The 7 Questions Your Fundraising Plan Must Answer

1. How much money do we need to raise? You need a specific goal for your plan. If you just want to “raise more money” you’re setting yourself up for failure. After all, how much is more money? £1 more? £100 more?

2. Where will the money come from? You need a diversified funding portfolio to ensure the health of your organization. Will you raise unrestricted funds from individuals, Foundations, Legacies or more restricted funds from Institutional donors? Do not set a goal without an idea of where and how you will raise the money.

3. Who will we ask? Be specific. This means getting into creating lists of potential donors and conducting the necessary research to ascertain that you are eligible to receive funding from them. You may want to engage in pre assessment screening exercise or some form of due diligence to feel comfortable with receiving a donation from them.

4. When will we ask? Create an annual calendar that maps when the call for proposals are due and allocate adequate resources to provide a quality response to the call. Include grant deadlines, other business as usual events, and so on to get a complete picture of your year and business development needs.

5. How much will we ask for? You need to think about the amount of funding that you will request from the donor. In assessing this, you need to understand what the administrative recoveries are for each donor and the ability to fully cover your costs , as well as the capacity that is required to manage those funds.

6. How much compliance is required with this funding? Some donors are happy to donate to you with very little to no reporting requirement in return. Others, such as institutional government donors carry a high compliance price tag and require your organization to have and follow strict controls while implementing with their funds. Your ability to discern a high, medium or low compliance donor and match them to current internal processes before signing an agreement will put you in good stead for a pleasant future relationship with the donor and conversely the communities that you are serving.

7. How soon will we ask again? A fundraising plan is not complete without a pipeline. Funding, especially from external sources does not last forever. Good staff also do not tend to hang around forever unless you have a strategic retention strategy in place. Therefore, a detailed pipeline that minimizes gaps between funding and projects is crucial to a successful Organizational
fundraising plan.

At FINDEV Consulting Ltd, we offer business consultancy that is tailored to your fundraising needs and aspirations. We carefully work through your business plan, existing internal controls as well as other external contextual factors to help you secure and successfully retain the funds raised to develop the communities that you work in.