Fundraising Planning and Implementation

Fund development work relies fundamentally on relationships, and relationships flourish under intentional cultivation rather than chance encounters. Investing time creating a written fund development plan pays dividends through increased revenue, stronger donor relationships, and reduced organizational risk over the coming years. Here are 5 tips to get started!

Is your donor pipeline work maximizing the number of donors who give to your organization to create the foundation needed for effective major gift work? Learn how you can leverage your mail, email, and social media work into an integrated campaign to strengthen that pipeline.

What does it mean to develop a real relationship and with whom should you develop those relationships? In today's highly competitive fundraising environment, the relationships you build will help grow and sustain your work much faster than any other way you can spend your time.

Donor stewardship is always important but letting your donors know that you appreciate them and how they make a difference for your mission has become more important than ever in today's highly competitive philanthropic landscape.

A strong grant report accomplishes more than compliance. It demonstrates impact, builds trust, and often opens the door to renewed or increased support. These 8 tips will help you write grant reports that inform, persuade, and strengthen your relationship with funders.

In today's competitive and challenging fundraising environment, what can you do to continue to raise the funds you need and to raise even more money? These three tips will help you meet and even exceed your goal.

The nonprofit community faces two unprecedented threats from the federal government that deserve your attention and your action. Make your voice heard. Every comment counts.

The number one way that you can raise more money? Get out of the office! Go where your donors are and meet them face to face to develop a real relationship.

AI is ubiquitous. So much so that you might feel overwhelmed by the pressure to use it - or not use it. My advice - try it and see how it might help make your work more efficient or effective. If it doesn't, then don't use it. If it does, then find the way that best integrates into your workflow. These 6 ways that we have found AI to help with our grant development work can get you started.

Grant reporting often becomes an afterthought to planning and writing the application and the celebration that comes when you receive an award. However, good grant reporting starts long before you start to write your application. Learn how to plan for and ultimately create good grant reports.

A well-planned site visit does more than educate a single legislator. It positions your organization as a credible, reliable resource, the kind of organization a member’s office calls when they need perspective on the issues you know best. That relationship, built one visit at a time, produces better policy for the people you serve. The process of scheduling that visit requires patience and persistence, but it follows a clear path. The following 10 tips will help you navigate it.

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One of the best ways I know to improve your chances of grant success is to contact the funder before you submit an application to develop a relationship with them. Learn four reasons why this is true in this week's Fundraising Friday.

Many options exist for paying your grant professional or staff to write applications on your behalf. A commission or percentage of the revenue they raise should not and cannot ethically be one of them. Learn why in this week's video.

Back in 1964, communication theorist Marshall McLuhan famously declared, "the medium is the message," meaning that the way information gets delivered shapes its impact on the recipient just as powerfully as the words themselves. Why does the medium matter? Let’s dive into it!

You may have seen on an application that you can add indirect costs to your budget and request. Learn what that means and why you should take advantage of these opportunities to raise more operating funds for your organization.

These 7 themes serve as good reminders to more seasoned grant professionals and good lessons for more novice grant seekers.

The board guides both the thinking and execution in the strategic planning process to guide the organization’s future. Five actions fulfill this role.

With 30% of all donations made during the month of December, how you finish the year with your appeal strategy might make or break your fund development goals and your organization's budget. These tips can help you end the year strong to maximize the revenue you raise.

At this time of year, a good digital strategy becomes even more important. With nearly 40% of gifts made during the month of December, a robust digital strategy can maximize your revenue, especially important as we conclude this tumultuous year. Here are 6 ways you can you best integrate digital tools this giving season.

A 30-45 second explanation of your organization and why it's important, an elevator pitch provides an important tool for educating the public about your organization. When created with your leadership team, board and staff, it also empowers them to both better understand your organization and to share a consistent message with their friends and network.

Last time we talked about why you need a fund development plan. This video walks through the steps to gather the data that will inform your plan and how to use that data to develop the strategies to move your organization and its fund development work forward.

Nonprofits don’t exist to make money — but they do need it to make an impact. A social enterprise can help you do both. Read more to learn how to build a mission-driven business venture that strengthens your sustainability, credibility, and connection to your cause.

One type of strategic plan focuses on your fund development work. Are you spending time in a way that will raise the most money for your organization? Are you meeting best practices benchmarks? A plan can help you determine that and create strategy to fill in any identified gaps.

At a meeting back in February, my staff and I talked about some of the likely challenges with which we thought our clients lived after the barrage of executive orders that the current administration had released at that time.

As executive orders and funding freezes began to feel more common, we started collecting data in a quarterly Federal Grant Impact Survey. Today's blog post highlights are most recent findings and the state of Quad Cities nonprofits today.

One strategic plan that I recommend all organizations have is a strategic fund development plan. It allows you to chart out your long-term and short-term goals, find the gaps in achieving that goal, and develop specific steps to get there.

Last week, I had the honor of cohosting the inaugural Table Talk session of the OneTable QC initiative, a joint venture between Wastyn & Associates and the Quad Cities Chapter of the Association of Fundraising Professionals. The event brought together nearly 60 local nonprofit leaders from various sectors to discuss their realities in the current political and economic environment, to share what they anticipate as the various elements of the Reconciliation Bill get implemented, and to brainstorm ways to minimize these impacts on their organizations and the people they serve.

Did you know? If 10% of your sporadic donors become recurring donors, you can boost five-year fundraising revenue by more than 70% (source: Virtuous) But how do we increase recurring gifts? Check out today's blog post for 5 tips!

In this ever-changing environment, the need to have a diverse funding mix becomes even more critical for organizational survival and prosperity. Learn how you can determine if you have a diverse enough portfolio of funders as a starting point to strengthening your financial future.

To help you understand the recent executive order on Federal grantmaking, these 9 steps will give you a general concept of how federal grants operate and your role as the applicant or recipient in the process.

Fund development work relies on relationships. People give to people. Understand the importance of building relationships and leveraging your board and volunteers to expand your circle of relationships to expand your fundraising success.