A Realistic Look at Annual Funds

Of course, for many organizations that count on the annual fund to balance the budget, this will seem like heresy. But for the majority of larger, sophisticated fundraising shops, this is a much less controversial proposition. The annual fund is a donorbase-management program, not a fundraising program. Part of the difficulty in thinking about this issue is one of perspective. There was a time when what we now know as “major gifts,” numbers with six, seven and eight figures, were not on the horizon. Most giving for most institutions was essentially “small gifts” as we look in our rearview mirrors today. However, though the annual fund still accounts for the vast majority of donors, it rarely accounts for the lion’s share of the gifts, the money.