Today, we will talk about one of the most important parts of your fundraising – the development of a strategy. Without a strategy, your fundraising will be un- or even misdirected and will never be as effective, as if you tackle it with a plan. In theory, most organizations know this, but nevertheless many do not map our their fundraising strategy properly. The first steps towards developing a great fundraising strategy are to realize what it actually is, and why it is needed.
The fundraising strategy of your organization basically should answer the three questions every good strategy should answer:
But this sounds like a lot of work, right? Probably you have already spent a lot of time developing a project plan, your vision and mission and all the other documents you need to run a successful NGO. So why should you sit down again with your entire team to develop another strategy document? Well, this one is particularly important!
In your business plan, ideally, you have defined your organization’s vision, mission, and goals. You should have also talked about how you want to achieve these ends. But the fundraising strategy tackles the crucial question of how you want to pay for it. It does not have to be pages and pages long, but it is essential that you have an answer to all the questions that your strategy raises and that you have put enough thought into them.
If you don’t have a fundraising strategy, you might find yourself running out of money at some point and not have a backup plan for how to cope. You might realize, that the kind of funding you secured does not support the type of activities that you are planning. A once stable source of income might break away, and without any preparation, this might have devastating results for your organization. Also, you might miss out on so many great chances, because you don’t have a strategy in place that distributes responsibilities and makes it clear who has to do what and when.
Most importantly though – if you don’t have a strategy with assigned duties and decided timelines and work plans, fundraising will be a constant topic that will distract you from the actual project work you want to do and will bind a lot of the resources you need elsewhere to succeed.
With a good strategy in place, you will have a clear roadmap ahead of you and can focus on what is important for you and your organization. Furthermore, you can also use the fundraising plan when preparing proposals, as you have already collected a lot of crucial information in it and it is a great way to show the donors that you are serious about your organization’s future.
Are you a fundraiser for a non-profit, but your job feels way harder than it should? Do you constantly worry about how your organization will sustain its work and have a hard time securing grants? Does it feel like most energy goes into getting the funds instead of actually doing the project work in your organization? Then this course is for you! No matter the size of your organization or if you are a beginner or have years of experience – this online course will help you to develop a strategy for your fundraising efforts and bring them back on track.
This online course covers all areas of fundraising, starting with the development of a strategy and ending with the writing of a first proposal draft. Our experienced instructors have identified five main obstacles on the way to fundraising success that many fundraisers run into. In this course, we will systematically address them – and find a way to overcome them. Join us to tear down the obstacles in your way!
Eva is based in Germany and has worked for nearly a decade with NGOs on the grassroots level in Nepal in the field of capacity development and promotion of sustainable agricultural practices. Before that, she worked in South America and Europe with different organizations. She holds a Ph.D. in geography and her field of research was sustainability and inclusion in development projects.
