How to Create A Yearlong Fundraising Plan The Operational Plan: 2011/2012 Edition
2011/2012 Edition A Stevenson, Inc. Publication The Operational Plan: How to Create A Yearlong Fundraising Plan The Operational Plan: How to Create A Yearlong Fundraising Plan — 2011/2012 Edition — Published by Stevenson, Inc. P.O. Box 4528 • Sioux City, Iowa • 51104 Phone 712.239.3010 • Fax 712.239.2166 www.stevensoninc.com © 2011 by Stevenson, Inc. All rights reserved by the publisher. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any other information storage or retrieval system, without written permission of the publisher. Violators will be prosecuted. This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regard to the subject matter covered. It is sold with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in legal, accounting or other professional services. If legal or other expert assistance is required, the services of a competent professional person should be sought. (From a Declaration of Principles jointly adopted by a committee of the American Bar Association and a committee of publishers.) Stevenson, Inc., does not necessarily endorse any products or services mentioned. The Operational Plan: How to Create a Yearlong Fundraising Plan — 2011/2012 Edition TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter 1: Begin by Looking Back — Historical Content ...................................4 • Start by Evaluating Existing Programs • Yearly Plan Should Address Key Categories • Operational Plans Have Seven Essential Elements • When Developing Yearlong Fundraising Plan a SWOT Analysis is Essential • Conduct SWOT Analysis • No History of Gift Support? Develop a First-year Plan • Plan Two Years in Advance • Hit Your New Fiscal Year Running • Make Time to Review Old Prospect Files • Analyze Your Use of Time to Better Set Priorities • Make Time to Review Systems and Policies • Learn to Work at Three or More Levels of Planning • Evaluate Past Fundraising Strategies to Set New Goals • Boost Fundraising Success • Forge Ahead by Making Historical Comparisons • Analyze Annual Giving by Levels, Clubs • Monitor Yearly Visits to Donors, Prospects • Historical Giving Data Helps in Establishing Goals • Analyze Gift Club Members’ Potential • Analyze Constituency Types’ Historical Giving Patterns • Analyze Your Mailing List at Least Annually • Measure Your Direct Mail ROI • Analyze Appeal to Improve Future Results • Track Who Is Giving How Much Throughout the Year Chapter 2: Goal-setting Procedures and Considerations ...............................13 • Develop a Secret Goal-buster Plan • Set Goal to Increase Participation Rate • Gift Chart Gives Quick Answers for Goal Setting • Road Map for Goal Setting Leads to Increased Revenue • Additional Benefits of Team Goal Planning • Calculate Participation Rates, Percentage Goals • Synchronize Fundraising With Yearly Giving Cycles • Now’s the Time to Be Bullish About Fundraising • Tailor Goals to Your Nonprofit’s Anniversary • Forecast Gift Revenue Based on Type of Fundraising • Restricted Gifts Goal Creates Another Option • Too Few Prospects? Map Out Plan to Change That • Craft a Cultivation Plan for Your Top 25 • Develop a Yearlong Plan for Soliciting Nondonors • Help Solicitors Buy Into Goals, Objectives 2011 © Stevenson, Inc. • How to Reach an Annual Fund Goal Increase of 10 Percent • Weigh Specific Factors to Set Annual Fund Goal • Set Measurable Event Objectives • Ask Board Members to Commit to Fund Development Duties • Establish Mailing List Maintenance Objectives • Set Annual Goal for Board Gifts • Establish Yearly Endowment Goals • Goal-setting Advice • Committees Should Have Yearly Goals and Objectives Chapter 3: The Planning Retreat ..............................20 • Pre-retreat Planning Makes for More Productive Retreat • Planning Retreat Tips • Put Some Thought Into Planning Your Retreat • Keep Retreat Agenda Simple, Focused • Annual Retreats Help Staff Design a Team Plan • Make Staff Retreat Attendees Accountable • Make Planning Begin With Everyone on Same Page • Consider Holding a Midyear Staff Retreat • Three Ways to Keep Staff Energized, Avoid Burnout • Tips for a Better Retreat • Focus Retreat Exercises on Improving Communication • Plug Volunteers Into Annual Planning Efforts • Focus on Ways to Enhance Productive Programs • Calculate Time Invested Against Total Dollar Return • Spend Brainstorming Time on Each Method • Don’t Underestimate Brainstorming Exercises • Use Mind Mapping to Brainstorm Strategies • Track Your Top 50 Corporate Prospects Chapter 4: Fundraising Strategies to Consider .......25 2 • Ideas to Work Smarter in Today’s Economy • Eight Ways to Boost Annual Fund Results • Turn to a Backup Plan When Your Annual Goal is in Doubt • Break Lofty Goals Into Achievable Parts • Raise $25,000 to $50,000 More in Annual Gifts • Target Particular Groups With Involvement Opportunities • Focus on Ways to Grow Your Pool of Investors • Launch a Business-of-the-month Program • Help Your Boss Plan Each Month’s Priorities • Plan for Success With Business Prospects • Share a List of Challenge Gift Opportunities • Identify and Prioritize All Endowment Gift Opportunities • Set Yearly Endowment Goals www.stevensoninc.com The Operational Plan: How to Create a Yearlong Fundraising Plan — 2011/2012 Edition TABLE OF CONTENTS • Shrewd Direct Mail Planning • Use Timeline to Visualize Your Direct Mail Flow • Keep Refining Yearlong Direct Mail Appeal • Tailor Different Appeals to Varying Audiences • Share Your Strategic Plan’s Progress With Donors • Developing a Planned Giving Marketing Plan • Compare Completed Calls at Weekly Meetings • Identify Who’s Not Giving and Why Chapter 7: Appendix ..................................................47 Chapter 5: Put Your Plan Into Written Form ..........33 • A Look at the Creation of a Strategic Plan • Create a Long-range Plan • Plan to Plan • Your Printed Plan Should Be Used Throughout the Year • Yearly Plan Needs Focus • Selectively Share Your Operational Plan • Have Yearlong Timeline for Each Developmental Team Member • Incorporate Professional Growth Into Your Plan • Cultivation Helps Explore Next Moves • Prioritize Funding Needs, Amounts • Spell Out How You Plan to Increase Gift Revenue • Strategies Define How You Plan to Achieve Objectives • Action Plan Defines Quantifiable Objectives • Plan a Year of Special Events • Look Beyond the Dollars • Make Volunteer Involvement a Part of Your Plans • Consider a Yearly Operational Plan Based on Giving Levels • Yearly Operational Plan • Past Methods for Generating Funds • Potential Fundraising Success • Monthly Annual Giving Report • Annual Giving Patterns • Business Prospect Profile & Anticipated Moves Schedule • Cultivation Possibilities Menu • Weekly Calls Report • Developmental Calls Evaluation • Lybunt Identification Report • Yearly Board Member Contact Report • Yearly Timetable Chapter 6: Monitor Progress and Evaluate Success ..........................41 • Conduct Financial Assessment of Your Fundraising Programs • Track Your Yearly Acquisition Average • Complete a Year-end Report • Conduct a Year-end Gift Comparison • Are You Working Your Plan? • Regularly Review Your Top 100 Prospects • Monitor Progress of Your Fundraising Efforts • Complete a Comparative Analysis of Key Fundraising Actions • Track Last Year’s Contributors’ Current Year Giving • Form Provides Helpful Way to Monitor Activity • Monitor Progress of Operational Plan at Staff Meetings • Evaluation Tip • Make Board Contacts Regular and Meaningful 2011 © Stevenson, Inc. 3 www.stevensoninc.com The Operational Plan: How to Create a Yearlong Fundraising Plan — 2011/2012 Edition BEGIN BY LOOKING BACK — HISTORICAL CONTENT To create a fundraising plan for the upcoming fiscal year, begin by analyzing past fundraising results and evaluating your development shop operation: its strengths, weaknesses, successes and failures. A thorough review of past results will help create an annual fund plan that’s challenging yet realistic. Start by Evaluating Existing Programs As you work to prepare an operational plan for the upcoming year –– a plan that identifies goals, objectives, strategies, action plans and timetables –– it’s critical that you begin by evaluating what is currently being done and making changes based on the success (or lack of ) of existing programs. As a first step in the planning process, it will be enormously helpful if you can evaluate the current year in light of past years’ results. Examples of historical reviews may include: • Total gifts received each year • Yearly gift types – annual, planned, etc. • Giving by constituency type • Numbers of contributors by category As you evaluate the existing year’s programs in light of previous years’ results, when possible, attempt to quantify each program in terms of: net gift revenue, the cost-to-revenue ratio, the percentage of staff time and budget required to carry out the program and a comparison to other programs. In addition, weigh each program in light of its long- versus short-term payoff. A planned gifts program, for instance, may take years to achieve results, however, those results may far outweigh another program’s benefits. Examples of individual programs to be evaluated include: • • • • Direct mail appeals Personal solicitation calls Telemarketing programs Annual and planned gift programs These program evaluation results will serve as your planning foundation. Operational Plans Have Seven Essential Elements The most successful development operations have a yearlong operational plan in place. Everyone who is a part of the development staff or contributes to its efforts should be involved in creating or shaping the operational plan. The seven essential elements of an annual operational plan include: 3 Evaluating current development programs and gift data. 3 Establishing fundraising goals for the upcoming year (e.g., annual fund, planned gifts). 3 Setting quantifiable objectives that support those goals. 3 Designing action plans (fundraising strategies) that spell out how those objectives will be met (e.g., direct mail, gift clubs, phonathon). 3 Creating a yearlong calendar that identifies everything that will occur by when and who is responsible. 3 Monitoring the plan’s progress throughout the year and making adjustments as needed. 3 Evaluating the plan at year’s end in light of what was achieved or fell short of expectations. 2011 © Stevenson, Inc. 4 Yearly Plan Should Address Key Categories Whenever you create your yearly operational plan, complete with goals, quantifiable fundraising objectives, action plans and a calendar of what happens when, be sure that it addresses key development categories. Those categories may include: Direct mail Board giving Gift clubs or levels Online gifts Planned gifts Foundation grants Retention strategies Major gifts Special events Personal calls Acquisition strategies Community campaign Staff training Volunteer involvement Individual giving Donor stewardship Sponsorships Business/corporate gifts Fundraising publications/ communications Database and records management Development policies/ procedures Telesolicitation (phonathons) Organization giving (faithbased, etc.) www.stevensoninc.com The Operational Plan: How to Create a Yearlong Fundraising Plan — 2011/2012 Edition BEGIN BY LOOKING BACK — HISTORICAL CONTENT When Developing Yearlong Fundraising Plan A SWOT Analysis is Essential Conduct SWOT Analysis Do you have untapped fundraising opportunities? What challenges face your department? What are your biggest strengths, based on existing personnel and other resources? Whether you do so at an annual planning retreat or midyear, conduct a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) analysis of your development shop. While this exercise may not amount to a full-fledged development audit, it will provide valuable insight and generate discussions that will provide a unifying direction for plans that unfold. Ask attendees to list the greatest strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats facing your development shop. As in the illustration, strengths and weaknesses should refer to facts/behavior inside the organization; opportunities and threats refer to outside factors that impact your organization. External Internal Strengths Weaknesses Established Little capital planned gifts campaign experience program Opportunities When developing a yearlong fundraising plan, be sure to analyze any previously developed fundraising plans, say James Anderson, partner at GoalBusters Consulting, LLC (Flagstaff, AZ). One way to do so is a SWOT analysis, in which you look at your organization’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Anderson outlines what to look for when analyzing each area: Strengths (internal): What do you do well or exceptionally? What unique value do you offer? Often this will be your primary strength. What are the things you want to keep doing and that you can do better than other organizations? Weaknesses (internal): What are the things you know you are not doing well? Are there things you need to change because it feels as though you just keep pounding your head against the wall? Or are they things you simply don’t do well either because you don’t know how or don’t have the resources to do properly? Opportunities (external): What could you be doing or doing more of? Where could you extend your offerings, services and programs? Where could you potentially tap donors and donor bases that you may be currently overlooking or not fully capitalizing on? Threats (external): What things have the potential to negatively impact your plan and your organization? When you identify a threat, one way to assess it is to ask what the worst-case scenario is. Some examples of external threats: 1) You are heavily grant-funded and funds are going to dry up; 2) You are heavily funded by a foundation and investments aren’t returning as strong as in the past and you know that will negatively impact gifts to your organization. “When assessing threats, you’ll be facing either conditions or problems,” he says. “Conditions are things you may have to address or handle but you have no real control over. You have to manage, accept or adapt to conditions. However, problems are something which you can solve, resolve or fix.” When looking at your SWOT findings, Anderson says, watch for intersections of the areas and respond as follows: q Where strengths and opportunities intersect, invest. You want to invest more of your resources, time and capital on these opportunities. q Where weaknesses and threats intersect, consider divesting yourself of that project or program, unless it is something you truly must maintain. q Where strengths and threats intersect, defend. “If you have an external threat to one of your strengths, don’t let that negatively impact something that you do well,” he says. “Instead, analyze what that situation is and determine how you can best continue to capitalize on that strength.” Threats High donor Competition for gifts participation rate Limited prospects q Where weaknesses and opportunities intersect, identify areas for improvement. “It may be a situation in which you can bolster the area of weakness or capitalize on what the opportunity is with the investment of additional resources, but that is a decision where you will have to look at whether your internal resources will allow it, and whether the return on investment is worth the commitment of the additional resources,” he says. Sources: James Anderson, Partner, GoalBusters Consulting, LLC, Flagstaff, AZ. Phone (928) 890-8239. E-mail: [email protected] 2011 © Stevenson, Inc. 5 www.stevensoninc.com The Operational Plan: How to Create a Yearlong Fundraising Plan — 2011/2012 Edition BEGIN BY LOOKING BACK — HISTORICAL CONTENT No History of Gift Support? Develop a First-year Plan If your organization is just getting started in fundraising or has little history of gift support, it’s important to begin by developing a first-year plan. Then put it into writing. Your written plan should identify what can reasonably be raised during the course of a year and how. Set specific goals for direct mail, special events, etc. Once that’s done, develop a one-page action plan for each area describing what will be done when and by whom. Here are some examples of what a first-year fundraising plan might include: • Conduct two direct mail appeals during the fiscal year, one in the fall and another in the spring. • Coordinate a volunteer-driven phonathon to invite everyone in your community or service area to become a donor at any level. • Organize a special event that reaches out to a particular segment of your community and nets $10,000 or more. Hit Your New Fiscal Year Running Too many nonprofits wait until a new fiscal year is underway before starting to plan for that year. Delayed planning can result in many missed opportunities, even failure. Your operational plan for a new fiscal year should be finished and in writing prior to the onset of that year. The plan should result in goals, quantifiable objectives, action plans for each objective and a yearlong master calendar of what needs to be done when and by whom. To avoid procrastination, create a simple timeline that maps planning procedures for the upcoming fiscal year. Begin with your end date — the week prior to a new fiscal year — and work backwards. The example shown here helps to illustrate some of what might be included in your planning timeline. This example includes deadlines for historical review (evaluating year-to-date giving in light of previous years’ support); preparation for a staff planning retreat, the actual planning retreat, completion of an operational plan draft, a final review of that plan and the final plan. All of this is scheduled to take place prior to the beginning of the new fiscal year. 2011 May Mar Apr Historical Review 4/20 Retreat Prep 5/3 Staff Retreat 5/17 Draft Complete 6/1 Final Review 6/15 Plan Complete 2011 © Stevenson, Inc. June 6 Whether you’re just finishing up a fiscal year or in the midst of one, it’s never too early to begin developing an operational plan for the upcoming year. But here’s an additional twist: When you meet to establish fundraising objectives and action plans for the upcoming year, why not go a step further and develop a preliminary outline of plans for the year that follows? Outlining plans for two years out will: 1. Help to solidify your operational plan for the upcoming year. 2. Help illustrate what you will need to achieve next year in order to reach the following year’s goals. 3. Ease the planning process when you reach the second year since the foundation of your plan has already been established. 