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Writing a Fundraising Plan – Part 4: Individual Donors

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A fundraising plan contains the fundraising activities your organization will implement over a set period of time.  These activities will have specific, measurable goals.  The end result will be a sustainable fundraising program that provides the necessary funds to fulfill the nonprofit organization’s mission.  The fundraising plan is a powerful tool for any nonprofit.  Before proceeding to Part 4 in our Writing a Fundraising Plan series, please review Part 1: Planning to Plan , Part 2: Reaching Out Into the Community, and Part 3: Engaging Your Board in Fundraising.

Part 4 of our series on Writing a Fundraising Plan examines the critical aspect individual donors have on your fundraising program.

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Generation X – The omitted generation

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GEN XGenerational fundraising is still a hot topic at the conferences I attend. I see numerous articles about Millennials, Baby Boomers and even a growing interest in Generation Z, sometimes called PhilanthroKids, but I often feel that there is a generation that is being omitted from the conversation – Generation X.  Here is a bit of information worth noting: The youngest Boomers are now 50. That means the leading edge of Gen X will be 50 this upcoming year and primed for top giving levels.

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Year-End Transactions

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36052916_mMost nonprofits will raise 40-80% of their income in the last two months of the year. This obviously represents a huge impact on their bottom line and their ability to deliver services in the next calendar year. The impact of year-end giving places a lot of stress on nonprofits and their donor management systems.

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Lost Something? Time to Update Your Data

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Losing track of your constituents, even for a short period of time, translates into lost fundraising opportunities.  The problem of inaccurate data is not new, but it is getting worse. A 2015 data benchmarking reporting by Experian Data Quality indicates that 92% of organizations surveyed considered their data to be inaccurate. Additionally, 23% of respondents who indicated that their contact data is essential to marketing success reported that they believe their data to be faulty. These percentages have risen steadily over the past few years.

Here are a few steps to mitigate the issue of inaccurate data in your fundraising database:

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Writing a Fundraising Plan – Part 3: Engaging Your Board in Fundraising

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42163836_mA fundraising plan contains the fundraising activities your organization will implement over a set period of time.  These activities will have specific, measurable goals.  The end result will be a sustainable fundraising program that provides the necessary funds to fulfill the nonprofit organization’s mission.  The fundraising plan is a powerful tool for any nonprofit.  Before proceeding to Part 3 in our Writing a Fundraising Plan, please review Part 1: Planning to Plan and Part 2: Reaching Out Into the Community.

Part 3 of our series on Writing a Fundraising Plan examines the importance of engaging your board in fundraising.  Read more →

Rethink Goal Setting for Success

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Donor Life BloodBeing a firm believer in goals, I diligently write both personal and business goals each year. I even review them periodically to see how I am doing. Then, I read a great article that stopped me in my tracks. The author suggested that you should create one goal – what you really want to accomplish. Everything you do going forward should support that goal.

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Key Components to a Successful Direct Mail Program

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14765881_sLet’s talk about an important component to a successful fundraising plan. Direct Mail. Now you might be thinking, isn’t everyone donating online or isn’t it cheaper to just email? While there has been an increase in online donations and email has a lower cost of output, direct mail still drives a majority of the fundraising results for organizations and schools across the country. In a recent national donor survey, 61% of all people who said they donated to charity in the past year reported making at least one of those gifts through direct mail. And with the increase of donations collected online, 37% of online donors stated that they first received a direct mail piece and then looked up the organization online to donate.

So what are the key components to a successful direct mail program?

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3 Steps to Launch a Major Gifts Initiative

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20708189_mYou have decided to launch a major gifts initiative as part of your annual campaign. Critical to this initiative is having a clean database because you know raising money with bad data is extremely difficult.

The goal of your initiative is to increase the number of donors giving $5,000 or more by 200%. You are limiting the solicitations to individuals and excluding corporations, foundations, or other entities. Your organization has separate strategies and goals for each category/type of constituent.

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The Forgotten Fundraising Tool

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Forgotten_ToolEvery month I see a new article or advertisement touting the new and best methods for raising money. From social media and online apps to direct mail and face-to-face solicitation, the tools for fundraisers are growing and becoming more diverse.

However, with more options comes more opportunity to become distracted by the next big thing. I might get sick if I hear one more thing about how crowd funding saved the nonprofit sector.

There is no need to be wary of “the next big thing,” but it is important to prove that new strategies and new tactics are effective at achieving your goals. Whether your strategies and tactics are a new venture or more conventional, the overall goal of a fundraiser is to be a better fundraiser tomorrow than today. Achieving this goal can be the catalyst for growth and empower the development of your organization and mission.

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