Role of Planning in Fundraising

Posted: August 25th, 2021

Role of Planning in Fundraising

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Role of Planning in Fundraising

Most non-profit organizations depend upon different sources of funding to help them meet their budgetary requirements. Incorporating an organized and well-structured fundraising plan is essential for setting and achieving the financial objectives of such institutions. The greatest nightmare among these associations is not the amounts needed, but rather the process of securing funding to help their activities run effectively. Thus, a successful plan sets forth different routes and strategies to reach its overall goal. Generally, such programs encourage diversification of sourcing by avoiding overly reliant upon any single source of the monetary reserve. Planning, therefore, is a central tenet through which an organization restates its vision and mission as a foundation for determining the level of income demand and explaining why that given amount is necessary.

A successful fundraising plan describes in brief the mission and vision of any non-profit organization, making them more appealing to the potential donors. In the book Fundraising Principles and Practices, Sargeant & Shang (2010) believe that restating vision and mission statements could be ideal in enhancing focus both locally and externally. In short, a plan with such a focus makes it easier to remind the fundraising team about their importance and why they need to succeed at all cost. However, it becomes more important to draw the attention of the ideal supporters of a given institution. A summary of what the organization intends to achieve can initiate confidence of the supporting agencies, making it appropriate to strike a mutually beneficial relationship (Sargeant & Shang, 2010). Overall, a clear fundraising plan highlights some of the necessary steps to enforce clarity and to make the plan more convincing for the internal team and the well-wishers as well.

While clear mission and vision statements can address the entire objective of conducting a fundraising scheme, this whole venture will not be complete without proper auditing strategies. A promising fundraising plan is capable of identifying the current position of an organization, explaining why it needs funds, and showing how it will ultimately solicit for such monetary appeals (Sargeant & Shang, 2010). Through fundraising audit, the staff will be able to identify those factors, especially the ones originating from within the institution and those emanating from external environments, which can impede the process of raising funds. For instance, with the aid of a well-structured fundraising plan, it becomes easy for the planning team to focus on the macro factors and their possible effect on finances’ collection. Ideally, there needs to be a political goodwill from different authorities and willingness to support the non-profit organizations (Sargeant & Shang, 2010). Similarly, capturing the economic trends of a given region will be helpful in forecasting the possibility of change in future donors’ behavior and consider socio-cultural and technological realignments.

Finally, the fundraising plan is instrumental in assessing and evaluating the levels of competition and understanding potential collaborators within the target environment. Before authorization of the fund drive scheme, it is essential to consider the main stages: analysis, cultivation, solicitation, and lastly, stewardship (Sargeant & Shang, 2010). The whole process depends on the organization’s knowledge of leaders in the industry, the existence of other non-profit institutions offering similar services or availability of competing objectives and ambitions (Sargeant & Shang, 2010). Having a clear plan in mind will equally reveal possibilities of joining hands with other non-profit or for-profit firms intending to offer philanthropic support. Therefore, combining external and internal forces and designing proper strategies to assimilate them within the funding program is an exclusive role and an indicator of a successful fundraising plan.

References

Sargeant, A., & Shang, J. (2010). Fundraising principles and practice (Vol. 17). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.