4. Allow you to better budget anticipated changes to personnel, equipment and program costs. Make Time to Review Old Prospect Files Have you ever been given the name of a potentially fantastic gift prospect only to later find out the person’s name was already in your files, but no one had ever followed up on connecting with him/her? Whether you’ve just taken on a new position or been in your current position forever, don’t underestimate the value of reviewing existing files in your quest to uncover sleeping giants. Many times files hold a wealth of names and information that never received the proper attention and follow-up they deserved. Operational Plan Timeline (New Fiscal Year Begins July 2, 2011) Plan Two Years in Advance July 7/2 www.stevensoninc.com The Operational Plan: How to Create a Yearlong Fundraising Plan — 2011/2012 Edition BEGIN BY LOOKING BACK — HISTORICAL CONTENT Analyze Your Use of Time to Better Set Priorities Make Time to Review Systems and Policies As you work to develop efficiencies that generate additional gift support, increase the number of contributors, enhance your organization’s image and more, it’s important to examine existing systems and policies to be sure they are efficient, effective and meeting stewardship goals. Here are a few examples of systems and policies you should examine yearly: • Gift acknowledgment process • Filing system • Gift acceptance policy and procedures • Planned gifts policy • Endowment policies • Job descriptions and responsibilities • Prospect research policy • Organizational structure • Volunteer structure and committees • Board structure and committees • Memorial gifts program • Prospect tracking systems • Campaign structure and process • Identity guidelines • Existing marketing materials • Pledge forms, letters of intent, etc. • Gifts-in-kind policy • Database management procedures • Board and volunteer training • Professional development for staff • Cross-training of staff • Board and volunteer selection • Hiring procedures 2011 © Stevenson, Inc. In your efforts to raise funds, are you using your time to its fullest advantage? Take a look back. Make a list of everything you did during a two-week period. Evaluate how you spent that time. By examining past behavior, you can make a conscious effort to maximize your use of future time. As you review your list of activities and accomplishments, ask yourself: • What percentage of my time was spent behind a desk or in meetings versus the percentage of out-of-office time meeting people? • How many actual solicitations did I make –– by phone, personal correspondence or face-to-face? • How often did I review our operational plan to monitor progress or determine next steps? • What did I do to help board members or volunteers become more active in fund development? • What stewardship activities did I complete to help retain and nurture donors? • What did I do to help generate future major gifts? • How did I strengthen my professional acumen? • In what ways did I attempt to identify new prospects? Knowing the answers to questions such as these will help to reprioritize your time for maximum results. Learn to Work at Three or More Levels of Planning Achieving fundraising success is a combination of working hard and working smart. Learning sound planning practices helps strengthen the working smart part of the equation. Most people consciously plan their work minimally at one level. Some plan at two levels, and fewer still at three levels. Those who can establish a planning habit at three or more levels accomplish far more over time. Establishing new time management habits requires both discipline and the willingness to follow a process. Categorizing various levels of planning makes it easier to integrate them into your work. Here are three basic planning levels: 1. Daily planning. Make a point to map out tomorrow’s work at the end of each day. List tomorrow’s tasks and then prioritize which tasks to tackle first. Many achievers will complete their most challenging tasks first. 2. Weekly planning. Get in the habit of planning one week at a time. Whether you write out your plans on a weekly management form, list them in a calendar or utilize some form of planning software, articulate the upcoming week sometime each Friday. Include the following categories: • Projects completed this week • Scheduled appointments for the upcoming week with times and objective(s) • Tasks to be completed prioritized according to importance (A = must do; B = complete if time permits; and C = items that deserve attention but are less pressing). 3. Yearly planning. Your daily and weekly planning should be directly tied to your department’s yearly operational plan. That plan should include broadbased goals with quantifiable objectives that support each goal. Individual action plans with clearly delineated strategies should support each objective. And finally, the operational plan should include a master calendar listing deadlines and persons responsible for everything that needs to happen throughout the year. 7 www.stevensoninc.com The Operational Plan: How to Create a Yearlong Fundraising Plan — 2011/2012 Edition BEGIN BY LOOKING BACK — HISTORICAL CONTENT Evaluate Past Fundraising Strategies to Set New Goals When setting fundraising goals for an upcoming fiscal year, there’s a tendency to pay more attention to sources of gifts (e.g., alumni, friends, businesses, foundations, trustees) than to methods used in generating annual fund gifts (e.g., direct mail, face-to-face calls, telesolicitation, Web-based strategies, special events). Examining both your sources and your fundraising methods is equally important to maximize annual gift support. By looking further into the methods used to generate gifts, one can draw any number of conclusions that may include, but not be limited to, the following: • Dropping one development strategy completely — an unproductive direct mail appeal, for example. • Shifting budget resources from one fundraising program to another — perhaps lessening resources for special events and increasing efforts aimed at generating $1,000-plus gifts. • Changing a staff person’s job description, emphasizing greater responsibilities in one area and diminishing responsibilities in another. • Creating a new fundraising strategy aimed at broadening your donor base. PAST METHODS FOR GENERATING FUNDS XYZ Nonprofit 2010 - 2011 Fiscal Year Historical Development Programs PROGRAM ESTIMATED COST ESTIMATED STAFF TIME PROSPECT POOL NO. OF DONORS REVENUE GENERATED / PROJECTION DIRECT MAIL 1. Fall Appeal Boost Fundraising Success To improve fundraising success, identify those variables impacting your ability to generate gifts. They include: • Board members’ capability and inclination to donate. • CEO’s understanding and commitment to fund development. • Development staff’s level of experience and expertise. • External influences: economy, competition for funds, etc. • Available financial resources to raise funds. • Constituency size, financial makeup and history of giving. • Number of constituents under cultivation. • Volunteer leadership. • Age and mission of the organization. • Urgency of the cause and degree of impact on those you serve. 2. February Appeal 3. Spring Appeal 4. TELESOLICITATION 1. Fall Effort 2. Spring Effort 3. 4. FACE-TO-FACE CALLS WEBSITE GIFTS This chart (shown left) is intended to be used as a template and to develop a report that illustrates historical methods of generating funds as a tool in determining the best course of action in the future. A blank version of the chart can be found in the appendix of this manual for your use. SPECIAL EVENTS 1. Winter Gala 2. Summer Golf Classic 3. Raffle 4. 5. 6. 7. FDTN/CORP PROPOSALS TOTAL REVENUE 2011 © Stevenson, Inc. $ 8 $ www.stevensoninc.com The Operational Plan: How to Create a Yearlong Fundraising Plan — 2011/2012 Edition BEGIN BY LOOKING BACK — HISTORICAL CONTENT Forge Ahead by Making Historical Comparisons Analyze Annual Giving By Levels, Clubs How much attention do you pay to gift results as they relate to giving levels or clubs? Analyzing those results annually can help identify ways to enhance your organization’s fundraising strategies. If, for instance, you see significant growth in a particular level or club, you may choose to focus more fundraising strategies on that level. Or if a club is not living up to expectations, you may decide it’s time to revamp its benefits or take other actions. Knowing each level’s total donors, gift amount and how gifts were solicited can help you to make more informed decisions regarding future fundraising strategies. To achieve greater fundraising success, it’s important to know where you’ve been. Rather than simply comparing last year’s total gift revenue with gift revenue to date, make multiple types of comparisons to identify weaknesses and opportunities that should be addressed. Those year-to-year gift comparisons should include but not be limited to: • • • • • • • • Giving within each of your giving levels or clubs. Constituency types (e.g., alumni, board members, businesses, foundations, etc.). Geographic — communities, neighborhoods, states. Age and/or gender. Number of first-time donors this year compared to last year. Lybunts (those who gave last year but not this year). Types of gift responses (e.g., direct mail, face-to-face calls, telesolicitation, online giving, memorial gifts and more). Types of gifts received (e.g., planned, annual, capital, etc.). Monitor Yearly Visits to Donors, Prospects It’s important to monitor both the number and quality of face-to-face calls that your staff completes. Knowing the number of contacts made on a weekly, monthly and yearly basis helps to determine if staff are meeting expectations, and can CONTACTS BY FISCAL YEAR be used for staff evaluations. Those 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 numbers can also be of value when Staff comparing solicitation success rates for each development officer: How much Anders 120 138 147 133 125 155 143 gift revenue is a development officer Cummings 98 120 111 132 132 99 101 generating in relation to number of Saunders 192 201 187 165 146 157 211 completed calls? Young 67 69 58 88 73 84 88 In addition to tracking completed calls throughout the fiscal year, you Board may find it helpful to monitor staff Belson 0 3 4 0 4 0 3 member calls from year to year. In fact, you may want to include completed Dunn 6 9 10 6 9 11 10 board and volunteer calls in your report Everist 0 4 4 4 6 3 2 if the same individuals are involved Nichols 0 0 0 2 0 1 0 with fundraising efforts on a multi-year Opheim 3 2 0 4 0 4 3 basis. Comparing year-to-year calls will Rheinders 8 6 9 12 10 11 8 give you an indication of time spent Trotter 0 3 1 5 5 2 1 making contacts on both an individual and collective basis. These results can Volunteers then be correlated with yearly gift Comstock 7 8 5 2 8 4 2 revenue raised. Eppers 12 13 15 11 10 9 9 To the left is an example of a Kleppe 3 0 2 2 0 1 3 contacts-by-fiscal-year report you can use as a guide in creating one that best Watson 6 7 2 1 0 3 1 suits your needs. Total Calls 522 583 555 567 528 544 585 2011 © Stevenson, Inc. 9 www.stevensoninc.com The Operational Plan: How to Create a Yearlong Fundraising Plan — 2011/2012 Edition BEGIN BY LOOKING BACK — HISTORICAL CONTENT Historical Giving Data Helps in Establishing Goals What steps do you follow in establishing annual fund goals for your upcoming year beyond looking at what financial resources your organization will require? To what degree do you analyze historical giving data? Do you calculate goals for separate constituencies (e.g., board members, individuals) in addition to an overall goal? Here are some tips for establishing a realistic yet challenging annual fund goal based on a combination of factors: 1. Attempt to summarize giving for three to five years back in setting next year’s goal. 2. Break giving histories down by constituency type to analyze how each group gave from year to year, paying particular attention to the most recent year. 3. Include percentage increases/decreases for each constituency from year to year. 4. Analyze each constituency’s percentage increase/decrease to determine if a particular factor(s) contributed to the results. (It’s not uncommon, for instance, to have foundation grants vary significantly from year to year.) 5. Set a preliminary overall goal for the upcoming year before deciding the percentage increase of each constituency group, then go back and determine appropriate percentage increases for each constituency. 6. Develop a realistic goal based on historical data, then establish a stretch goal based on what if strategies: • • • • • What if we implement an expanded telemarketing effort to new prospects? What if we convince a group of volunteers to come up with a new event? What if volunteer solicitors approached new business prospects for support? What if we could decrease the percentage of unpaid pledges from 10 to six? What if we increase by 10 percent the number of face-to-face solicitations that ask for gifts of $1,000 and above? Analyze Gift Club Members’ Potential Do you ever analyze individual gift clubs to strategize ways to increase giving or to encourage members to move up to the next gift level? Doing so makes sense. But as you evaluate a particular gift club’s membership, take time to also review and rate each member within that club to determine who has the greatest potential for increasing his/ her gift support. That way, you can focus solicitation time on the greatest likelihood for success, based on both gift capability and inclination to give. Analyze Constituency Types’ Historical Giving Patterns Do you analyze the annual giving patterns of each constituency type that gives to your organization (e.g., alumni, businesses, board members, local residents, employees, 2005/06 06/07 corporations)? By taking a Alumni close look at those categories Donor retention rate of donors, you may decide No. first-time donors to change future fundraising Average gift size strategies. For example, you may Local non-alums discover that there’s far more Donor retention rate potential for first-time gifts from No. first-time donors businesses than what you realized Average gift size and, as a result, begin spending more time and resources toward Non-local alums that end. Donor retention rate No. first-time donors Use a form such as the one at Average gift size right and available in the manual appendix to look at giving among Businesses donor categories for the past five Donor retention rate years or so to identify trends No. first-time donors and determine how to maximize Average gift size fundraising time. 2011 © Stevenson, Inc. 10 07/08 08/09 09/10 10/11 www.stevensoninc.com The Operational Plan: How to Create a Yearlong Fundraising Plan — 2011/2012 Edition BEGIN BY LOOKING BACK — HISTORICAL CONTENT Analyze Your Mailing List at Least Annually Measure Your Direct mail ROI How do you calculate the ROI (return on investment) each time you send an appeal letter to a group of would-be contributors? While there may be a number of factors you could consider (e.g., average size gift, total gifts raised, number of first-time gifts), the ROI is generally the number generated by dividing total profit of the mailing by the mailing’s total cost. Here are the steps to calculate your direct mail ROI: A. Number of pieces mailed multiplied by: B. Percent response rate multiplied by: C. Average gift amount multiplied by: D. Percentage of profit per gift. E. Subtract this amount from total cost of the mailing for your ROI. When was the last time you reviewed your database to determine who is and is not contributing on an annual basis? Should your list be expanded or pruned? Do you have solicitation strategies aimed at specific list segments? Analyzing your list and developing strategies aimed at increasing the overall percentage of annual contributors is well worth the time and effort involved. To fine-tune your mailing list, conduct these exercises: • Determine the existing percentage of those who contributed last year and set a challenging percentage increase as next year’s goal. Quantifying what you hope to achieve commits you to developing a plan to meet that goal. • Identify your list’s lybunts (those who gave last year but not this) and sybunts (those who give some years but not this) and develop specific strategies to secure their gifts. These groups should more readily make contributions. • Evaluate the demographics of your nondonors (age, gender, location and more) to determine targeted strategies. For example, you may want to solicit prospects geographically for projects that will benefit their communities or regions. Or, perhaps you will want to develop funding projects based on the age ranges within your constituency. • Evaluate your system of donor benefits and incentives. Should changes be made? • Share your list of nondonors with board members, your development committee or other key volunteers, and develop a plan that encourages them to help solicit particular persons or businesses. Analyze Appeal to Improve Future Results Which of your direct mail appeals was most productive last year? Which resulted in the greatest dollar return? What was the average gift size from each mailing? How much did it cost to raise each dollar? It makes good sense to monitor and analyze your direct mail costs and results throughout the course of each year Direct mail Cost Analysis and prior to drafting Appeal No.:_____________________ Average Gift:____________________ an operational plan Target Audience:_________________ Largest Gift:_____________________ for the upcoming Drop Date:_____________________ First-time Gifts:__________________ year. Doing so will provide a quantitative Total Total Unit Total Response Total Cost to measure of what Quantity Cost Cost Responses Rate Gifts Net Raise $1 works and what doesn’t work. Complete a direct Appeal No.:_____________________ Average Gift:____________________ mail cost-analysis Target Audience:_________________ Largest Gift:_____________________ report (example Drop Date:_____________________ First-time Gifts:__________________ shown left) to track Total Total Unit Total Response Total Cost to costs and results of Quantity Cost Cost Responses Rate Gifts Net Raise $1 solicitation appeals throughout the year. 2011 © Stevenson, Inc. 11 www.stevensoninc.com The Operational Plan: How to Create a Yearlong Fundraising Plan — 2011/2012 Edition BEGIN BY LOOKING BACK — HISTORICAL CONTENT Track Who Is Giving How Much Throughout the Year Whether your fiscal year ends in June, July, December or some other month, it’s helpful to track who has given — and who has not — throughout the year. By breaking donors and prospects into categories, you can better evaluate what fundraising strategies to focus on as you progress through the year. Use the form shown to the right (or develop one of your own) to analyze who is giving on a month-by-month basis. Donor/prospect categories for this example include: q Repeat donors — Those who gave last year and have given again during the current year. A blank version of this chart can be found for your use in the appendix of this manual. MONTHLY ANNUAL GIVING REPORT for month ending January 2010 Donor/Prospect Group q Increased donors — Those who gave last year and contributed even more this year. No. of Donors/Prospects Repeat Donors q Decreased donors — Those who gave less than their previous year’s gift. q First-time donors — Those who have either never contributed or have not done so in the past five years. 