02 Analysis
With all the information at your fingertips now, it’s time to make sense of everything in relation to fundraising. Let us say for example your organisational budget is R500k, R300k is raised through existing donors, leaving a shortfall of R200k to be raised for the financial year. This is useful information as it allows you to go deeper in understanding the shortfall, where should focus be placed, and guides you in determining a fundraising target. In this example, the senior fundraiser, with the guidance of the director could say that they would be happy with a R250k fundraising target, R200k to cover our shortfall budget of R500k and R50k surplus for reserves, this could be further broken down to specific targets like number of multiple year grants. This analysis will also support your thinking around a cultivation strategy that ensures that you are managing existing partners and donors. Remember, it costs an organisation almost six times more to get a new donor than to keep an existing one. This analysis should feature in your fundraising strategy as a precursor to your actual plan.
Once you have done that, you can determine the weighting behind each source e.g., CSI 20%, HNWIs 25%, International 50% and individuals 5%. The next step is to look at your tactics, what are some of the methods you will decide to deploy to reach these percent targets, e.g., a high networth chairpersons’ dinner or mapping out key corporates that match your focus area. These are the main elements to your plan, but do not forget your cultivation plan and roles and responsibilities of the team who are supporting in fundraising – this way everyone is clear on how they play a role, after all fundraising is everyone’s responsibility The feeling for a fundraiser when a meeting with a prospect ends positively, a proposal for a major multi-year grant is accepted, an online campaign reaches millions or a donor approaches you to support your work, is indescribable – one that is filled with elation, victory, and belief. I remember my first success in fundraising. It was a fridge and freezer donated by a global appliance store that went towards supporting a national disability organisation and its student college – I celebrated this little victory for days, knowing the impact it would have to the college. This was the first of many successes and many rejections, however what I learnt is that, we as fundraisers hold power to move our organisations forward, help our nation grow collectively and impact lives. Fundraisers are the heartbeat of the organisation. They make things possible.
03 The Plan
With all the relevant information gathered and analysed, and targets determined; it’s time to draft your plan. Your plan is asking the following questions, where will we raise our funds from and how will we raise these funds? Your sources of income should be diversified as there is danger in having only one funding source or partner. I always recommend having a few funding sources, the many that exists include corporate social investments (CSI), trusts and foundations, high networth individuals (HNWIs), international grants, individual giving, events, and campaigns and earned income. Depending on your fundraising resources and time - think carefully about how you want to spend your time raising funds to meet your targets. Do more research on the sources you decided on, and find out the trends and possibilities existing within each.
Good luck in putting together your fundraising strategy!
Collective Action Magazine | 49
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