The one sure thing that can be said about an annual development plan is that it comes every year. After that, well …
During Fundraising Day In New York 2016, hosted by the Greater New York chapter of the Association of Fundraising Professionals, marketing specialist Guy Kawasaki offered a look at planning “The Macintosh Way” by doing the right thing the right way.
It includes the following:
* Goal setting: This includes operating and program costs;
* Assess the funding mix: The easy part is “Where do we have the most reach now?” The hard part is “Where can we create opportunities?”;
* Assess the organization’s reach: What donor markets make the most sense for us?;
* Setting fundraising goals: Fundraising goals should be slightly aggressive and fundraising projections should be conservative;
* Choose the right campaign activities: The criteria include — most to least touch, least to most time-consuming, least to most expensive;
* Right-sizing resources: Start with the resources the organization’s resources: Assess existing talent, educate and train, focus and streamline. Only add resources if they will provide experience, expertise and efficiency;
* Maximizing staff resources: Focus activities on ones likely to get positive results;
* Outsourcing to in-sourcing: Consider this to help bridge gaps;
* Create an action plan: Lay out the fundraising work to be done on a 12-month “grid;” and,
* Set and monitor metrics: Think of goals by category, benchmarks, donors, visits/calls completed, database growth, staff competencies.