1,500 Amount/ Increase/Decrease Avg. Gift Size Over Previous Year $165,000/$110 $22,000> Increased Donors 85$12,000/$141 $3,500> Decreased Donors 49 $2,800/$57 $1,800< First-time Donors 98 $2,940/$30 Lybunts 69 $0$11,000< Sybunts 310 $0$18,000< Total Donors/Gifts q Lybunts — Those who contributed last year but have not done so this year. 2,111 $ 182,740 $950< $ 6,500< 2009/10 Annual Gift Goal:..... $210,000 Gifts/pledges to Date:............. $182,740 q Sybunts — Those who have contributed some years (within the past five years but have not done so this year. Over/under Goal:.................... ($27,260) Using the example shown to the right, you can see that while certain donor/prospect categories are up over a year ago (e.g., repeat and increased donors), others are down. Total giving to date reflects a decrease of $6,500 in overall giving. One of many conclusions that can be made from this report indicates that there are 69 lybunts who contributed $11,000 last year and still might do so before the end of the current fiscal year. Over/under Goal:.................... $ 1,740 Lybunt Potential:.................... $11,000 Sybunt Potential:.................... $18,000 KEY 30-DAY STRATEGIES: 1.______________________________________________________________ 2.______________________________________________________________ 3.______________________________________________________________ 4.______________________________________________________________ 5.______________________________________________________________ 6.______________________________________________________________ 7.______________________________________________________________ 8.______________________________________________________________ 2011 © Stevenson, Inc. 12 www.stevensoninc.com The Operational Plan: How to Create a Yearlong Fundraising Plan — 2011/2012 Edition GOAL-SETTING PROCEDURES AND CONSIDERATIONS The process of setting annual fund and any other yearly goals should involve your nonprofit’s top management along with advancement staff, and virtually anyone who holds any stake in achieving annual fund success.You may choose some level of involvement with your board and/or other volunteers.Yearly goals can be established either prior to or during the development staff retreat. Establishing those goals prior to the retreat, however, allows staff to spend more time strategizing ways to meet and surpass those goals. Develop a Secret Goal-buster Plan Set Goal to Increase Participation Rate Having a high percentage of your constituency contributing annually benefits your organization beyond the bottom line by adding credibility to your case when seeking corporate and foundation grants and increasing the likelihood of securing more major gifts. To increase your number of contributors by a specific percentage: 1. Based on your constituency size, determine how many additional contributors are needed to increase donor participation by a certain percentage (e.g., five or 10 percent). 2. Carve out a plan –– including direct mail, telesolicitation and face-to-face solicitation strategies –– to boost your giving units by that percentage. This plan may sound simple, but many organizations have no plan in place to increase their donor participation rates. Make your organization the exception — then work to win exceptional gifts. Number of Gifts 10 20 40 $10 $50 200 1,000 400 2,000 60 80 100 600 3,000 800 4,000 1,000 5,000 2011 © Stevenson, Inc. Whether your fiscal year ended in December or you’re presently at the halfway point, here’s an idea to get you past your public annual fund goal: Develop an internal, departmental goal and keep it under wraps. Obviously you will need to continue following your original operational plans. However, adding this new and unpublished goal will allow you to develop additional strategies to generate even more funds by year end. As a self-directed incentive, you might even get approval from your CEO (and board, if necessary) that all funds raised beyond the original goal be earmarked for enhancing the development budget in the following fiscal year. Now there’s an incentive! 1. Hold a condensed version of your annual retreat to formulate specific goalbuster strategies. Include action plans with each along with timelines and names of those responsible for each action. 2. Come up with two separate groups of strategies for generating both new donors and increased gifts from existing donors, recognizing you don’t want your efforts to impede next year’s goal. 3. Keep in mind that everyone’s time should already be consumed in achieving your original goal and supporting your new strategies with involvement from board members and/or volunteers. Prioritize methods that maximize gifts and eliminate those which are more labor intensive. Gift Chart Gives Quick Answers for Goal Setting Imagine this scenario: You’re in a meeting to assess your fundraising efforts and find you’re $50,000 short of your goal with five months remaining in your fiscal year. Quick, how many $100 gifts will that take? How many $250 gifts? You want to find the answer quickly so that you can capitalize on remaining meeting time to plot strategy. A gift chart is a simple tool that can help you do just that. Creating a gift chart such as the one below lets you quickly calculate what it will take to raise a certain amount of money based on gift size and number of gifts needed. The gift chart helps visualize where to focus your time and resources. For example, you may decide that sending a direct mail appeal GIFT CHART aimed at raising 500 gifts of $100 each is more appropriate Gift Amount than attempting to find 100 donors to donate $500 each. $100 $250 $500 $1,000 $5,000 $10,000 Any number of factors will 2,000 5,000 10,000 20,000 100,000 200,000 determine the best fundraising strategies that suit your 4,000 10,000 20,000 40,000 200,000 400,000 circumstances, but with a gift 6,000 15,000 30,000 60,000 300,000 600,000 chart such as this, at least you 8,000 20,000 40,000 80,000 400,000 800,000 can quickly discern the number of gifts required to raise a certain 10,000 25,000 50,000 100,000 500,000 1,000,000 amount of money. 13 www.stevensoninc.com The Operational Plan: How to Create a Yearlong Fundraising Plan — 2011/2012 Edition GOAL-SETTING PROCEDURES AND CONSIDERATIONS Road Map for Goal Setting Leads to Increased Revenue How did OSF Saint Francis/Children’s Hospital of Illinois Foundation (Peoria, IL) increase major gifts and planned giving by 70 percent over the course of just one fiscal year? Andrew Schuster, senior development director, credits the increase to highly organized long-term goal planning. He shares 11 steps to goal planning for development success: 1. Organization goals are set for the year based on core mission, vision and values. 2. Department management reviews organization goals and department long-term strategic plan with staff to create annual department priorities as they relate to overall organization goals. (Schuster’s plan assumes a strategic plan is already in place). 3. Each person in the department creates his/her individual goals and priorities to support the department strategic plan and annual priorities. This process is based on roles and responsibilities within the department. Everything should be in writing. 4. All staff come together to share feedback on priorities and goals. 5. Key questions include: Are the priorities consistent with the mission, vision and values of the organization? Are the priorities aligned with the strategic plan? 6. Key goals are selected for each area in the department (not all goals will be a priority for the year). 7. Manager works with each staff person to create individual objectives that support department annual priorities. 8. Create action plan to achieve department annual priorities for each person. 9. Submit annual priorities to executive for approval. 10. Execute the plan! 11. Review annual priorities quarterly. Make adjustments as necessary. Understand that annual priorities are different than annual goals. Priorities refer to overall strategic plan of the department and focus for the year. Goals refer to individual goals and department goals that will help obtain annual priorities. Source: Andrew Schuster, Senior Development Director, OSF Saint Francis/Children’s Hospital of Illinois Foundation, Peoria, IL. Phone (309) 566-5666. E-mail: [email protected] Calculate Participation Rate, Percentage Goals Colleges and universities often strive to increase the percentage of alumni who support their institutions on an annual basis. Other types of nonprofits should do the same using their database (mailing list) as the starting point. Let’s assume you want to increase donor participation by 7 percent over the prior year’s participation rate of 28 percent. To be sure you are on target with your goal midway through the year, multiply your total database number by the desired participation rate, in this case 35 percent, to determine the number of donors needed. Assuming your total prospect pool amounts to 10,000 names, for example, you would need 3,500 donors by year end to meet your goal. Breaking goals down can help determine appropriate strategies needed to reach them. 2011 © Stevenson, Inc. 14 Additional Benefits of Team Goal Planning A 70 percent increase in major gifts and planned giving is just one benefit OSF Saint Francis/Children’s Hospital of Illinois Foundation (Peoria, IL) reaped with long-term goal planning. Andrew Schuster, senior development director, says a concrete planning process can also help organizations by: 3 Helping create a system that moves donors along the donor continuum. 3 Allowing each staff member to understand how events, major gifts, planned giving and donor relations relate to one another. “We have focused on increasing the amount of communication between the entire staff in regards to how events or solicitations are impacting our donor base,” Schuster says. “For example, the annual fund and major gift officers now sit down together after an event and review the guest list for major gift and planned giving prospects. Likewise, prior to an event, the major gift officers will give the annual fund officers a list of names to reach out to for an invitation to the event.” 3 Giving all staff a better understanding of how each area supports the others and how important it is to communicate regarding various aspects of an event and/or cultivation of a prospective donor. 3 Creating buy-in from all staff. If everyone participates in the process and has a chance to create goals and offer feedback, the staff becomes invested in the overall process and goals for the year. www.stevensoninc.com The Operational Plan: How to Create a Yearlong Fundraising Plan — 2011/2012 Edition GOAL-SETTING PROCEDURES AND CONSIDERATIONS Synchronize Fundraising With Yearly Giving Cycles Tailor Goals to Your Nonprofit’s Anniversary Got a milestone year coming up? Explore scenarios that tie annual fund goals to the benchmark. List the possibilities, then weigh merits of each to determine which would have the greatest impact in dollars raised, numbers of donors and campaign visibility. Here are some examples for a 75th anniversary: • Invite existing donors to increase their giving by 7.5 percent. • Tie your yearly goal to 75: $750,000 or $75,000 for example. • Set a yearly donor total that’s tied to 75: 750 donors or 7,500 donors. • Aim for 75 gifts of $1,000 and 750 gifts of $100. Restricted Gifts Goal Creates Another Option Looking to boost the revenue of a critical annual fundraiser or donor appeal? Take a hard look at your calendar, says Sarayl Shunkamolah, associate director of annual giving at The University of Montana Foundation (Missoula, MT). “Our fundraising is heavily weighted towards the fall semester because reliable donors tend to give at the beginning of every academic year,” Shunkamolah says. “Our phonathon runs for 12 weeks in the fall and 12 weeks in the spring, but because of the difference in donor giving patterns, we are targeting $225,000 in the fall this year and only $60,000 in the spring.” Foundation staff also target past donors in the fall and new and lapsed donors in the spring. Source: Sarayl Shunkamolah, Associate Director of Annual Giving, The University of Montana Foundation, Missoula, MT. Phone (406) 243-2593. E-mail: [email protected] Now’s the Time to Be Bullish About Fundraising If you believe the sky is falling, you’re sure to encounter failure. And that appears to be the prevailing attitude among many in the advancement profession during these economically challenging times. But it doesn’t have to be that way. There is no better time than now to conjure up confidence that you will not only reach, but exceed fundraising goals. Your unyielding belief that you will succeed will positively impact your ability to raise funds in spite of external influences. A can-do attitude enables you to identify savvy fundraising strategies and keeps you focused on doing what matters most. Of course there are budget constraints. Of course many donors and would-be donors are more financially strapped. But the confidence you exude can overcome those obstacles if you allow yourself to stay positive. Overcome the odds. Show the world you can succeed. Your contagious enthusiasm will positively impact those around you, including donors. To help avoid being forced to accept a dictated fundraising goal from top management, be proactive in Forecast Gift Revenue Based on Type of Fundraising proposing a challenging but realistic goal of your own. When planning your year, it’s helpful to visualize goals from different Here’s one way to go about doperspectives. For example, while it makes sense to estimate the amount of gift ing just that: revenue you will generate from each segment of your constituency (board, Develop a restricted gifts project businesses, foundations, corporations, friends, alumni, etc.), it makes equal that appeals to donors. In addisense to project the revenue you plan to generate from each type of fundraising: tion to your normal unrestricted gift community campaign, direct mail, phonathon, special events and so forth. goal, propose a multiyear restricted Projecting gift revenue based on the type of fundraising helps prioritize use of gift goal with funds designated toboth time and financial resources. It’s another way of evaluating how to make the most ward one or more of limited resources. Anticipated ‘11 Gift Revenue projects your office To the left is a generic plan Based on Fundraising Type deems as attractive intended to illustrate how much to donors. By deeach type of fundraising will Times Estimated Revenue Net veloping a combigenerate throughout the year. Per Yr Cost Goal Return nation unrestricted/ Use this outline as a guide Direct Mail 4 $17,000 $27,000 $10,000 restricted gift goal, to create your own outline Phonathon 2 $8,500 $35,000 $26,500 your odds of genthat forecasts how much you erating far more Special Event 1 $11,000 $29,000 $18,000 plan to raise throughout your gift revenue will fiscal year based on each type Personal Calls Ongoing $9,000 $35,000 $26,000 only improve. of fundraising you intend to $45,500 $126,000 $80,500 employ. 2011 © Stevenson, Inc. 15 www.stevensoninc.com The Operational Plan: How to Create a Yearlong Fundraising Plan — 2011/2012 Edition GOAL-SETTING PROCEDURES AND CONSIDERATIONS Too Few Prospects? Map Out Plan to Change That Far too many organizations launch a major fundraising effort without first evaluating whether they have enough capable prospects to get the job done. Then, once a campaign is announced, it becomes clear that they have too few friends capable of giving five-figure-and-above gifts. If lack of major gift prospects is an issue for your organization, make it a top priority to develop a three- to five-year identification and cultivation plan. That way, when you ultimately launch a major fundraising effort, you’ll have a pool of capable and committed prospects. The basic components of that three- to five-year plan should include: 1. Recruiting a board of trustees capable of making five-figure-plus gifts — perhaps a higher minimum depending on your organization’s stature and history. (Your board should set the example for all gifts that follow.) 2. Identifying your region’s most financially capable individuals, businesses and foundations, which includes prioritizing this group based on research and rating and screening procedures. 3. Developing an ongoing plan of cultivation tailored to each prospect. As a guide, plan on a minimum of six highly individualized cultivation moves before embarking on the solicitation phase. This is in addition to more broadbased cultivation moves (e.g., inviting prospects to a reception). 4. Undertaking a strategic planning process that seeks to involve and engage these identified prospects in various capacities: planning, serving on advisory committees, completing perception surveys and more. Develop a Yearlong Plan for Soliciting Nondonors Do you have a plan in place that outlines strategies for converting nondonors into contributors? Although retention of past donors should be a top priority in any operational plan, it’s also important to keep expanding your base of annual support. As you create a yearlong plan of strategies aimed at converting nondonors, here are some examples you may want to include: • List the names of nondonors you would most like to see on next year’s list of contributors. • Share your nondonor list with your volunteer or board development committee monthly or quarterly, encouraging members to develop solicitation strategies for each person or business. • Develop a yearlong series of direct mail appeals targeted to your nondonor list. Have one or more specific funding projects in mind. Offer special benefits/ incentives for first-time givers. • Coordinate a special event that reaches out to new prospects and provides a forum to educate the public on your mission and programs. • Develop fundraising strategies targeting specific nondonor groups –– e.g., physicians, professional women –– that make sense for your nonprofit. • Instruct staff to make a minimum number of calls on nondonors each week or month. • Secure a challenge gift directed to matching any gifts from new donors over a specified period of time. • Coordinate a telesolicitation effort using volunteers or paid callers with nondonors as its focus. • Host a series of on-site receptions with donors hosting nondonors. 