How is Zeffy free?
How is Zeffy free?
Zeffy relies entirely on optional contributions from donors. At the payment confirmation step - we ask donors to leave an optional contribution to Zeffy.
Learn more >
Raising money is critical for every nonprofit, but the fundraising tips to stand apart and a solid plan to make it possible are what lead to results.
A fundraising plan is a roadmap to success, breaking down your organization's fundraising goal into simple, actionable steps. With a clear fundraising strategy, you can achieve your goals and raise more funds within a specific timeline.
In this guide, we'll explain the importance of a fundraising plan and provide the steps to create one.
A fundraising plan outlines a nonprofit's fundraising approach to supporting its initiatives. It strategically organizes your fundraising efforts over a given period (usually one year).
Think of your fundraising plan as a roadmap you can rely on. It will move with you as you build and evolve to the given landscape, economic fluctuations, and donor preferences. Thinking ahead in this way gives you a sound strategy for making the most significant impact possible with your campaigns and donation efforts.
Your fundraising strategy should be aligned with your nonprofit's mission, values, and vision.
Your fundraising timeline can break things out by day, week, month, and season, depending on what works for your team. The best fundraising calendar type is one everyone on your team can read and adjust in real time.
Define a timeline and address specific questions, such as:
Having a fundraising plan in place helps your nonprofit in the following key ways:
Ultimately, well-defined fundraising planning will help nonprofit organizations boost fundraising revenue, expand their donor base, and achieve their goals.
Each nonprofit's annual fundraising event planning template will be unique, but most will incorporate these basic steps.
The most important step in creating your nonprofit strategic fundraising plan is to define specific and tangible goals that align with your nonprofit's mission.
For instance, if your mission is to build schools for girls, an achievable goal could be to raise enough funds for one school.
However, not all goals are achieved through funding. Here are some notable examples of the different types of goals to set:
Prospect research involves identifying donors with the capacity and willingness to donate, attend events, and support fundraising strategies. Since 80% of a nonprofit's revenue comes from around 20% of its donors, conducting prospect research is essential to spotting loyal donors and meeting fundraising goals.
Scan your database to find out how many donors rank high on the following parameters:
These indicators show that your prospect is committed to giving their money and time to causes they care about. Your donor relationships can tell you which fundraising initiative will be most impactful.
Your fundraising plan should define the core campaigns you intend to run throughout the year and relevant details for each campaign. Factor the following in:
This fundraising calendar can guide your day-to-day operations and keep your team focused on the campaign fundraising goals. Share this fundraising calendar across the different departments of your nonprofit to keep everyone in the loop.
When developing your fundraising strategy, create a gift range chart to identify the donations required to achieve your fundraising goals.
A gift range chart describes the number and value of donations your nonprofit needs to meet its fundraising goals. Strategize and decide on the number of prospects and successful solicitations you must focus on.
Here’s how you can create a gift range chart:
The below gift range chart is for a hypothetical $1,000,000 fundraising campaign.
| Gift Amount ($) | Number Of Gifts Required | Number of Donors Needed | Cumulative Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| $100,000 | 1 | 1 | $100,000 |
| $50,000 | 2 | 2 | $200,000 |
| $25,000 | 4 | 3 | $300,000 |
| $10,000 | 10 | 5 | $400,000 |
| $5,000 | 20 | 20 | $500,000 |
| $2,500 | 40 | 20 | $600,000 |
| $1,000 | 100 | 50 | $700,000 |
| $500 | 200 | 100 | $800,000 |
| $250 | 400 | 200 | $900,000 |
| $100 | 1000 | 1000 | $1,000,000 |
Assemble a team and delegate responsibilities across your nonprofit to achieve your fundraising goal.
When assembling your fundraising team, play to each member's strengths to maximize your limited time and additional resources. Assign roles that match their skills and expertise—for example, put your social media whiz on digital marketing and let your number cruncher handle the budget.
Get your board members involved, and have them share their knowledge with the team. By dividing tasks strategically, you'll work more efficiently and achieve your fundraising goals faster.
Here are some roles you may want to delegate:
Once you've defined your campaigns and other key elements, spread the word with a multichannel marketing approach. Using several channels will allow you to expand your campaign reach and attract more donors to your fundraising initiative.
Some popular channels to grow visibility around your fundraising campaigns are as follows:
Here are a few ways to tap into the benefits of social media to promote your campaign:
Once your fundraising strategy is in place, it's time to raise funds. Ensure the donation process is simple, convenient, and quick—you do not want your donors to turn back after they decide to donate because your method is confusing.
Since 63% of donors prefer to give online with a credit or debit card, they prioritize online and mobile fundraising.
With a virtual fundraising platform, you can easily collect online donations. Create mobile-responsive online donation forms, e-commerce stores, or crowdfunding campaigns to raise funds for your nonprofit organization.
While most platforms charge a transaction or processing fee, Zeffy's 100% free online donation platform offers a simplified way to collect donations without a fee.
Here are some additional tips to consider to make donating easier:
A fundraising plan should not only focus on raising money. It should also cover ways to show appreciation to donors and engage with them regularly.
Setting up a donor stewardship process in your plan will help nurture long-term relationships with donors after they donate to your nonprofit. By stewarding your donors, you show them that your nonprofit values their support and contributions.
Since recurring donors give 42% more than first-time donors annually, it's essential to strengthen your ties with people who support your nonprofit. Plus, more spending is involved in donor acquisition than donor stewardship. 97% of donors state that creating an impact is one of the major reasons for giving. Ensure you let them know how their personal donations helped.
