How To Make Your Fundraising Strategy A Winner

When I was a Fundraising Director, I wrote Fundraising Strategies – go figure….

The hardest part of writing a fundraising strategy is trying to satisfy the competing demands of both the internal and external audiences. 

On one hand, you need to produce a document that meets the expectations of the internal audience (Senior Leadership Team and Board). But on the other hand, it must be able to compete and be fit for purpose for all the external audiences (donors and fundraisers doing the asking out in the world).  

Prioritising The External “Why” and Not Getting Sucked Into The Internal “How Much”

Internally, fundraising raises money. All the metrics are numbers, how many of this and that. The emphasis is very much on the donations only. 

Externally, all the things that matter internally the donors could not give a monkey’s about.

Because the donors are interested in “their why” and not yours. 

Why they give and what itch they expect their charity of choice to scratch is down to them, and then down to the fundraiser to understand it and figure out how to scratch it.

The more you understand the reasons why your donors give to you:

• the more “look a like donors” you can tap into
• the better you can demonstrate why you are “the best horse” to back in your space
• happy donors are more likely to ask other donors on your behalf and to repeat their gift

And of course, the opposite is true, the less you understand why your donors give to you (beyond just the giving criteria or what is printed on their website) the more you just report back on how brilliant you are, talk about yourself the whole time and don’t know if you are scratching that philanthropic itch or not even close, the less likely they are to stick around or sing your praises to others.

All fundraisers know this, we know the better the relationship with our donors the better we serve our charities.

Shift The Focus From The Donation To The Donor

The reports we write internally, the strategies our non-fundraising colleagues expect NEVER focus on the donors’ why – only their donation.

Both success and failure leave clues. The more your charity expects its fundraising team to focus on money the less of it you will get. Because money comes from donors, and donors have choices. 

If you focus on money you will lose donors - if you focus on donors you will raise more money.

I have never seen a Board report that reports back on donor retention and satisfaction levels. I was never asked by any of my non-fundraising colleagues or Board members, do I understand why the donors give, why they stay or why they leave. 

Most Board reports and management accounts focus on how much is in, how much are we short by and how likely are we to hit target. If the charity has a churn problem, this is not measured. The focus is just get the money in, rather than build a donor base. 

A strong fundraising strategy needs to meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of the future. So, if your goal is to grow your income year on year then figuring out how to retain your existing donors (and not being a disappointment) is pretty fundamental.

Donors Are Meeting Their Own Objectives Not Yours

Board and financial reports calculate the return on investment of its fundraising activities but never the “ROR” return on relationship, which every fundraiser knows is vital.

Focusing on your donors and getting under the skin of why they selected you, will help you serve your donors better to better serve your charity - now and in the future.

To help your charity build a loyal and secure donor base, you first need to educate your non-fundraising colleagues that no one is “giving” you money. Donors are meeting their own objectives not yours. And that your case of support demonstrates how you fulfil their goals, and your stewardship validates their choice.

They give for their own reason but stay for the relationship with you.

To Lead Or To Spiral Downward

Does your current fundraising strategy LEAD or is it more of a downward SPIRAL to living from hand to mouth:

L – lay the foundation to grow your income year on year

E – elevate you, your team and your case of support to meet whatever 2021 has to throw at you

A – attract new prospects and donors to you not just you and your staff doing all the chasing

D – develop networks, donor stewardship & retention and foster donor askers

Or will it be a downward……

S – spam your way through a prospect list, just create a list of prospects and then find an excuse to connect one at a time

P – pipeline problems, not enough prospects in it, leaking leads, just not converting or worse full of one and done donors – poor retention

I – ignorant to the all-important WHY your donors give or worse why they leave, your charity is so focused on how much and when you miss out on the vital education that fuels success

R – reinvent the case of support to meet one funding criteria at a time, because your charity does not have a network of donors to tap into, you cannot reap if nothing was sown

A - ambiguous impact, your impact lacks the “so what” factor, big sweeping statements without clearly stating how you achieve an ultimate outcome for your service users

L – Light on unrestricted income but loaded with restricted, again if you are bending and squashing your case of support into a tight-fitting funding criteria it’s gonna be restrictive….

Fundraising Drag Or Fundraising Momentum

From my own fundraising experience, I believe how you set up your fundraising strategy will either create a drag on your fundraising OR help create momentum. Have a look at the table below, can you fill in the blanks? (The answers are HERE):

If you would like your own copy of the table above filled in with the answers, it’s HERE

Here’s to your success ??