2011 © Stevenson, Inc. 16 Craft a Cultivation Plan For Your Top 25 As you work at creating your yearly operational plan, anticipated major gift actions should be an integral part of that plan. During your planning process, outline a plan of cultivation moves you intend to use for each of your organization’s top prospects. Does that mean you will follow those cultivation moves to the letter? Not necessarily. But it will ensure that you have thought through how you intend to forge relationships with each probable donor, and the very act of identifying cultivation moves will give you a better idea of what needs to happen and when. If you don’t already have one, create a menu of cultivation moves, you can review as you consider appropriate actions for each of your top 25 or so prospects. Including a schedule of anticipated cultivation moves in your yearly operational plan will ensure that potential donors are getting deserved attention as they progress toward the realization of major gifts. Help Solicitors Buy Into Goals, Objectives Whether you’re counting on staff, volunteers, board members or all of the above to assist in the solicitation process, allow them to be a part of the goal-setting process if you want them to want success. Simply assigning calls after the fact won’t do it. Your solicitors need to own their objectives. Even if the amount you seek to raise is a forgone conclusion, at least grant your solicitation team some input into the strategies and methods used to raise needed funds. Once they have a stake in how gifts are raised, they will want to see that goals are met. www.stevensoninc.com The Operational Plan: How to Create a Yearlong Fundraising Plan — 2011/2012 Edition GOAL-SETTING PROCEDURES AND CONSIDERATIONS How to Reach an Annual Fund Goal Increase of 10 Percent The Challenge: As challenging as it may be to achieve, you’ve just learned that your department is expected to generate 10 percent more in unrestricted gifts as part of next year’s development goal. How do you set out to reach — even surpass — that goal? volunteers and/or board members — to be responsible for soliciting 10 new gifts of $1,000 or more. Charge the development personnel to cumulatively raise 20 or more new $1,000-plus contributors through face-to-face calls. Coordinate a program that encourages existing $1,000 donors to identify and recruit additional members at that level — 10-member goal. Carry out a targeted direct mail appeal that invites recipients to join your $1,000-and-above annual gift society — five $1,000-plus gifts as a goal. Identify a specified number of nondonor corporations/foundations and craft individual proposals that invite grants of $1,000 or more. Create a list of sponsorship opportunities of $1,000 or more and invite nondonor businesses to underwrite the project of their choice for one year. Invite last year’s $500 to $999 donors — via faceto-face calls, direct mail or telesolicitation — to increase their giving to the $1,000-plus level or beyond. • One Solution: Focus your efforts on generating sufficient $1,000-plus contributions to make up the 10 percent increase. • Action Plan: 1. First, figure the dollar amount required in additional funds based on a 10 percent increase over last year’s gift totals ($500,000 raised last year would require $50,000 more in gift revenue). 2. Then, assuming you will generate the $500,000 repeating everything done last year, determine the number of $1,000 gifts required to generate an additional $50,000 ($50,000 divided by $1,000 equals 50 donors of $1,000 or more). 3. Begin formulating strategies aimed at generating 50 new $1,000-and-above contributors for the upcoming fiscal year. Such strategies might include: • Charge your development committee — made up of • • • • Set Measurable Event Objectives Weigh Specific Factors to Set Annual Fund Goal As you plan events for an upcoming year, it’s important to set quantifiable objectives that will allow you to measure achievements and surpass previous years’ accomplishments. When it comes to event planning, what might you include as quantifiable objectives? Here are some examples to help get your wheels turning: • To generate $X in special event net income throughout the fiscal year. • To attract X event attendees throughout the upcoming fiscal year. • To plan and coordinate X events that attract the following target audiences (e.g. senior citizens, females, the wealthy). • To increase first-time event attendees by no less than X percent in the upcoming fiscal year. “It depends. Annual giving goals are set in many ways depending on the culture and needs of each institution. Sometimes I have been handed a goal for unrestricted giving that equals the amount necessary to balance the budget. Other times it has been a figure negotiated with volunteer class leaders integral to the fundraising effort. I feel in the best cases that the annual giving goal is a combination of unrestricted and budget-relieving designations that is reflective of many areas of input, such as financial aid, program support and faculty support. These requests are then balanced against the reality of what can be raised. Surprisingly, young, underdeveloped programs can actually apply a higher percentage of growth than most fully developed programs. The dollars are clearly different, however. When setting annual fund goals, be sure to factor in key items such as real strong reunion classes and weak reunion classes, and onetime anomaly gifts. The longer your historical record, the closer you can come to accurate projections.” 2011 © Stevenson, Inc. How do you set annual fund goals? — Ken Goebel, Director of Development, Keene State College (Keene, NH) “I used to go to great lengths to determine a goal with complex methodology before finally settling on a simple five-percent increase in dollars and donors every year. Simpler is better. However, this will depend on the maturity of your program. Less mature programs, with a leadership change or automation of their call center, will see increases greater than this in a given year. When speaking with your leadership about your annual giving goal, keep fairness in mind. Your annual giving goal should never be a greater percentage increase than the major gift goal. Your major giving staff shouldn’t be provided with a five-percent increase as a goal and the annual giving staff a 50 percent increase as a goal.” — Michael Westfall, Vice President, Eastern Washington University Foundation (Cheney, WA) 17 www.stevensoninc.com The Operational Plan: How to Create a Yearlong Fundraising Plan — 2011/2012 Edition GOAL-SETTING PROCEDURES AND CONSIDERATIONS Ask Board Members to Commit to Fund Development Duties If you fail to communicate expectations of board members to those board members, don’t be surprised when they fail to meet those expectations. To get board members to commit to helping your fundraising efforts, offer them a choice of three or four fund development options from which they can select. Then get them to commit to those choices. At the start of a fiscal year or whenever a new board member signs on, share a fund development menu such as the example shown here. Ask the board members to sign a commitment to follow through on whatever they cho0se. As you prepare your menu of choices, you will need to decide what matters most. Board Fund Development Menu As we enter a new fiscal year, please select two or more fund development responsibilities you are willing to undertake to help us achieve fundraising success during the next 12 months. In addition to making a personal annual fund gift of $1,000 or more, I agree to help in the following two (or more) ways: q Annual Fund — Identify and solicit no fewer than five donors capable of making President’s Leadership Circle gifts ($1,000 or more). q Annual Fund — Serve on the golf classic committee and enlist at least three foursomes ($250 per player) for the summer golf classic. q Major Gifts — Serve on the major gifts committee and personally identify and cultivate two or more prospects capable of making $25,000 or more in pledges toward specific projects approved by the board. q Planned Gifts — Serve on the planned gifts advisory council and work to identify and cultivate two or more individuals who possess the capability and proclivity to make a planned gift. In accepting these responsibilities, I will provide the development office with updates on my progress on a quarterly basis throughout the current fiscal year. Board Member Date Establish Mailing List Maintenance Objectives Your yearly operational plan should include quantifiable objectives that address continued enhancement of your mailing list. Examples of objectives might include: 1. To reduce the number of constituents with incorrect addresses by 30 percent. 2. To be able to segment the database by certain criteria: age, ZIP code, gender, funding interests and more. Establish Yearly Endowment Goals Most advancement offices establish a yearly operational plan that includes plans on how to generate and meet unrestricted annual gift goals. Far fewer, however, establish goals and objectives tied to generating endowment gifts. You need not be in the midst of a capital campaign to work at generating gifts of endowment, and that job should not be the sole responsibility of a planned gifts officer. Outright gifts should be encouraged as well. Although the realization of larger endowment gifts often takes longer than one year to matriculate, a proactive plan will begin the pipeline process that makes such gifts eventual realities. Here are some examples of yearly quantifiable endowment objectives: • To solicit X number of prospects for endowment pledges. • To develop/submit X corporate or foundation proposals seeking endowment grants. • To coordinate a special event, proceeds will be directed to the endowment. • To identify and cultivate X prospects toward realization of endowment commitments. 2011 © Stevenson, Inc. 18 Set Annual Goal For Board Gifts If your organization has little history of fundraising, be sure to set an annual goal for board gifts. Without it, you will find it challenging, if not impossible, to raise the bar in terms of giving in subsequent years. Have your board’s development committee come up with a realistic yet challenging goal for annual board support. Point out that the board’s level of annual support sets a precedent for others who give. Many nonprofit boards will even approve a minimum gift level that board members are expected to give (or get) on an annual basis. When you share a written report of total gifts to date (for the year) at board meetings, include a separate line item that reflects board gifts to date in relation to the board’s giving goal. www.stevensoninc.com The Operational Plan: How to Create a Yearlong Fundraising Plan — 2011/2012 Edition GOAL-SETTING PROCEDURES AND CONSIDERATIONS Committees Should Have Yearly Goals and Objectives Goal-setting Advice When setting your annual fund goal each year, take anticipated fallout into consideration based on historical data including: The percentage of donors who will discontinue their support. Unfulfilled pledges. Develop a yearly plan of action for each of your committees involved with various aspects of fund development. Here’s a plan that illustrates one development committee’s yearly objectives. Just as paid staff should have yearly goals and objectives — as identified in an operational plan — volunteers involved with fund development should also have a yearlong plan of action. Whether it’s a major gifts committee, a development committee, a special events committee or some other ongoing group, take the time to work with a committee’s members in identifying quantifiable objectives that support internal goals and objectives. And rather than informing them of their responsibilities, engage them in a planning process that helps them more fully own those objectives. Once goals and objectives have been established for a committee, the written document should be monitored at regular meetings to measure progress being made throughout the year. Having such a plan of action for your committee will help to keep them focused on achieving what matters most throughout the year. XYZ CHARITY 2010 Fiscal Year Goals and Objectives Committee: Development Committee Goal To assist the development department of XYZ Charity in achieving its annual goal of $450,000 in unrestricted gifts. Objectives 1. To generate 20 new Society of Jefferson members ($1,000-and-above donors) by fiscal year end. 2. To net $30,000 by planning and executing the annual Golf Classic. 3. To coordinate and host five After Hours receptions aimed at area business professionals throughout the metro area. Scheduled Meetings Objective Status 2011 © Stevenson, Inc. Next Steps Scheduled Meetings Objective Status July 1. 2. 3. January 1. 2. 3. August 1. 2. 3. February 1. 2. 3. September 1. 2. 3. March 1. 2. 3. October 1. 2. 3. April 1. 2. 3. November 1. 2. 3. May 1. 2. 3. December 1. 2. 3. June 1. 2. 3. 19 Next Steps www.stevensoninc.com The Operational Plan: How to Create a Yearlong Fundraising Plan — 2011/2012 Edition THE PLANNING RETREAT Annual planning retreats should involve all staff with any fundraising-related duties.You may choose to involve your nonprofit’s CEO and key board members and/or volunteers as well. Some retreats are conducted in two parts: one that includes staff only and another that brings in board members and/or key staff — even non-development employees — to review the operational plan draft and provide input. The retreat provides a focused opportunity to review past fundraising results and determine appropriate strategies for the upcoming fiscal year. The results of the retreat form the basis for a written operational plan that will be followed throughout the year. Pre-retreat Planning Makes for More Productive Retreat Retreats can provide a very productive way of mapping yearly fundraising strategies. They can also result in a debilitating experience if not conducted properly. To accomplish the most from your planning retreat, hold one or more pre-retreat meetings to see that everyone is on the same page. Begin by meeting individually with members of your development team to review their job descriptions and outline what you expect of them for your upcoming planning session. Then assemble as a group and develop a planning agenda that focuses on what you intend to have the retreat accomplish — dollar goals, quantifiable objectives, action plans and key dates. By developing your shop’s retreat agenda as a group, each member’s plans and suggestions will result in a much more cohesive planning process. Put Some Thought Into Planning Your Retreat Scheduling a planning retreat with staff and/or board members? The final outcome of any successful retreat is determined, in part, by the planning that goes into it. Answers to these questions will help you plan a results-oriented retreat: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. Where will you meet: On-site or at some more relaxed off-site location? How long will the retreat last? A half-day? A full day? Overnight? What will be the primary objective of the retreat? Any secondary objectives? Who will play a role in planning the retreat? Who will be responsible for making presentations or leading discussions? Will a facilitator be required? Should that individual be an insider who is familiar with our organization and its goals or an outsider with professional facilitating experience? What retreat materials will be needed? What outcomes will determine the retreat’s success? What types of follow-up will be expected as a result of the retreat? What can be done to help retreat participants think creatively and contribute to their fullest capability? Planning Retreat Tips During a planning retreat, make it your goal to implement at least one idea offered by each participant, resulting in greater buy-in and acceptance of change. Collect information from all participants prior to the retreat (through interviews, focus groups and surveys). That data then serves as the basis for discussion at the retreat. This method also saves time. Before scheduling a staff retreat, contact representatives from other nonprofits — even those unlike your own — to learn more about particular fundraising strategies they have successfully used in the past. You may come across a new idea worth exploring during your planning session. Keep Retreat Agenda Simple, Focused While it is only natural to want to get a lot done at your staff retreat, stay focused. Keep the agenda simple, realizing that it is best to decide on one main goal with no more than three discussion topics. Having a focused agenda will help everyone stay on track, alleviate the pressure of rushing through a jam-packed agenda and give you real solutions to the main issue at hand. 2011 © Stevenson, Inc. 20 www.stevensoninc.com The Operational Plan: How to Create a Yearlong Fundraising Plan — 2011/2012 Edition THE PLANNING RETREAT Annual Retreats Help Staff Design a Team Plan Make Staff Retreat Attendees Accountable To help ensure that what gets decided at staff retreats receives proper follow through, enforce these post-retreat actions: 1. Take written minutes at your retreat. Then, immediately following the retreat, list actions to be taken, who is responsible and by what date. 2. Distribute your minutes to attendees once the event is over and they are back to their daily routines. Make Planning Begin With Everyone on Same Page Are you about to get a staff planning retreat under way to map out your new fiscal year’s goals? A planning retreat — held away from your normal workplace — is a wise move. It facilitates teamwork and establishes focus for every member of the advancement shop. As you begin your retreat, get every participant thinking strategically by posing a thought-provoking question: “To achieve this year’s fundraising goals, we must be particularly good at the following activities....” Give everyone a few minutes to think about the question and to jot down the top four or five activities they think will be necessary to achieve the year’s goals. Then, go around the group asking each to share only one of his/her activities and explain why it is important. Write out each activity on a flip chart. Keep proceeding around the room taking one activity at a time until everyone has exhausted his or her list. Once each activity has been presented and listed, begin a group discussion with the goal of reaching consensus on the top three most important activities for the year. 2011 © Stevenson, Inc. If you want your development staff to be enthused about achieving yearly objectives, they should have a voice in shaping the operational plan. If they own it, they will want its goals realized. Make staff assignments. Use a bottom-up approach in preparation for your retreat. Ask every staff member to be responsible for some aspect of planning prior to the retreat and to attend it prepared to offer a report and recommendations. Whether you make report assignments based on the job responsibilities of each member or use some other method, this ensures that each staff person has a stake in determining the future direction of your advancement effort and cannot sit back during the retreat and simply make judgments about recommendations being made. To be sure everyone is on the right track in preparing their reports and their methods are consistent with one another, you may want to meet individually with staff to go over assignments and then meet again to re- view their progress. • • Select the right retreat location. If at all possible, select a retreat location away from offices and in a relaxed and quiet environment. In addition to serious planning, retreats serve as a bonding experience –– a chance to get to know and appreciate colleagues on another level. This bonding and sharing experience helps to pave the way for team achievement. The ideal length of a retreat is about two days, knowing there will be adjustments to be made in the plan back at the office. • Work from a prepared agenda. Have a prepared agenda that is distributed to staff in advance. Again, every staff member should have a report to be made at some point during the retreat. • Review the big picture. During the retreat, schedule times to look at the big picture –– what is working well and what needs fixing? There should be time for brainstorming with no limits on what can be said. This big picture discussion will help provide a framework with which to set goals, objectives and strategies. • Begin the process of setting new goals, objectives, strategies, action plans and timetables. Following a review of your overall advancement effort, and how it applies to your organization and mission, you can begin to set new goals along with quantifiable objectives for each goal. This procedure will be linked to your review of each program and whether it should be eliminated, enhanced or left unchanged. Revisit your plans at various times during and after the retreat. After you have drafted quantifiable objectives and accompanying strategies that will help to achieve those objectives, move on to something else, but allow time to revisit your plans and make necessary adjustments since changing one program may have an impact on the others. This revisiting process allows each team member to more fully consider the ramifications of each change being made to the previous year’s programs. You may even want to consider a follow-up (one-day) retreat a week later to review your operational plan in draft form to determine what changes are appropriate before it is printed in its final form. • A well-organized staff retreat is a critical part of planning your year in advance. 