Other steps you can take are:
For every fundraising campaign, choose specific KPIs to track that report progress towards your nonprofit fundraising goal. For instance, if one of your goals is to acquire 200 new donors, evaluate your numbers throughout your campaign to determine your nonprofit's success.
Some effective metrics to track include:
Use these metrics to create a well-rounded, transparent report on your annual fundraising plan template, giving supporters and nonprofit boards a deeper understanding of the current position and results secured from your fundraising efforts on previous campaigns.
Choosing the right fundraising software is crucial for streamlining your efforts and maximizing the fundraising impact.
Zeffy is a 100% free fundraising suite designed to help nonprofits plan and execute a wide range of fundraising events and campaigns with ease.
With Zeffy, you can manage your donor database and even open an e-commerce store for your nonprofit – all without any transaction or processing fees. This means that every penny donated goes directly to supporting your cause.
Zeffy's powerful features include:
By choosing Zeffy, you can save time, reduce expenses, and focus on what matters most: making a difference in your community. Simplify your fundraising efforts and amplify your impact with Zeffy today.
For anyone feeling even more ambitious, let’s talk about a few ways to take your fundraising plans up a notch to raise the most possible. It comes down to relationship building with a focus on the future so you can work smarter and not harder.
Even the best new ideas can catch on and become overdone or outdated, so it’s essential to elevate your current fundraising strategy with a running list to tap into. It never hurts to keep an inspiration list on your fundraising calendar even if you’ve mapped out campaigns for the entire year ahead.
Keep a fundraising ideas list that the entire team can jump into whenever creativity strikes to add their thoughts. Fresh perspectives keep your fundraising plan creative, flexible, and adaptable to anything that comes your way.
You might consider creating subcategories of cost-effective ideas, campaigns that donors respond well to, and fundraisers you’d run if funding became available.
Here’s a quick list to dig into:
Major gifts can result from any fundraising plan, but intentionally structuring your strategy around securing donors who give more can help you raise even more. Generous donors create a strong and reliable foundation for your nonprofit’s financial health.
In some instances, a few major donations can raise more than an entire campaign of smaller gifts. Consider areas of your fundraising plan that call for significant funding and how building relationships with donors can help you devote time and energy to more personalized activities.
The relationship-building piece is huge here. Major donors are typically very invested in an organization's mission and can show loyalty repeatedly when they feel valued.
A few tips to build major donor relationships that support your fundraising strategies:
Engaging corporate sponsors is a great way to build a steady stream of support for your fundraising plan, both financially and in terms of time and resources. Corporate sponsorships can create consistency around funding, which supports the execution of longer-term projects.
Beyond financial support, businesses and for-profit organizations can offer more for nonprofits they’ve built relationships with:
Choosing the right corporate partner matters. Partnering with a reputable organization can strengthen your credibility, which will expand your reach and fundraising potential.
When you consider a year of fundraising plans, the last months have the greatest potential to push you over the finish line of your goals. Giving Tuesday and the holiday season entice more giving and awareness of charitable causes among new donors.
Some big campaigns require more long-term planning, so you can consider how you want to attract and retain donors as the year ends. Appeals centered on a target audience for this season can bring in a large wave of funding while building relationships to funnel support into the new year.
You might get creative about a holiday-themed campaign but don’t feel like you have to. An organization's success during a year-end campaign is all about tapping into generosity and the spirit of giving back by highlighting your organization’s story and offering creative ways to get involved.
As you create your fundraising plan, there’s likely a point where you’ll notice some financial restrictions or put projects on the back burner because of cost. This is where nonprofit grants can become an essential part of your strategy to be that major fundraising push you're needing.
A nonprofit grant can offer financial backing for a specific project that otherwise couldn’t be launched. It is a great way to pitch new ideas or initiatives to funding partners looking for ways to elevate the causes they align with.
Nonprofit grants can also support overall operational costs that can impact many projects throughout the year, bringing your fundraising plan to a new level and quickly scaling your organization.
While planning the fundraising process may take a lot of time and effort upfront, a plan provides the structure needed to stay on track and enhance your success.
Remember, your fundraising strategy can be flexible. Update your plan as you see fit throughout the year, adapting the planning process to unexpected challenges or new opportunities. Document your fundraising strategy so that everyone on the team can access it.
The 4 Ps of fundraising are as follows:
Your nonprofit fundraising plan can benefit from including all of these elements.
Some types of fundraising initiatives to consider including in your fundraising plan are:
Read our guide to capital campaigns with successful nonprofit examples.
In the context of fundraising, the principle suggests that around 80% of your funds will come from 20% of donors.
Analyze your donor data to determine which donors have offered the most support in past campaigns. Identify and target new donors who may fall within this 20% category. This will involve researching organizations or individuals aligned with your mission and having the capacity to support your fundraising efforts.
A fundraising plan for a nonprofit is an overall strategy that outlines campaigns over a year. You may also have other fundraising plans that detail the campaigns and activities that are part of this overall plan.
These would be your short-term fundraising efforts to achieve the donation goal of the year. A fundraising plan template is a great way to map out exactly what it looks like to plan for the year.
The donor cycle is the process of how potential donors find out about your organization and the steps they take that motivate them to support your cause. Each stage offers opportunities for nonprofits to engage with supporters in a way that inspires action.
Boost your nonprofit’s fundraising success with this guide to email writing. Get tips on subject lines, CTAs, design, and personalized templates for your next campaign.
Discover the most effective ways to raise money for your nonprofit in 2023. Engage donors like never before with our best fundraising strategies.
.webp)
