Master These 3 Elements of Fundraising First

By Rhen Hoehn, Director of Marketing

You would not build a house without first creating blueprints, gathering building materials, and pouring a foundation.

It wouldn’t make any sense to start the build by constructing a gourmet kitchen without plumbing, electricity, or even a roof and say “we’ll figure those parts out later.”

There is a proper order to construction that will prevent wasted time and money.

The same is true for fundraising. 

You have to have the foundation in place first. 

If not, all of your other efforts will falter and you will find yourself thinking “this doesn’t work, this is a waste of time.”

There is a science to fundraising, and it does work. 

It begins with getting three elements in place for your fundraising program:

• Vision: What is Your Story?

When we work with nonprofits to help them build and grow their fundraising programs, we like to start with this question:

If a prospect walked into your office and offered to give $1 million if you could state what the nonprofit would do with the money and how it would make an impact, would you be prepared to answer them on the spot?

Even more important is the follow up:

If the donor then walked into the next office down the hall and asked your coworker the same question, would they answer in the same way as you?

Some people feel confident in their own ability to answer the donor, but very few have confidence that all of their staff would answer in the same way.

All nonprofits should regularly spend time with staff, volunteers, donors, and other stakeholders to review and update the organizational vision. 

You might even hold a formal visioning session to make this happen.

Each time the vision is updated it should be captured in an updated organizational Case Statement.

• Database: Who Should Hear Your Story?

Every nonprofit should have a fundraising database, this is non-negotiable. 

But setting up the database is just the beginning. There should be plans in place for both growing and maintaining that database.

Growing the Database

Database growth can take a couple of forms, depending on your type of nonprofit.

For organizations like schools or campus ministries, it’s a matter of registering new and existing members (and often their family members), while continually working to build the most complete list of all former members.

For organizations that are more interest-based, such as a pro-life advocacy group, it involves creating ways to gather together people with an interest in your work. This might be in-person (most commonly through events!) or online through communications and funnels.

For long-term fundraising success, your database must always be growing.

Maintaining the Database

A tedious but necessary element of the database is regular maintenance. Work toward a reality where time is spent working on your database every week. Some database maintenance elements include:

• Updating contact information
• Adding donations
• Recording interactions with constituents
• Improving segmentation and tagging data
• Backing up data
• Running reports for other activities, such as donor stewardship

Sometimes it makes sense to hire some extra help or recruit a volunteer to perform these tasks. No matter who’s doing it, make sure it is happening regularly. 

Any experienced fundraiser will tell you that a database with out-of-date data is a useless database. Make the time for this work to happen.

• Communications: How Will You Tell Your Story?

Plan out a communications schedule for the coming year to get your vision in front of prospective donors. A good communications plan includes a variety of media:

• Appeal letters should be the backbone of the plan. These are often sent via direct mail.
• Newsletters should be used to set up the appeal letters.
• Email should be used throughout the year to inform and inspire prospects and to make appeal solicitations when appropriate.
• Social media should be used for day-to-day messaging and to share even small wins.

If you wonder why direct mail appeal letters and newsletters are worth the investment, we break down the numbers for you here.

Putting It Together

Coming back to our analogy, these three elements are the foundation of the house that is your development program. Determine your vision, figure out who you are communicating it to, and start communicating with them.

With the foundation installed, you can begin building the rest of the house from the ground up.

Annual Fund

Building the ground floor means building out an annual fund plan. 

This will include a variety of activities and efforts over the course of the year that will help provide day-to-day funding for your nonprofit and qualify potential major donors.

Annual fund activities are more successful when they are informed by a compelling vision and brought to an audience who has already started to understand that vision through communications.

Major Gifts

The next level of the house is the major gifts plan. This involves intentionally meeting donor prospects face-to-face and building relationships with them, working toward the point of asking for a significant donation to the organization.

The major gifts process is essential to successful fundraising and organizational growth. The entire major gifts process goes much more smoothly when it is built on top of an active annual fund program.

Campaigns

The top level of our house build is capital campaigns. 

A well-planned and well-executed capital campaign is a strategic effort that can boost the organization’s impact a decade into the future in just a short time. The key to a successful capital campaign is the  strong donor relationships that come with the major gifts efforts.

Looking back, each of these layers builds on the next. 

• Strong foundational elements sustain a strong annual fund. 
  
  
• A strong annual fund leads to successful major gifts. 
  
  
• Major gifts transform the nonprofit and can lead to a capital campaign to make aspirational projects happen.

It all starts with getting the basics right.

If you feel like you or your team need help getting the foundational elements in order, BOAT might be for you.

BOAT, or Basic Online Advancement Training, is Petrus Development’s “bootcamp” for those new to fundraising.

It is a 10 week, online, cohort-based course that will walk you through the implementation of each element discussed in this article, from vision to databases to communications and beyond.

The fall 2024 cohort begins in October, so don’t delay.

Cassy Beltran is the new development director helping establish a fundraising program at Holy Spirit Newman Center at Grand Canyon University.  

She completed BOAT in Spring 2024. Here is what she had to say about the experience: 

Daniel Ryan is the new development assistant for the Diocese of Marquette vocations office. He also joined the spring 2024 session of BOAT as part of his onboarding for the job. 

This is what Daniel had to say about his BOAT experience:

BOAT is THE development bootcamp for beginning fundraisers.

Learn more about BOAT and the upcoming session HERE.