21 www.stevensoninc.com The Operational Plan: How to Create a Yearlong Fundraising Plan — 2011/2012 Edition THE PLANNING RETREAT Consider Holding a Midyear Staff Retreat The obvious time for a staff planning retreat is just prior to a new fiscal year. But it can also be wise to hold a one- or two-day retreat mid-fiscal year. A midyear staff retreat allows you to step back and evaluate where you are in relation to goals. It provides the opportunity to evaluate gifts to date, sources of those gifts (e.g., board members, community, businesses, individuals), and strategies employed to generate the funds (e.g., telesolicitation, direct mail, personal calls, special events). Staff can determine what strategies are working best and what adjustments to make to meet or surpass annual goals. And since a midyear retreat focuses more on adjustments than creating a plan from scratch, it may also be a good time to discuss other key issues such as budget, database management or volunteer involvement. Three Ways to Keep Staff Energized, Avoid Burnout Trying to top previous years’ goals — often with fewer budget resources. Facing solicitation rejection on a continuing basis. Meeting deadlines. Endless meetings. These and other factors can contribute to an overwhelming sense of weariness for those in your development shop. To avoid burnout and keep everyone energized, remember to: 1. Regularly celebrate both large and small victories. Recognize achievements at staff meetings. Get your executive director or president to compliment staff on a job well done. Point out the positive impact of a successfully completed job. 2. Vary the routine. Alter work patterns to make the day or week more appealing. Throw in a welcome surprise now and then. 3. Keep the communication flowing. Have one-on-one visits with every member of your department. Discuss issues and work together to find solutions. Sometimes just discussing a problem and knowing others are there for you helps. Focus Retreat Exercises on Improving Communication Listening is a vital skill as a development officer and one that you should continually strive to perfect in yourself and your co-workers. Here are two active listening exercises to try at your next staff retreat: 1. Divide your staff into pairs and have them interview one another with the goal of finding out two to three things you would have never guessed about each other. At the end of the exercise, share the most unique fact about your coworker with your fellow staff members. This exercise will prove to be truly illuminating. 2. Pair up your staff and give each group five minutes to exchange stories about their first, middle and last names. At the end of the five minutes, go around the room and have each person explain his/her partner’s first, middle and last names to the rest of the group. This exercise will reveal all kinds of interesting information, especially if you include nicknames. 2011 © Stevenson, Inc. 22 Tips for a Better Retreat Retreats are a great way to rejuvenate staff, board members or volunteers. To get the most out of your next retreat: 3 Get everyone thinking about how to make the organization better. Open your retreat with a thought provoking question such as: “For our organization to be successful, we must be especially good at the following activities...” Then have everyone spend a few moments writing at least three answers to the question and then read their answers to the group. Get a consensus of the different ideas and write each on a flip chart or board so all can see. Now discuss how to achieve those activities or goals. 3 Keep a reminder list. Have a reminder list on a flip chart or board. Whenever a topic arises that would fit better at a later time on your agenda, jot that topic down on the reminder list. By doing so, you’ll confirm your promise to return to that item. 3 Ask two critical closing questions. During the final hour or so of your retreat, ask participants what they learned at the retreat and what they intend to do with that new information when they get back. Have them write down what was important to them so they have a permanent record of what they learned. www.stevensoninc.com The Operational Plan: How to Create a Yearlong Fundraising Plan — 2011/2012 Edition THE PLANNING RETREAT Focus on Ways to Enhance Productive Programs Plug Volunteers in to Annual Planning Efforts Would you like volunteers to become more engaged in your fundraising efforts? Then work to involve them in planning your year and in shaping specific fundraising strategies. Whether it is by participating in a planning retreat, being a part of a focus group or meeting with you individually, ask for volunteer input that will set the stage for continued involvement as the fundraising year progresses. Volunteers can help plan by: • Developing an annual giving theme. • Reviewing and commenting on your yearly operational plan • Brainstorming new approaches for increasing overall gifts. • Planning a yearly campaign kickoff event. • Reviewing and commenting on specific fundraising programs (e.g., phonathon, community campaign, gift clubs and accompanying benefits, etc.). • Brainstorming funding opportunities that might most appeal to the giving public. Whether it’s at staff meetings throughout the year, during your annual planning retreat or during a post-event evaluation, make time to examine those programs that have produced results in the past. There is often a tendency to think, “If it’s doing well, we won’t mess with it,” when in fact, it’s important to explore ways to enhance the program, so it does even better! Whether it’s a successful direct mail package, a solicitation effort that involves volunteers, an annual event that brings visitors to your Calculate Time Invested Against Total Dollar Return facilities or a telemarketing effort that has done well, follow this stepAs you map out your fundraising year and create an operational plan complete by-step process as a way to enhance with goals, objectives, action plans and timeline, it’s helpful to analyze the time already-successful programs: invested in each fundraising strategy against the dollar return for that effort. If, for Review the program in its instance, you discover that a direct mail appeal you sent took minimal time but entirety. Look at the program in produced a significant return, you may decide to increase direct mail appeals in the light of all other programs. How upcoming year instead of spending time on a labor-intensive special event that had much total time and staff does a marginal return. it require? What percentage of Although there are other factors one needs to evaluate when planning upcomyour budget does it consume? ing development strategies (e.g., project costs, etc.), time is a key issue based on What is the single most imporlimited development personnel. And while it may be challenging to estimate the tant goal of the program? time required to carry out a particular fundraising strategy from beginning to end, you will no doubt be able to calculate invested time to a reasonable degree. The Examine each component that key is to be consistent in the way in which you arrive at calculations — whether makes up the program. Break you are including support staff time, etc. the program down. Determine which program parts are doTIME ANALYSIS ESTIMATES — 2010/11 FISCAL YEAR ing well and Paid Staff No. of Volunteers No. of Dollar Percent of which could Involved Hours Involved Hours Return Total Hrs* be improved. In addition to Direct Mail 4.8 the program Fall Appeal 3 50 0 0 $22,000 itself, be sure Spring Appeal 3 50 0 0 $17,000 to examine Phonathon 15.5 both pre- and Fall Effort 3 240 36 144 $102,000 post-program Year-end Effort 3 170 30 120 $54,000 activities. By reviewing Special Events 4.1 strategies that have Golf Classic 2 90 10 60 $15,000 produced results in Raffle 2 20 12 18 $40,000 the past, you can Face-to-face Calls 3 2,025 5 100 $170,000 76.5 take steps to make Total 2,645 $420,000 them even more successful in the * Volunteer time not included in percent of overall time. year ahead. 2011 © Stevenson, Inc. 23 www.stevensoninc.com The Operational Plan: How to Create a Yearlong Fundraising Plan — 2011/2012 Edition THE PLANNING RETREAT Spend Brainstorming Time on Each Method Make brainstorming part of every planning retreat. It’s a great way to think of new and creative ways to improve on what’s been Don’t Underestimate done in the past. As you plan your year’s fundraising strategies, try this approach: Brainstorming Exercises Break your retreat into segments based on past fundraising methods (e.g., phonathon, All too often we become so direct mail, face-to-face calls, special events, caught up in the emergencies of today that we forget to occaetc.). Then devote a portion of each segment sionally step back and examine to brainstorming new and/or improved ways of raising more gift revenue for each method. the big picture. Take a look at where you Remember: No idea is a poor idea when are with regard to achieving brainstorming. It may sound silly or frivogoals, from where you have lous, but it could trigger another, stunningly come and dream about how far effective idea in another person. That’s the you would hope to go. fun of brainstorming. You can establish goals that After you’ve moved through the entire help to achieve your dreams, meeting, go back to the ideas generated during each session and begin to prioritize those but if you have no dreams, what’s the point? that make the most sense. Use Mind Mapping to Brainstorm Strategies Have you ever used mind mapping to strategize fundraising approaches? According to Wikepedia, a mind map is “a diagram used to represent words, ideas, tasks or other items linked to a central key word or ideait encourages a brainstorming approach to any given organizational task.” Although there are online tools that can be helpful for mind mapping, you can just as easily begin with a topic written on a piece of paper. Place a circle around it and branch out from there with ideas. Visualizing concepts and characteristics will lead you to next steps. Entrepreneur Friend of Marta Lenus Track Your Top 50 Corporate Prospects As important as it is to track cultivation/solicitation activity of individual prospects, it’s equally important to track top corporate prospects. And because key activities surrounding corporate prospects can differ from those for individuals, using software or a form such as the example shown here is a useful tool for corporate gifts managers. First, identify and prioritize your top 50 corporate prospects by reviewing past donor files, conducting rating and screening sessions among staff, board members and other volunteers and by other means. Once you identify your top 50 corporate prospects based on capability and inclination to give, plan and monitor all cultivation and solicitation moves monthly. This collective view of activities surrounding your top 50 will help in the overall solicitation of these key prospects. John Doe Endowed scholarship Create and utilize a form such as this to track top corporate prospects. 2011 © Stevenson, Inc. 24 www.stevensoninc.com The Operational Plan: How to Create a Yearlong Fundraising Plan — 2011/2012 Edition FUNDRAISING STRATEGIES TO CONSIDER Prior to and during the planning retreat, members of your team analyze a variety of fundraising strategies that will result in the creation of several action plans to be used throughout the year.Those strategies may include but not be limited to an examination of: direct mail appeals, telesolicitation efforts (in-house phonathons vs. outsourcing), personal calls on individuals/businesses, special events, online giving efforts, employee giving campaigns, sponsorship programs and more. If the yearly operational plan is intended to go beyond annual giving programs, you may also evaluate strategies related to planned gifts, restricted gifts, endowment gifts, capital campaign and more. Staff may decide to enhance or expand those strategies that proved most successful in the past or eliminate strategies that proved unsuccessful.They may also decide to implement entirely new fundraising strategies that have not been tried in the past. This chapter shares examples of some specific fundraising strategies you may want to address or include in your yearly operational plan. Ideas to Work Smarter in Today’s Economy To meet or even surpass this year’s fundraising goals — perhaps with a smaller operating budget — requires more focused effort. To work smarter in today’s economy: 1. Make donor retention the top priority, especially those who give at higher levels. It’s much more time- and cost-effective to retain past donors than to find new ones. Eight Ways to Boost Annual Fund Results Challenged to beat last year’s annual fund total? Study these ideas as you formulate a game plan: 1. Focus on approaching higherend prospects — those who could give $1,000 or more. 2. Secure a challenge gift. 3. Identify and market more sponsorship opportunities. 5. Test targeted direct mail appeals. 6. Establish or enhance an effort aimed at generating more gifts from businesses. 7. Test new telemarketing efforts aimed at particular groups for particular funding projects. 8. Work at retaining a higher percentage of lybunts and sybunts. 3. Work at securing a challenge gift. Challenge gifts provide two sources of gifts: the donor who makes the challenge and everyone who matches it. 4. Get board members and volunteers more actively engaged. Convince loyal supporters about the urgency of meeting this year’s goal, and ask them to get involved with your fund development efforts in very specific ways. Turn to a Backup Plan When Your Annual Goal Is in Doubt 4. Plan an event that will reach out to new contributors. 2011 © Stevenson, Inc. 2. Direct fundraising efforts toward higher-end donors. If your top annual giving club includes donors at the $1,000-and-above level, for instance, develop several strategies aimed at that level of giving. Why go after 10 $100 gifts when it takes no more effort to go after 10 $1,000 gifts? As you prepare your annual fundraising operational plan, map out a backup plan with fundraising strategies you can implement immediately should the possibility of reaching your yearly goal become questionable. If, for instance, your fiscal year began in July and in January you find that you’re shy of where you need to be, put that backup plan in place. What strategies could your backup plan include? Although strategic elements will vary greatly from organization to organization, some examples include: 3 Announcing a compelling midyear funding project that will draw support from both existing donors and those persons who have yet to support your annual effort. 3 Coordinating a fresh special event that was not a part of your original operational plan. 3 Enlisting board members and others to call on lybunts and sybunts — those who gave last year (or in some years) but not this year. 3 Convincing a donor to establish a midyear challenge gift that will match all new and increased gifts for the remainder of your fiscal year. 3 Approaching businesses to sponsor particular programs or events as opposed to asking for outright gifts. 25 www.stevensoninc.com The Operational Plan: How to Create a Yearlong Fundraising Plan — 2011/2012 Edition FUNDRAISING STRATEGIES TO CONSIDER Break Lofty Goals Into Achievable Parts When it comes to raising major gifts, lofty goals can be debilitating if you let them overwhelm you. That’s why it’s critical you break goals down into achievable and sequential steps. How you break those goals down is equally important. Get rid of should goals and focus on what makes achieving them more energizing for you personally. Beyond goal setting and creating a timeline in which to achieve those goals, split your overall time frame into months, weeks and even days. “What will I need to accomplish on a monthly basis, on a weekly basis and each day?” For your daily to-do list, prioritize what three to five things you need to accomplish that day, since that’s all most people can handle with thoroughness and competence. As you progress through each week, be accountable, not only to your supervisor but to yourself. Did you meet that week’s objectives? Where did you fall short? Why? What behaviors will you change this week and in the weeks ahead to make up for it? Create a personal plan for achieving your goals by breaking them down into bite-sized pieces, prioritizing them, sequencing them and tackling them with confidence and enthusiasm. Use the example at right to craft one that works for you. Personal Goal: Raise $2 million in 2011 To make that happen: 3 Solicit no less than 70 probable donors for gifts of $50,000 to $2 million. 