- Invite them to sign up for a newsletter, follow on social media, volunteer to lead an initiative, become a member, join the Board, etc
- Ask them to make a donation (ideally a recurring one)
Post-Launch
- Review and optimize database and admin systems
- Identify next steps in key areas (admin, operations, fundraising, communications etc) and name a Lead for each
- Establish and document procedures to ensure tasks are carried out consistently on an ongoing basis
- Review governance and by-laws to identify opportunities for improvemen