Developing a fundraising strategy

Before starting to fundraise, an organisation should draw up a plan of their proposed fundraising activity. This should integrate with the organisation's overall plans and detail the scope of the activity.

Why have a fundraising strategy?

Having a fundraising strategy is essential and should be developed before you start making funding applications. It will greatly enhance your chances of raising funds, and in the long run save you time and energy by having a framework in place to use and adapt for future funding applications.

Developing a fundraising strategy

Before thinking about what funding sources to apply for, an organisation must determine its overall organisational and project plans, often called strategic plans or business plans. These determine the organisation's mission and vision, aims and objectives, specific tasks and targets, required resources and consequent costings - taking into account all of its overhead costs.

Strategic planning

A fundraising strategy will be developed to fund an organisation's overall objectives. Fundraising should complement an organisation's primary objectives. Organisations should ensure ongoing integration of fundraising plans with wider organisational plans.

Making a case for support

A case for support sets out why donors should give to a VCO and how they can contribute to its activities. A general case for support statement sets out all of the key information that needs to be communicated to a range of donors. This can then be adapted to meet the needs of specific donors or tailored to support different fundraising activity.

An effective case statement needs to be concise, coherent, urgent and motivating and will communicate:

• All about the organisation and its activities. The organisation's mission statement might help here.
• The level of the need and why it is important and urgent. Try to paint a picture or use facts and figures.
• The specific objectives of the appeal. Explain how the VCO intends to meet the needs of beneficiaries.
• The organisation's history or recent successes to illustrate why the VCO is the most suitable organisation to make a difference.
• What would happen if the appeal failed? Again, try to paint a picture.
• How much money is the appeal trying to raise and over what period of time?
• Stress the urgency of the need for funds and break total sums into smaller amounts.
• How will the donor make a difference? Show how a potential gift will translate into a tangible benefit.

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