3 Make, on average, five cultivation/solicitation contacts with each probable donor throughout 2011, recognizing that 350 total contacts per year equates to 30 meaningful contacts per month or 1.5 contacts per day. Raise $25,000 to $50,000 More in Annual Gifts Need an extra $25, 000 to $50,000 in annual gift revenue? You can do it by building a set of action plans centered around one strategy. The key is picking a strategy best suited for your organization and putting it in writing. Documenting your ideas will also help surface any weaknesses that may need to be addressed. All too many nonprofits spread themselves too thin by doing a little more in direct mail, a little more in phonathons, a little more in face-to-face calls, etc. Instead, zero in on one fundraising strategy that makes sense for your organization and then build a set of substrategies around it. Three Focused Strategy Options Here are three examples of how a To Generate $25, 000 to $50,000 in New Gift Revenue* charity may decide to generate an extra $25,000 to $50,000 in gift revenue: Option No. 1: Longfellow Society (Annual Gifts of $1,000 or more) 1. Coordinate a special event. Enlist a Member-recruit-a-member Initiative ................................ Goal: $20,000 committee of can-do volunteers who Staff Calls (Four new members per staff member) . ......... Goal: $16,000 are committed to your organization Targeted Direct Mail Appeal . ........................................... Goal: $10,000 and have experience at organizing Board Development Committee........................................ Goal: $10,000 fundraisers. 2. Convince past contributors to give more. Calculate the percentage that each of last year’s donors would need to increase their giving to generate $25,000 to $50,000 more in gifts. 3. Develop a plan for generating 25 to 50 new gifts of $1,000 or more. Turn to those who already give at that level and involve them in a yearlong recruitment effort to attract 25 to 50 new donors at that level. Shown here are key strategy options broken down into substrategies that help illustrate this approach. 2011 © Stevenson, Inc. Option No. 2: New Sponsorships (To Underwrite Programs/Services) Wellness Initiative.............................................................. Goal: $20,000 Outreach/Mobile Unit........................................................ Goal: $10,000 Neo-natal............................................................................ Goal: $20,000 Option No. 3: New Special Events September Western-themed outdoor fundraiser . .............. Goal: $15,000 December Tour of Homes ................................................. Goal: $18,000 April Fashion Show .......................................................... Goal: $8,000 May Golf/Tennis Classic .................................................. Goal: $20,000 * Divide goals in half to reach $25,000 mark. 26 www.stevensoninc.com The Operational Plan: How to Create a Yearlong Fundraising Plan — 2011/2012 Edition FUNDRAISING STRATEGIES TO CONSIDER Target Particular Groups With Involvement Opportunities Focus on Ways to Grow Your Pool of Investors In spite of your need for immediate major gifts, a down economy offers the perfect time to focus efforts on building new relationships with those who have the capacity to one day make a major investment in your organization. After all, if many of your existing prospects are not currently in a position to be asked for major gifts, it would be worthwhile in the long run for you and your staff to concentrate on forging relationships with those who will, down the road, include your charity at the top of their favorite causes. To focus your efforts on creating and nurturing new relationships with financially capable individuals, businesses and foundations, develop a number of quantifiable objectives such as these: 1. To ask each board member to help identify, introduce and cultivate relationships with no fewer than three friends, relatives or associates capable of making gifts of $25,000 or more. 2. To meet with no fewer than one new prospect a week for the purpose of introducing our charity and nurturing a relationship. 3. To coordinate no fewer than two events throughout the fiscal year with the intent of attracting new (and existing) persons of wealth to attend. 4. To establish a major gifts committee and, with the committee, develop a set of quantifiable expectations that includes the identification, introduction and cultivation of new prospects. 5. To launch a new and ongoing program that attracts the interest of local and area businesses. Want to generate more and increased gifts? Work at increasing involvement among both donors and would-be donors. As you know, involvement leads to investment. To improve the level of involvement strive to offer opportunities matching the interests of particular groups. For example, the volunteer projects you suggest to former board members may be different than those you would offer young professionals or recent high school graduates. Examples of segmentation may include: • Parents • Baby boomers • Businesses • Alumni • Specific professions • Church groups • Singles • Civic organizations • Women/men • Senior citizens • Retired employees • Former board members • New graduates • Environmental activists • Scout/4-H groups • Community service opportunities • Young families After identifying targeted groups, develop involvement opportunity menus aimed at their interests and/or skills. Then market those opportunities through oneon-one visits, direct mail, online, group presentations and more. Launch a Business-of-the-month Program Looking for ways to make inroads with the business community? Launch a business-of-the-month awards program. Here’s how: 1. Assemble a committee. Enlist a committee made up of business representatives who are already loyal supporters of your nonprofit. Charge them with overseeing the program and making nominations for the award. 2. Identify qualifying businesses. Give the committee a list of businesses in your area whose services or good works somehow complement your organization’s mission. 3. Make monthly awards. Based on the committee’s nominations — and the criteria you provide — honor one business each month with a public presentation of the award that includes favorable publicity for the honored business. 4. Host an annual event. At the end of the year, invite all 12 award recipients and the public to an event that recognizes all chosen businesses and announce the business of the year selected from that group. Seek business support to sponsor the event cost. This concept allows you to: 1) provide deserved recognition to businesses whose services or deeds support your mission, 2) build relationships with businesses that may become supportive of your work (e.g., donations, in-kind services, partnerships), and 3) gain visibility for your organization throughout the community and surrounding area. 6. To initiate a dialogue with no fewer than 10 new foundations in the current fiscal year. 2011 © Stevenson, Inc. 27 www.stevensoninc.com The Operational Plan: How to Create a Yearlong Fundraising Plan — 2011/2012 Edition FUNDRAISING STRATEGIES TO CONSIDER Help Your Boss Plan Each Month’s Priorities Some nonprofits’ CEOs are so heavily involved Monthly Fund Development Priorities in the development shop that they are sometimes referred to as micro-managers. Then there are those For the month of_________________ PROJECT/PROSPECT OBJECTIVE PROPOSED ACTIONS DEADLINE who want little to do with anything related to fundraising, “Let the development department do that!” Sally Ballentine Special cultivation Invite to dinner 5/14 Whatever your situation may be, it’s helpful Dr./Mrs. A Alden Solicitation Accompany Stubbs 5/17 to regularly identify projects and prospects that Delany Manufacturing Special cultivation Invite to join Advisory Bd 5/17 require the attention of your organization’s head Winston Abbas Introduction Personal call w/Stubbs 5/21 honcho. By sharing what you deem as top prioriWynstone Trust Solicitation Meeting w/Deagan/Ricks 5/25 ties for your CEO on a monthly basis, you’ll be President’s Reception Stewardship Mingle/remarks 5/28 letting your CEO know what’s expected of him/her Erlmann Dinner Cultivation Mingle/remarks 5/30 Board member Erlmann will have 10 special guests at his home for dinner. and also help him/her focus on what matters most. If your boss often gets overly involved in the Beekman Glass Special cultivation Invite to join Advisory Bd 5/31 details of your department, a monthly priorities plan will help keep him/her focused on the big picture. Use a monthly priorities plan similar to the example shown and make a proactive point to meet with your boss at least monthly to review what you deem as priorities for him/her. Back up each priority with an action plan and a quantifiable A full-page version of the form below objective. Equally important, include deadlines for each item. can be found in the appendix of this manual for your use. Plan for Success With Business Prospects What are you doing to maximize success when it comes to soliciting support from the business community? Whether you use a particular prospect management software or a form such as the example shown here, your time will be best used by planning and prioritizing anticipated calls on businesses. The process of identifying key players, discovering a company’s recent history of giving, determining any existing links to your organization and more, will increase your odds for success as you map out a plan of research, cultivation and solicitation. You might even consider forming a business advisory council made up of volunteers familiar with your business community to review names and make calls on businesses capable of making generous gifts. A form similar to this would be helpful in providing ongoing direction to your most capable volunteers. 2011 © Stevenson, Inc. Business Prospect Profile & Anticipated Moves Schedule Name of Business Address City State ZIP C ompany Contacts Titles Phone _ Known Gift Recipients Approx. Date Gift Use _ Matching gift company? Published gift/grant guidelines? Formal gifts committee/process? Yes Yes Yes No No No Links to our organization: 1. 3. 2. 4. Likely gift/sponsorship opportunities based on what we know today: 1. 3. 2. 4. Anticipated plan for introduction: Who When Objective Anticipated cultivation moves: When What By Whom Target amount: $_____________ Anticipated solicitation: When Gift Use By Whom 28 www.stevensoninc.com The Operational Plan: How to Create a Yearlong Fundraising Plan — 2011/2012 Edition FUNDRAISING STRATEGIES TO CONSIDER Share a List of Challenge Gift Opportunities Why do so many nonprofits have challenge gifts in place? Simple answer: They work. Especially during these economic times, anything you can do to motivate giving is a plus, and challenge gifts help to leverage giving. Knowing the power of a challenge gift, there’s no reason why you can’t attempt to have multiple challenge gifts — directed to different groups and for different reasons — going at the same time. The key is finding Challenge Gift Opportunities donors willing to establish the Select from among these and other challenge How your gift might be used challenge. • Annual fund support (general gift opportunities as a way to support (name To focus on getting multiple operations) of organization) in a major way and motivate challenge gifts in place, why not • Named endowment gift others to support our efforts as well. • Special project (See examples.) create a simple brochure describ Keep in mind that the challenge opportunities shown here can be tailored ing a number of different types How matching gifts might be used to fit your wishes including payout period, of challenge gift opportunities? • Annual fund support (general use of your gift, challenge criteria and more. Share it with individuals, busioperations) • Endowment Who you might challenge nesses and foundations capable • Special project (See examples.) • Anyone of making significant challenges. • Board members Use the sample list shown Challenge gift criteria (what gets • Alumni or a particular group of alums matched) here as a starting point to create • Nondonors • New, first-time gifts your own list of challenge gift • Businesses • Increased gifts opportunities, then begin meet• Churches • Gifts of a certain threshold ($1,000 ing one-on-one with your top • Particular professions (attorneys, and up) 50 prospects and invite them to retailers) select a challenge opportunity that best suits their interests. Identify and Prioritize All Endowment Gift Opportunities Whether you have a substantial endowment in place or you’re just getting started in establishing one, it’s important to take time to identify fundable endowment opportunities and prioritize their importance to your organization. As much as you may be in need of unrestricted endowment gifts, the annual interest from which will underwrite yearly general operations, many donors prefer to earmark their investments to projects that can make a noticeable and visible difference. As you gear up to market restricted endowment opportunities, follow this process: 1. Establish endowment parameters. At what level, for instance, can a donor have the choice of establishing a named fund? What’s the maximum number of years donors will have to pay out endowment pledges? To what degree will you allow donors to spell out endowment restrictions? 2. Identify all endowment possibilities. List any existing restricted endowment accounts first. Then, review your organization’s budget, first by category, then by line item. What categories and line items in your existing budget could be endowed? 3. Prioritize each identified endowment possibility based on two factors: 1) its importance to fulfilling your organization’s needs and mission, 2) its fundability — its attractiveness to potential donors. After going through this process, you may decide that some potential endowment projects should be deleted or tabled. Set Yearly Endowment Goals If it’s your intent to grow your endowment, then you should have yearly goals in place aimed at doing just that. And if you’re just getting started, set goals that are challenging but realistic. For example, one of your endowment goals may be to secure no less than 10 $10,000 or more named endowment commitments. As you go through the final step, consider inviting small groups or individual potential donors to review your draft list and offer their opinions. The act of engaging them in the process at this point will help them to buy into investing in endowment. Plus, their responses will provide clues as to their funding interests. 2011 © Stevenson, Inc. 29 www.stevensoninc.com The Operational Plan: How to Create a Yearlong Fundraising Plan — 2011/2012 Edition FUNDRAISING STRATEGIES TO CONSIDER Shrewd Direct Mail Planning Rather than whipping together a direct mail appeal and getting it out the door at the last minute, put some thought into your entire year of appeals. For example: • Before sending a direct mail appeal, write a brief marketing plan to set its direction. This marketing plan should cover target audience, audience demographics, quantity, key messages, appeal package composition, funding projects, estimated cost, anticipated revenue and other key factors. • Plan a series of appeals rather than assuming a onetime request will meet your goal. Use Timeline to Visualize Your Direct Mail Flow How detailed is your direct mail production schedule for the fiscal year? The use of a direct mail production schedule helps everyone in the advancement department see the big picture and anticipate what needs to be done when and by whom to keep all mailings on track. The production cycle of each direct mail piece — from writing to drop dates — can be more easily anticipated to ensure deadlines are being met. Such a schedule also helps planners visualize when various groups will receive direct mail to better plan broad-based cultivation procedures and anticipate the flow of incoming gift revenue. If you’re not already doing so, develop a direct mail production schedule similar to the example below to aid you in planning and visualizing your mailings for the entire year. 2011 — DIRECT MAIL PRODUCTION SCHEDULE Item and Audience Drop Date Responsible Planned Gifts Newsletter RKP 7/15 General Newsletter DDS 8/15 Fall Appeal Letter #1 MRT 9/15 Phonathon Postcard GSC 9/15 Annual Report JBS 10/1 Follow-up Appeal #1a MRT 10/20 Invitations to $1,000+ Club Banquet JBS 10/20 Planned Gifts Newsletter RKP 11/1 Holiday Letter MRT 12/1 General Newsletter DDS 1/15 Planned Gifts Newsletter RKP 2/15 Invitations to Special Event MMG 3/1 General Newsletter DDS 3/15 Spring Appeal Letter #2 MRT 4/1 Invitations to $1,000+ Club Reception JBS 5/1 2011 © Stevenson, Inc. June July Aug 30 Sept Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb March April May www.stevensoninc.com The Operational Plan: How to Create a Yearlong Fundraising Plan — 2011/2012 Edition FUNDRAISING STRATEGIES TO CONSIDER Keep Refining Yearlong Direct Mail Appeal Plan It’s wise to have a 12-month written plan that outlines all direct mail appeals you’ll be sending to particular groups throughout the upcoming year. It makes even more sense to refine that plan as you move from one year to another. Create a calendar that identifies all planned appeals for the year, including those directed to past contributors and nondonors. Then, as you near the completion of the current year, formulate a new calendar for the subsequent year that includes revisions to the previous year’s schedule. This year-to-year comparison of direct mail appeals helps identify which segments of your database will be receiving particular invitations to support your organization. The example shown here includes personalized anniversary letters to those who gave during a particular month in the prior year. Sunset Retirement Community: Yearlong Appeals Plan Drop Date Tailor Different Appeals To Varying Audiences Some nonprofits tend to send one or two direct mail appeals each year to their entire mailing list and that’s it. Nothing more. If you’re not segmenting your database into different groups and varying the type of appeal sent to each, you’re missing the boat. Doing so allows you to send multiple appeals throughout the year and test various types of funding requests. Here are just a few of the many ways to segment your database for various appeals: • • • • Donors vs. nondonors Gender Professions Funding interests (based on past support) • Constituency type (board