Creating Your Road Map for Fundraising Success

"If you don't know where you are going, you might wind up somewhere else." — Yogi Berra

In the fundraising profession, it's essential to have a plan. I recall when I first decided to develop a formal fundraising plan. It was when I set the goal to earn my CFRE and knew our department needed a more intentional and focused approach. My CEO had never asked for one, but I realized it was needed.

Initially it was a tedious job as I researched benchmarking data — which often led to more questions and additional research. But once I saw potential, I became excited about the process — as well as the results. I soon realized there were things that we needed to stop doing and others we should do be doing. And there was a lot more data that we needed to track.

Planning is all about organizing your activities in order to achieve a desired goal.

Your development plan should meet you where you are. For some, it could be just a few pages — even a one-page outline to start. For complex organizations, it could exceed 100 pages.

A plan provides the needed focus on areas of greatest return, aligning resources with your major goals. It helps you make decisions and can provide justification when you need to decline opportunities that will drain resources and diminish your focus — and therefore diminish your return. It keeps you on track with clear goals, measurable objectives, calendars, strategies, budget parameters, and responsibilities for staff and volunteers.

Plans need to be consistently measured and fine-tuned to help you remain on task. Your plan will age beautifully when it receives your ongoing attention. You will find that your plan — and the results — improve over time.

The process can be as important as the result. When you engage staff, volunteers and donors in the process, you not only gain their insights and needed data, but also allies for the plan's implementation.

Take time the next few weeks to get away from your day-to-day demands and create or fine-tune the fundraising plan that will take you to new heights in the coming year!

Jeff Jowdy is the president and founder of Lighthouse Counsel and a member of the FundRaising Success Editorial Advisory Board. Reach him at jeff@lighthousecounsel.com