Dear “Free From Budget Worry,”

Since during this time of year we celebrate July 4th, this edition of OTG e-TA is dedicated to helping you achieve independence from budget worry. Constant ruminating over the challenges of raising funds is diminished when you are implementing an annual fundraising plan with monthly actions and dollar goals to achieve.

Refer to the content section on the right to click on resource development topics. Use the hyperlinks within blurbs for more detail. For past editions, use the right side and click Read Back Issues of OTG e-TA. Tell us what you think of OTG e-TA and link to LEADline.

We encourage you to send this and other issues of OTG e-TA to friends and colleagues who would benefit from the information. Also, if you’re on information overload, you may request email removal. Otherwise OTG e-TA will be back in two weeks with another edition. Both, the sponsor, CNCS (Corporation for National and Community Service) and its provider, Campaign Consultation, wish you ongoing success in raising resources.

Establish Your Fundraising Goal

In order to worry less about your budget, you need to raise enough money to cover your expenses for your programs and for operating expenses. But you need to have a clear picture of what you can raise during the year and how you are going to raise it. To know this you need to be familiar with your donors and your donor prospects, and most of all, you need to have a plan.
(Click here for more details on a fundraising plan, donor base and setting goals.)

Build Major Donors with The Five “I”s of Development

Using this development tool effectively over a period of time will help you grow major donors who will make the greatest financial commitments to your program.

These Five “I”s are:

1. Identify – the prospects who might support your program
   
2. Interest – do your work in a way that those prospects will notice, and be interested
   
3. Inform – Send newsletters, generate publicity, hold special events to inform your prospects about the need in the community that your program is meeting
   
4. Involve – the more a prospect is involved in your program, the more they care – ask advice, request help on short term projects, etc.
   
   And Thus:
   
5. Invest – the more a prospect cares, the more likely he or she is to invest with a major financial contribution

Make sure your Annual Resource Development Plan Includes time for building identified prospects into major donors.

Your Resource Development Action Plan

Fundraising is a balancing act of diverse activities and demands. By developing a plan prior to the beginning of each fundraising year, you will assure yourself that you won’t have too many conflicting obligations at one time. You also will give yourself time to prepare staff and volunteers for deadlines and annual expectations while keeping an open mind to opportunities that develop once the year is underway.

(Click here for a downloadable example and a form you can use for your program. Capture what may apply to your own plan. Print out both on legal-sized paper.)

Additional Resources

National ASK to Sustain Institute, Campaign Consultation, Inc. 1998.

Resources Now! National Institute, Campaign Consultation, Inc. 2006.

Greenfield, James M., Fund-Raising Fundamentals: A Guide to Annual Giving for Professionals and Volunteers. 1994.

Dove, Kent E., Jeffrey A Lindauer and Carolyn P. Madvig. Conducting A Successful Annual Giving Program. 2001.

IN THIS ISSUE:
click on titles below to read full articles

Details from above:

Establish Your Fundraising Goal (cont.)

Your Fundraising Plan

Your fundraising plan should start with your resource development calendar. Consider what fundraising activities you will employ:

• Face-to-face asks from leadership and major prospects
  
• Seasonal direct mail
  
• Special Events
  
• Phonathon
  
• Web-based appeals
  
• Grant Proposals to Foundations and Corporations
  
• Gifts in kind
  
• Tributes
  
• Planned gifts
  
• Other

Each fundraising activity should have its own goal—both a numbers goal and a monetary goal. If you can’t provide a monetary goal for an activity like planned gifts, you can give it a goal for number of contacts or mailings.

Your Donor Base

Every annual program has three types of donors: Current donors (those who have given in the current year,) lapsed donors (those who have given previously, but not this year,) and nondonors (those who have never given to your organization.)

You need to target your donor base and donor prospects for the appropriate fundraising activity. The most recent donors are the ones who are most apt to give again. Someone who is giving you $500 every year doesn’t get dropped into your mass mailing. This donor deserves a personal contact. Donors giving at one level can be asked to increase their gifts to higher levels. Donors who give one gift every year can be asked for a second gift later in the year.

Donors who have given in the past, but have not given this year or for several years (See LYBUNTS and SYBUNTS) will need their own fundraising activities in order to recapture these donors.

Make a concerted effort to get lists of names to find new donors. Ask your fundraising volunteers to provide new names and perhaps even sign a letter for this special group of prospects. Someone who came to a special event but has never given before can be added to your direct mail campaign.

Setting the Goal

Now that you have identified needs, activities and your donor prospects, how do you determine how much you will raise? Your overall annual fund goal will be determined by:

• The size and number of gifts received the previous year
  
• A determination of how many of last year’s donors can be upgraded
  
• An analysis of the sources of new donors
• A decision about the number and variety of fundraising activities
  
• The addition of any programmatic efforts which may cause a change in your funding needs.
  
• Other

Finally, in any campaign, there is the historical expectation that 10% of the donors will give 60% of the goal; the next 20 % will give you another 20% of your goal; and the remaining 70% of your donors will provide the last 20% of your goal. Target your efforts toward reaching the largest number of the largest donors, upgrading all current donors, recapturing lapsed donors and identifying new donor prospects.

Glossary

LYBUNT
1. n. (plural lybunts) An acronym (Last Year But Unfortunately Not This) used in fundraising circles to describe donor(s) who gave during the previous annual fundraising cycle but not the current one.

SYBUNT
1. n. (plural sybunts) An acronym (Some Year But Unfortunately Not This) used in fundraising circles to describe donor(s) who gave some time in the past not the current giving cycle.

Read Back Issues of OTG e-TA

• June 2006 Welcome Edition
  
• Mid-June 2006 Free From Budget Worry

Tell Us!

Resources Now! National Institute, Providence, RI, September 27-29, 2006.

Online Fundraising Course: Build Fundraising Volunteer Champion, July 2006

Do you have any successful networking stories?

Do you need help identifying prospects for gifts?

Let us know by contacting us through LEADline@CampaignConsultation.com

Other Campaign Consultation offerings include:

• Resources Now! National Institute: A three-day focused sequence of training and coaching opportunities offered for a total of 240 participants.
  
• Online Courses: Web course delivery of topics pertinent to resource development.
  
• Learning Templates: Interactive tools and skill practice guides to aid you in resource development.