members, businesses, customers, alums, patients) • Geographically (ZIP) by neighborhoods, cities, states, regions 2011 Appeals 1/3 Anniversary Letter January ’09 contributors Anniversary Letter January ’10 contributors 1/15 Non-donor Businesses (50-mile radius) Non-donor Businesses (50-mile radius) 2/3 Anniversary Letter February ’09 contributors Anniversary Letter February ’10 contributors 2/15 Special Memorial Appeal: Families of former residents 3/3 Anniversary Letter March ’09 contributors Anniversary Letter March ’10 contributors 4/3 Anniversary Letter April ’09 contributors Anniversary Letter April ’10 contributors 4/15 Non-donor local residents Non-donor local residents 5/3 Anniversary Letter May ’09 Contributors Anniversary Letter May ’10 Contributors 6/3 Anniversary Letter June ’09 contributors Anniversary Letter June ’10 contributors 7/3 Anniversary Letter July ’09 contributors Anniversary Letter July ’10 contributors 8/3 Anniversary Letter August ’09 contributors Anniversary Letter August ’10 contributors 9/3 Anniversary Letter September ’09 contributors Anniversary Letter September ’10 contributors 9/15 Special appeal: $250 prospects 10/3 Anniversary Letter October ’09 contributors Anniversary Letter October ’10 contributors 11/3 Anniversary Letter November ’09 contributors Anniversary Letter November ’10 contributors 11/10 General Appeal (entire list General Appeal (entire list excluding current contributors) excluding current contributors) 12/3 2011 © Stevenson, Inc. 2010 Appeals Anniversary Letter December ’09 contributors 31 Anniversary Letter December ’10 contributors www.stevensoninc.com The Operational Plan: How to Create a Yearlong Fundraising Plan — 2011/2012 Edition FUNDRAISING STRATEGIES TO CONSIDER Share Your Strategic Plan’s Progress With Donors Gallaudet University (Washington D.C.), which serves deaf and hard-of-hearing undergraduate students, recently adopted a five-year strategic plan, “Vision 2020: A Bold Vision For a Bright Future.” The plan includes three major elements: The Vision, Guiding Principles, and Goals and Strategies. Implementation of the plan began in fall 2009 and focused on strategies related to enrollment (recruitment and retention) and the improvement of graduation rates, says Richard Lytle, special assistant to the president and executive director of strategic planning. Full implementation began in January 2010, around the same time that the university hired a new president. In addition to posting the strategic plan and progress updates on a special strategic planning section of the university’s website, Gallaudet officials have communicated the plan and its progress to donors through gift acknowledgements, stewardship reports and articles in their magazine, says Marilyn Lucas, executive director of development. While university officials have yet to translate the plan into the university’s fundraising goals, Lucas says they will be working on doing so in the coming months. “We still need to identify which fundraising priorities will come out of the strategic plan,” the executive director of development notes. “So far, we have worked with the leaders of each of our strategic plan’s goals to conduct an internal review of what our priorities will be and how that will evolve into fundraising opportunities.” Sharing the plan with donors has several benefits, says Lucas, including the ability to gain donor perspective on what the university is doing, and how well that is being communicated to donors. “It’s a great way to engage people, and engagement helps them see the impact of giving on our institution, which makes them more interested in being a part of it,” she says. Plans are for the university’s new president, T. Alan Hurwitz, to eventually work with Lucas and the chief academic officer to identify priorities in the plan appropriate for external funding. “Dr. Hurwitz came from the deaf community and has an excellent understanding of our university and its mission,” says Lytle. “He is very knowledgeable about, and committed to, the strategic plan. The board is leading the vision and is working with the new president to implement it.” Hiring a new president at the same time as implementing a new strategic plan presents a fabulous opportunity to share the plan with external audiences, says Lucas “Sharing the plan is a terrific way to get him out in front of donors.” In preparation for developing fundraising goals around the strategic plan’s priorities, the university has been rebuilding its development program, hiring Lucas in June 2009, and launching a new major gift and planned giving program in September 2009. “We’ve worked on identifying top prospects that the president should see first,” she says. “We’ve looked at our six-figure and above prospects and went through them one by one to determine how to get our new president in to meet as many as possible.” Some of the ways they accomplished that, and communicated their strategic plan in the process, included: breakfast meetings with donors; a letter from the president with personalized notes to all donors of $1,000 and up, introducing himself and communicating his excitement about the plan with them; and a letter from the president to those who have not yet made gifts, introducing himself, and encouraging them to be part of the university’s promising future. Sources: Marilyn Lucas, Executive Director of Development; Richard Lytle, Special Assistant to the President and Executive Director of Strategic Planning; Gallaudet University, Washington, D.C. Phone (202) 651-5410 (Lucas) or (202) 651-5894 (Lytle). E-mail: [email protected] or [email protected] 2011 © Stevenson, Inc. 32 Developing a Planned Giving Marketing Plan Before you launch your next marketing effort, make sure to include the four processes critical to the success of any marketing effort, says Ann McPherson, a marketing consultant with PG Calc (Cambridge, MA). “These four processes (detailed below) should be applied to both your annual plans and individual marketing initiatives,” McPherson says. 1. Establish, articulate objectives. Select both tangible, measurable goals that you can realistically achieve, and less quantifiable goals, she says: “Regardless of your specific objectives, one of the most important activities ... is a consideration of organizational support, both external and internal.” 2. Define the strategy. Conducting a SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) of your organization’s mission will help you draft a precise, carefully crafted value proposition, position your organization relative to its competitors and peers, and develop a deep understanding of the target audiences to use as leverage in the marketing process, she says. 3. Execute the tactics of the program within the budget. If a program’s objectives have been well defined and the strategic planning diligently conducted, the executive phase should proceed smoothly, she says. 4. Measure, Report, Refine. “Keep paying attention to best practices; reviewing, documenting and improving upon internal benchmarks; and most importantly, talking to donors and prospects about their thoughts on communications they receive,” she says. Source: Ann McPherson, Marketing Consultant, PG Calc, Cambridge, MA. www.stevensoninc.com The Operational Plan: How to Create a Yearlong Fundraising Plan — 2011/2012 Edition PUT YOUR PLAN INTO WRITTEN FORM Once planning has been completed, it needs to be documented as your written guide for the upcoming fiscal year. In addition to the five key components mentioned earlier — goals, quantifiable objectives, strategies, action plans, timetable — you may wish to include job descriptions for each member of your advancement team and committee descriptions for key board and volunteer groups involved with your fundraising efforts (e.g., board development committee, special events committees, etc.). Create a Long-range Plan The majority of non-profit organizations include annual fundraising strategies in their annual operational plan. It’s less common to employ a multi-year approach that outlines longer-term plans and priorities. Using your organization’s strategic plan as a guide, why not create a three- to five-year plan for your development shop? Such a plan should answer three key questions: 1. What is required from the development office to meet the priorities outlined in the multiyear strategic plan? 2. How much gift income will be generated five years from now, and what must occur to make that happen? 3. How will the development department be different five years from now in terms of personnel, technology, etc.? Plan to Plan When you develop your yearly operational plan — complete with a calendar of all fund development tasks for the year — be sure to list the date planning should begin for the subsequent year. Doing so will help prevent delaying the next cycle. 2011 © Stevenson, Inc. A Look at the Creation of a Strategic Plan Southern Illinois University-Carbondale Foundation (Carbondale, IL) underwent a 10-month process in developing its four-year strategic plan (2009-2012). At its May 2008 meeting, the board, with the assistance of a consultantfacilitator, participated in a brainstorming session to identify five broad strategic categories, says Rickey N. McCurry, vice chancellor for institutional advancement at Southern Illinois University and chief executive officer of the foundation. The foundation board then convened a task force of five to six board members headed by the foundation board’s immediate past president and board officers. They invited an academic dean to be a part of the process as well. Over the next six months, members of the task force were divided into groups, given a leader and put in charge of conducting a SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) on each of the five strategic categories, which they did through teleconference meetings, he says. At the foundation board’s October 2008 meeting, each task force leader presented to the full board results of the SWOT analysis, and the board members either affirmed or adjusted what was presented. The groups then took that feedback, refined it and developed goals, says McCurry. In February 2009, the entire foundation board convened at a two-day off-campus board retreat to work on the opportunities and goals for each of the strategic categories. From that meeting, McMurry and the task force chair wrote the final draft of the strategic plan, which provided specific wording for each strategic category, including goals, milestones, dates and action steps. The strategic plan was presented to and approved by the full board in May 2009. The foundation began the strategic planning process as it was coming to the conclusion of its first-ever comprehensive capital campaign, McCurry notes. “We felt it was important to engage in a strategic planning process at that time, because we wanted to assess where we were, where we needed to go, and how to get there,” he says. “A major purpose and goal in developing the strategic plan was to launch our next campaign. One of our major focal areas in our strategic plan is resource generation and under that is fundraising and the next campaign, which will have a goal between $250 million and $500 million.” While the strategic plan is serving as the blueprint to follow over the next four years, it also needs to be flexible as well, says McCurry: “It is our philosophy and strong belief that good plans have inherent flexibility built in. The value of a good plan is shown by providing a solid foundation and framework on which to build — and from which to adapt as real need and situations dictate.” Source: Rickey N. McCurry, Vice Chancellor for Institutional Advancement and Chief Executive Officer, Southern Illinois University-Carbondale, Carbondale, IL. Phone (618) 453-4900. E-mail: [email protected] 33 www.stevensoninc.com The Operational Plan: How to Create a Yearlong Fundraising Plan — 2011/2012 Edition PUT YOUR PLAN INTO WRITTEN FORM Your Printed Plan Should Be Used Throughout the Year A well thought-out operational plan will break down lofty goals into achievable increments. It allows one to establish challenging but attainable goals. Keep in mind that an operational plan refers to goals that are to be achieved throughout a given year. A strategic plan, on the other hand, is longer-term and more comprehensive. It becomes your organization’s vision for the future. A yearly operational plan should be linked to your institution’s larger strategic plan. The operational plan should address the strategic plan and help make it a reality. There are five key components to a written operational plan: Goals. Goals are larger in purpose and often institution-wide, crossing departmental lines. They are an outgrowth of the organization’s mission statement and help to define what hopes to be achieved throughout the course of a year. They tend to be more broad and less quantifiable. Examples of goals might include: “to become less dependent on tuition” (for a college), or “to provide the best possible care in the most cost-effective way” (for a healthcare organization). Objectives. Objectives are quantifiable and spell out what will be done to address each goal. It’s common to have several quantifiable objectives that address each of the organization’s goals. For development offices, examples of objectives might be: “to generate $500,000 in unrestricted gift support throughout fiscal year 2010-11” or, “to generate $6 million in lead gifts and pledges toward the $15 million capital campaign this fiscal year.” Strategies. Strategies represent another step down in the planning process. They often represent individual programs that define how a portion of an objective will be achieved. It’s common for one objective to include a number of strategies. Action Plans. As we move into more of the detail of how to address goals and achieve objectives, action plans provide the recipe for each strategy and delineate who is responsible for doing what and when. An action plan could be described as a checklist of what needs to happen. While each strategy will include only one action plan, each action plan will include many step-by-step points. Sometimes one individual is responsible for managing the entire plan, but many of the staff team are assigned to certain tasks. This form of management allows each staff member to be in charge at various times and for various programs and also encourages everyone to work together knowing they will each be dependent on one another at some point as they work to achieve common objectives. Timetable. Once all strategies and accompanying action plans have been determined for the year, those involved can go back through each program to pull out dates of everything from “get annual fund brochure copy to printer” to “alumni board meeting” to “send phonathon reminder postcard to entire constituency.” The completion of this master calendar of what needs to be completed and when serves as the centerpiece of activities throughout the entire year. This annually printed operational plan then becomes a working tool that is referred to and monitored each week throughout the year. Often additional information is included in the document –– job descriptions, organizational charts, gift acceptance and acknowledgment policies and more. The existence of an operational plan also allows staff to better evaluate existing programs throughout the year and at year-end. This ongoing evaluation process enables the following year’s planning to take place with much greater understanding and ease and helps to build on the successes of the past to achieve even loftier goals. 2011 © Stevenson, Inc. 34 Yearly Plan Needs Focus Your development shop undoubtedly has a written plan identifying the year’s objectives, what needs to happen by when, and who is responsible. Still, it’s important for every team member to agree on what matters most. To accomplish this, create a primary focus that takes precedence over all other objectives. Examples: To increase by 10 percent the number of annual contributors of $1,000-plus. To increase the number of firsttime contributors by 20 percent. To initiate strategies that generate more business community support. To produce and present more individualized funding proposals that will generate more major gifts. Selectively Share Your Operational Plan Once your operational plan is printed, make a point to share it with key employees internally and selected board members and/or volunteers externally. Sharing your plan, as an advancement team, will accomplish two important goals: 1. Those with whom you work will gain a better understanding and appreciation of what you do for the organization. 2. You and your staff will come to own your plan even more by sharing it and discussing it with others. www.stevensoninc.com The Operational Plan: How to Create a Yearlong Fundraising Plan — 2011/2012 Edition PUT YOUR PLAN INTO WRITTEN FORM Have Yearlong Timeline for Each Development Team Member How detailed is your yearly operational plan? Your plan should include one or two broader goals, quantifiable objectives that fulfill those goals, action plans that detail fundraising strategies, plus a master calendar that spells out everything that will happen in the development office by a particular date and who’s responsible for each detail. In addition to that master calendar, it’s helpful to have a separate yearlong timeline for each member of the development team. The individualized calendar clearly shows the responsible person what needs to be completed by what date and serves to keep each professional on track with his/ her responsibilities. It may also include more detail than the department’s master calendar. Consider producing a timeline using Microsoft’s Excel spreadsheet software or other software that allows you to arrange a calendar in various formats (e.g., by project, by deadline date, etc.). 