Fundraising

Crafting brilliant appeal letters and other donor communications (list here) is just part of the story in successful fundraising. You also need to look at the bigger picture.

That’s why I help clients set or clarify their fundraising goals. And it’s not just about income. It’s also about cultivating donor relationships. This involves a very different set of metrics.

Here are some fundraising and communications activities I’ve worked on:

Fundraising strategy and goals

Looks at how fundraising fits into the organisation, identifying opportunities to increase income or nurture donors, and setting appropriate goals and metrics to measure success.

Fundraising and communications plans

An outline of your fundraising activities and donor communications for at least one year. You plot every contact with the donor, whether or not it’s to ask for money. From here, you can better integrate messages and ensure your donors are not getting too many communications – or not enough!

Analysing donor data and forecasting

Looking at donor giving patterns to better forecast future appeal results. Also identify prospects for monthly giving, major gifts and bequests.

Development of fundraising offers

The right offers for your non-profit are crucial to the success of your fundraising appeals, whether they’re for one-off gifts or monthly giving.

Acquisition

Develop strategy and plans for targeting the right prospects, acquiring new donors, welcoming new donors and cultivating them through the crucial first year after giving to your organisation.

Recruiting monthly givers

Establishing monthly giving programs to provide ongoing income. Mine your data for the best prospects and recruit people who will support your cause month after month.

Cultivating major donors

Sitting in your database are the names of people who are willing to give you a large gift… if you ask them in the right way, at the right time.

Testing

Every fundraising program should include testing. Test your lists, your offers, your creative and measure the results over time. In this way you can get a better return for your fundraising dollar (which is actually your donor’s dollar).

Donor profiling and surveying

Surveying a small sample of donors about their attitudes towards your non-profit or a specific offer. Useful to get a snapshot of donors’ feelings. Suitable for smaller organisations who need to understand their donors better or for larger organisations that want to know more about specific segments.