Operationalize Your Strategy

Hands up if you have a dusty fundraising strat-plan sitting on a shelf somewhere ???

Or maybe we should start with if your organization has a strategic plan at all – but for the sake of this post, let’s assume you have one. Or maybe it’s a data audit or a high-level fundraising review. Whatever you call it, I see first-hand how the best-laid plans gather dust and don’t lead to the promised success they lay out.

?

I’m lucky to get to work with charities across many sectors and when we? build any version of a strategic fundraising plan, there are always so many opportunities to raise more funds and do more good.? So what gives?? Why don’t these plans work?

?

I’ve been reflecting on that a lot recently, so I thought I’d share, for anyone who might be interested, some tips I’ve given my clients, after presenting these plans, on how to implement the recommendations they often come with.

1.? ? Year Zero

The financial model in the plan says that if you invest X dollars to raise your donor upgrade rate, you’ll bring in X percent more revenue!? Sounds great. But let’s be honest – nothing in our world happens as fast as we hope. For any number of reasons – a new disaster we have to focus on, employee turnover, no clear tangible offers built etc – building takes time. These projects often take more time than we think by the time we’ve navigated finance, programs, marketing and our own department’s needs and barriers.?

The corporate world often allows for at least three years to see a return on investment. I know we rarely have time (or a board) that will allow for that much time but Year Zero is everything. Give yourself time to do it right otherwise you’ll jeopardize results before you even begin.

2.? ? Prioritize

I know – this one feels like a “No sh%t, Sherlock”, but the number of times I see charities determined to do everything right away always shocks me. Part of the issue, of course, is that everything is a priority – we have to raise all the money right away. We need to bring in those new donors because our old ones are dying, we need more conversion because monthly donors are key, we have to get those offers built so we can bring in more major donors – the list goes on.

But resources -? not just money but people and time – are limited. So divide the recommendations into categories. (Below categories are just some ways you can divide the lot)

a.? ? Low-hanging fruit – these are the things you can implement fast with little to no need for buy-in, lots of time, or other interdependencies – but that will make all the difference in the world both now and for future endeavors.

b.? ? Biggest bang for your buck – the one or two things that are the most relevant right now. I say relevant and not important on purpose. It might be important to start an acquisition program for example, but if you don’t have good onboarding systems and a plan to cultivate and convert these donors then this needs to wait. What’s more relevant right now is to get the donor onboarding automation set up. There is nothing worse than acquiring new leads or donors and then doing nothing with them.

C.? Can live without, at least for now - These are the things that are equally as important as anything else but your capacity, resources, foundation, team, etc., just can't it handle yet. Identify what you need to get you there and put them into a future year - this way you are setting yourself up to do it or at least reevaluate it at a later date. New staff usually fall into this category. Yes, I know we recommended hiring a new mid-level donor rep but if you don't have a pipeline for them to work with, if your offers still need to be developed, if your business rules for moving donors to and from different portfolios isn't set up - this can wait - get the rest going first so that when you do bring them in, they will be able to hit the ground running

D. Sacrifices - Look at these as your true investments. They may not bear the return you are hoping for right away but if you don't start these now you will never get to where you need to go. And let’s be honest - these are often the least sexy of the bunch - and no shade to these because believe me, if I could, I put way more money into them than we usually do. Things like prospect research, business rules, sales sheets, data cleanup, new donor onboarding and donor journeys. Did I mention new donor onboarding and donor journeys? Take the time to build your foundation. It doesn’t always feel good investing in these things, but we can’t afford not to.

3.? ? Operationalize

This one is a special favourite of mine. A strategic plan is NOT an operational plan. Seems logical but here again – the number of clients who don’t or can’t turn strategy into operations is a real issue. To be clear – this is not a list of projects and tactics although it may include these.

?

An operational plan looks at the KPIs, opportunities and areas of focus a strategic plan or fundraising audit presents and turns it into relevant actions, with goals, people resources required, timing and budgets. It thinks across departments, is cross-functional, considers who, when, what, how and develops clear ways to measure progress. It thinks about channels and activities, audiences and interdependencies.? It can be super comprehensive or light in structure and often it's limited by a shorter timeframe than a strat-plan and should be adapted and changed as new information surfaces. I’m a bit biased because turning strategy into operation is one of my favourite things – like the song – raindrops on roses and strategy into action.

4.? ? Smart Redistribution

There is a mistaken idea that operationalizing strategic recommendations will cost a bunch of new money. Well, that’s not completely untrue. New ideas may need new money. But one of the first things I say to my clients after presenting strategic opportunities is that operationalizing this plan should first look at areas where you can redeploy resources. You need to increase your acquisition rates – can you redeploy funds from paper to digital acquisition? You need more focus on corporate – can someone you already have on your team decrease their focus on community fundraising to focus more on corporate? Second conversion rate slipping – is there a better donation system you can use for the same cost that can help increase that and also automate your new donor journey? Before spending new money – make sure your current budget is working for you. Sometimes taking money from Peter to pay Paul is the right thing to do.?

5.? ? Check-in and Adapt

Finally, don’t be afraid to scrap it all and change it up. At the very least - ensure you have checkpoints in your plan to not only check in on progress and KPIs but also change or adapt direction for better results. It’s way too easy to get bogged down in the day-to-day and not step back and make sure you’re still moving towards your end goal.?

And that’s it - ok that's not really it, but it’s a start!

I’m always happy to chat more - DM and ask me!

*Cat photo for the algorithm