2010-11 FISCAL YEAR DEVELOPMENT CALENDAR Margo Hudson Team member____________________________ Special Events Coordinator Position_________________________________ Although a typical calendar may include far more detail, the example shown here illustrates the format of an individualized calendar arranged by project. Project 6/20 7/7 7/20 8/29 9/23 Fall Hoedown Fundraiser ................. Recruit committee, chair 5/23 Committee meeting 6/6 Location confirmed 6/27 Committee meeting 7/28 Committee meeting 8/18 Entertainment arrangements complete 8/22 Catering arrangements complete 8/26 Committee meeting 9/1 Send invitations 9/26 Committee meeting 9/29 Auction items secured 9/30 Committee meeting 10/20 Event setup 10/27-28 Event 10/28 As you plan your year in advance, be sure to incorporate opportunities for professional growth. Conferences, books and periodicals, internal training sessions and membership in professional associations all help employees prepare to take on new and more challenging goals. And yet, opportunities for professional growth often tend to be overlooked in spite of increasing demands. Professional development opportunities will be perceived as rewards and will result in big dividends for your agency. Deadline Houston Reception ......................................... Recruit committee Committee meeting Secure location Send invitations Event/follow-up visits Incorporate Professional Growth Into Your Plan 2011 © Stevenson, Inc. Action Dallas Reception .............................................. Recruit committee Committee meeting Secure location Send invitations Event/follow-up visits 9/16 10/4 10/25 11/21 12/15 Holiday Open House .................................... Committee enlisted Committee meeting Invitations sent Catering, entertainment finalized News release sent Event 10/25 11/7 11/28 12/1 12/2 12/20 San Antonio Reception ................................. Recruit committee Committee meeting Secure location Send invitations Event/follow-up visits 1/17/12 2/2 2/23 3/31 4/20 35 www.stevensoninc.com The Operational Plan: How to Create a Yearlong Fundraising Plan — 2011/2012 Edition PUT YOUR PLAN INTO WRITTEN FORM Cultivation Helps Explore Next Moves Going after major gifts often requires a much more sophisticated series of cultivation moves than is needed for lower-end gifts. And because you can’t use the same friendraising strategies with every prospect — they should be tailored to the interests and circumstances of each — it’s important to select from many alternatives. To help you plan individualized cultivation moves for each of your major gift prospects, develop a menu of cultivation categories, such as the example here, to guide your decision making. These categories can be used as a tool by individual development officers or in a group setting as a way to brainstorm what cultivation moves would be most appropriate with particular prospects. Use of a cultivation possibilities menu also forces you to ask, “What’s my most important objective with this prospect at this point in time?” CULTIVATION POSSIBILITIES MENU Prospect____________________ Date____________ Objective Steps To Be Taken To involve one or more family members of the prospect.... 1. ______________ 2. ______________ To recognize or honor the prospect.... To help the prospect more fully understand and appreciate the work of our organization.... A full version of the chart shown on the left can be found in the appendix of this manual for your personal use. 1. ______________ 2. ______________ 1. ______________ 2. ______________ To make the prospect more aware 1. ______________ of the level of gift required.... 2. _ ____________ To better determine the prospect’s 1. ______________ potential funding interests.... 2. ______________ To engage the prospect in realizing 1. ______________ greater ownership of our agency 2. ______________ and its programs.... Other objectives/steps.... 1. ______________ 2. ______________ Prioritize Funding Needs, Amounts Those persons responsible for developing grant proposals at your institution can benefit from having a one-year (or multiyear) operational plan that not only prioritizes funding needs, but also quantifies deadlines and target amounts. As you map out quantifiable funding objectives for a year or more, categorize them within the following groups: program goals, equipment goals, project goals and personnel goals. Here is a template to get you started: Program Goals: For What By When For How Much 1.______________________________________________ 2.______________________________________________ 3.______________________________________________ Equipment Goals: 1.______________________________________________ 2.______________________________________________ 3.______________________________________________ Project Goals: 1.______________________________________________ 2.______________________________________________ 3.______________________________________________ Personnel Goals: 1.______________________________________________ 2.______________________________________________ 3.______________________________________________ 2011 © Stevenson, Inc. 36 Spell Out How You Plan To Increase Gift Revenue Let’s say your organization generated $400,000 in unrestricted gifts last year. This year’s goal has been set at $420,000 — an 8 percent increase. In addition to preparing a written operational plan that spells out how you intend to raise $420,000, include a quantitative section that outlines how you intend to generate the $20,000 in increased gifts. Overcompensate with planning to allow for any shortfalls. Spelling out what needs to occur to realize $20,000 in additional gift revenue will keep everyone keenly aware of those important strategies. www.stevensoninc.com The Operational Plan: How to Create a Yearlong Fundraising Plan — 2011/2012 Edition PUT YOUR PLAN INTO WRITTEN FORM Strategies Define How You Plan to Achieve Objectives Strategies are fun. They get into just how you plan to achieve quantifiable objectives. Often a strategy may represent a particular program. As an example, let’s identify possible strategies you might have to achieve the following annual fund objective: “to generate $500,000 in unrestricted annual fund gifts throughout fiscal year 2010-11.” Examples of possible strategies might include: Meet with board members and invite them to each approach three new prospects for membership in the President’s Order of Distinction. Expand our existing special event, building attendance by ___ new participants. Create a new special event with anticipated first-year attendance of ___. Increase the number of solicitation calls to new prospects by ___ percent. Provide ___ presentations to civic groups to generate ___ new donors. Generate ___ more memorial and intribute gifts over the previous year. Develop three targeted direct mail appeals aimed at nondonors on our mailing list. Enlist one civic group to take on our organization as a yearlong service project and raise funds (and new donors) on our behalf. Conduct three direct mail appeal tests aimed at individuals or groups not currently on our mailing list (e.g., a particular ZIP code, those with memberships in a particular organization, those in our area who subscribe to a particular magazine, etc.). Create a wish list of specific funding opportunities with the intent of generating ___ new contributors. Enlist a volunteer committee to review lists of nondonors and make ___ calls per volunteer per month. Initiate a campaign among last year’s donors to recruit a new contributor for the upcoming year. There are any number of strategies you can develop depending on the type of organization you represent, the make-up of your constituency and your organization’s past gifts history. Action Plans Define Quantifiable Objectives A yearly operational plan should include goals, quantifiable objectives and action plans that define how and when those objectives will be fulfilled. Action Plan: Fall Phonathon Although all three components are important, action Supports following Objective: To raise $350,000 in 2010/11 plans really spell out the how to of each fundraising fiscal year strategy and, therefore, should be well thought out in Fall Phonathon Target: $85,000 in gifts and pledges advance. The generic example shown here illustrates what an action plan might look like. Action Steps Date(s) Be sure to include these four elements in your action Secure phonathon challenge gift April/May plan: Recruit cochairs June 20-24 Recruit team captains July 11-15 Team captain meeting Aug. 1 Recruit callers Aug. 8-26 Phonathon postcards to print Aug. 19 Prepare caller cards Sept. 12-30 Send phonathon announcement postcards Sept. 16 Room setup Oct. 3-7 Training sessions Oct. 9-10, 16-17 Phonathon Oct. 9-13; 16-20 Call-back/follow-up session Oct. 23-25 Volunteer party & awards 2011 © Stevenson, Inc. Oct. 27 37 1. Goals: More lofty in nature; support the organization’s overall strategic plan. 2. Objectives: Quantifiable; tie directly to goals. 3. Action Steps: Key fundraising strategies for how you intend to achieve each objective. 4. Calendar: Detailed schedule of who is to do what, by when. If your organization has used a particular fundraising strategy in prior years, it will be easier to document what needs to occur and when. For instance, if you had a 10-day phonathon in prior years to help meet your annual fund objective, creating a phonathon action plan should be relatively easy. It’s a matter of putting the steps on paper and fine tuning any changes. www.stevensoninc.com The Operational Plan: How to Create a Yearlong Fundraising Plan — 2011/2012 Edition PUT YOUR PLAN INTO WRITTEN FORM Plan a Year of Special Events Although special events can be more intensive than some forms of fundraising, there’s no doubt they provide obvious benefits including adding greater visibility to your nonprofit and reaching out to new contributors who might not give otherwise. To make the most of special fundraising events, plan a series of them throughout your fiscal year. 1. Decide how many special events you can realistically hold throughout the year utilizing a different group of volunteers for each event. 2. Once you know that number, determine the types of events you will have that appeal to different audiences: golf classic, gala, raffle, wine tasting, etc. 3. Set up a committee of volunteers for each of your events. Enlist committee members who best fit each event and give them latitude in planning and shaping their events. 4. Work with each committee to provide the support and direction they need to do their jobs. 5. Create a master calendar that allows you to visualize what will need to happen and when throughout the year. 2011 Special Events Calendar November ‘10 — Event committees formed Nov. 20 — 1st CSB committee meeting Jan. 10, 2011 — CSB corporate sponsors secured Jan. 20 — CSB invitations dropped Feb. 15 — Corporate Spelling Bee (CSB) — Goal: $70,000 Feb. 1 — 1st C&A committee meeting Feb. 20 — CSB evaluation meeting March 1 — 1st GC committee meeting April 15 — Sponsors secured for GC May 1 — Newspaper ads appear for C&A May 1 — Invitations to select audience for C&A May 10 — 3rd Annual Crafts Auction & Sale (C&A) — Goal: $15,000 May 15 — C&A evaluation meeting June 1 — Newspaper ads appear for GC June 1 — 1st TB committee meeting June 15 — 15th Annual Golf Classic (GC) — Goal: $30,000 June 20 — GC Evaluation meeting July 20 — Entertainment and caterer secured for TB Aug. 1 — Sponsors secured for TB Aug. 25 — Invitations dropped for TB Sept. 15 — Tame the Bull Fundraiser (TB) — Goal: $50,000 Sept. 20 — TB evaluation meeting Oct. 15 — Recognition/celebration event for all event volunteers 2011 © Stevenson, Inc. 38 Look Beyond The Dollars Financial objectives address gift dollars to be raised, but nonmonetary objectives help focus fundraising processes and systems, says Patti Lyons, executive partner at Pride Philanthropy (Alpharetta, GA). The metrics Lyons identifies, many of which can help board members strengthen fundraising efforts, include: • Percent of constituency contributing during the year. • Percent of constituency solicited by mail, as well as face-to-face. • Average gift size. • Number of new donors over prior year. • Percent of new donors over prior year. • Percent of pledges paid. • Number of volunteers from year to year. • Number of major gift prospects. • Number of planned gifts. • Number of planned gift expectancies. • Number of gifts matched by employers. • Number of donors moving to higher levels. • Number of new members. • Number of event attendees. • Cost ratios for each special event. • Percent of successful grant applications. • Number of corrected addresses. • Number of renewed lapsed donors. • Percent of previous year’s donors. • Number of board calls and/or referrals. Source: Patti Lyons, Executive Partner, Pride Philanthropy, Alpharetta, GA. Phone (888) 417-0707. E-mail: [email protected] Website: www.pridephilanthropy.com www.stevensoninc.com The Operational Plan: How to Create a Yearlong Fundraising Plan — 2011/2012 Edition PUT YOUR PLAN INTO WRITTEN FORM Make Volunteer Involvement a Part of Your Plans As you prepare an operational plan for your fiscal year, be sure to include a volunteer component. Volunteers can really allow you to accomplish more if you have put ample thought into planning for their involvement. And by delegating tasks to volunteers, you’ll have more trained staff time available for other duties. Pencil volunteers in to your year plan for any number of tasks, including: • Making solicitation calls. • Reviewing, rating and screening prospect names. • Making phone calls. • Calling donors to say thanks. • Taking photos. Objective No. 4: To manage the work of annual awards committee (five members). • Helping coordinate special events. Objective No. 5: To coordinate and manage the annual community campaign made up of no less than 40 volunteers who will seek gifts from throughout the community. (Community campaign goal: $50,000) • Serving as centers of influence. • Assisting with behind- the-scenes duties such as stuffing envelopes. • Staffing informational booths at community events. 2011/12 Operational Plan Manilla School Volunteer Involvement Objectives Objective No. 1: To manage the board development committee (six members) and support them in generating $4,000 in new annual fund gifts. Objective No. 2: To coordinate two phonathons (fall and spring) that include no less than 35 volunteer callers. (Phonathon goal: $18,500) Objective No. 3: To coordinate and manage the golf classic planning committee made up of no less than eight volunteers. (Golf Classic goal: $10,000) Volunteer Programs Calendar Month June Action Recruit phonathon co-chairs Responsible Miller July Recruit phonathon callers (20-plus) August Recruit community campaign chair, leadership Miller Gray September Recruit community campaign volunteers Gray September Board meeting — meet w/development committee Gray September Hold fall phonathon Miller October Community campaign kickoff Gray January Board meeting — meet w/development committee Gray February Recruit phonathon callers (20-plus) Miller February Recruit Golf Classic chair, vice-chair Fennel March Meet w/ Golf Classic chair, vice chair; recruit committee members Fennel April Hold spring phonathon Miller May Board meeting — meet w/development committee Gray May Annual Golf Classic Fennel 2011 © Stevenson, Inc. 39 Your written operational plan — complete with goals, quantifiable objectives, action plans and a master calendar for the year of who does what and by when — may have various volunteer-related actions scattered throughout, or you may choose to have a separate section that focuses solely on volunteer plans. A generic example of volunteer planning is shown to the left. www.stevensoninc.com The Operational Plan: How to Create a Yearlong Fundraising Plan — 2011/2012 Edition PUT YOUR PLAN INTO WRITTEN FORM Consider a Yearly Operational Plan Based on Giving Levels There are many ways of creating a yearly operational plan complete with goals, quantifiable objectives and action plans. One way of doing that is to use your gift clubs or levels as the foundation, creating strategies that attract new contributors at each level and move current donors up the giving ladder. Development shops that use these gift clubs as the centerpiece of their yearly operational planning should identify quantifiable objectives and accompanying action plans for each gift level. This allows the development team to allocate time and resources more appropriately, with prospects at the lowest gift level receiving the least amount of time and resources, and those at the top end receiving the most attention. Review the accompanying operational plan objectives as a way to understand how gift clubs can become the focus of planning. 2011-12 Operational Plan Objectives The President’s Guild — Annual Contributors of $5,000 and above Objectives 1. To host the annual President’s Guild dinner. 2. To create a yearly cultivation/solicitation plan for each member of The President’s Guild. 3. To personally call on and renew each President’s Guild member. 4. To provide special seating for President’s Guild members at the annual gala. 5. To invite all members to the quarterly Susan Haines Society receptions. 6. To increase the number of new guild members by 2 percent. Susan Haines Society — Annual Contributors of $1,000 to $4,999 Objectives 1. To host quarterly receptions for members of the Susan Haines Society. 2. To personally call on and renew all current Susan Haines Society members. 3. To personally cultivate and invite no less than 20 percent of Susan Haines Society members to join The President’s Guild. 4. To encourage all current society members (through various means) to enlist one new member. 5. To increase the number of new Susan Haines Society members by 3 percent. The Emerald Club — Annual Contributors of $500 to $999 Objectives 1. To identify those Emerald Club members who should be solicited through face-to-face calls. 2. To direct two personalized renewal letters to Emerald Club members who are not seen face-toface. 3. To invite no less than 40 percent of Emerald Club members to become Susan Haines Society members. 4. To increase the number of new Emerald Club members by 3 percent. The League of Ridgemont — Annual Contributors of 100 to $499 Objectives 1. To identify those league members who should be personally contacted. 2. To renew all current League members through the annual phonathon and/or direct mail appeals. 3. To invite no less than 30 percent of league members to contribute at The Emerald Club level. 4. To increase the number of new league members by 4 percent. Ridgemont Members — Annual Contributions of Less Than $100 Objectives 1. To renew all Ridgemont members through direct mail, the annual phonathon or personal calls. 2. To invite no less than 50 percent of Ridgemont members to contribute at the League of Ridgemont level. 3. To increase the number of new Ridgemont members by 10 percent. 2011 © Stevenson, Inc. 40 www.stevensoninc.com The Operational Plan: How to Create a Yearlong Fundraising Plan — 2011/2012 Edition MONITOR PROGRESS & EVALUATE SUCCESS The creation of an operational plan isn’t intended as a one-time procedure that occurs prior to the onset of a new fiscal year and then gets no further attention.The plan should be reviewed individually and collectively by every member of your advancement team on a regular basis throughout the course of the year. It should serve as your fundraising instruction manual all year long. An ongoing review of the plan will help to point out if fundraising strategies are on track or if other actions should be taken. Your written document will also allow you to evaluate what’s working or not working and will provide valuable information as you prepare the subsequent year’s operational plan. Conduct Financial Assessment of Your Fundraising Programs Track Your Yearly Acquisition Average 2011 2010 2009 2008 2007 2006 One part of creating a yearlong development plan for your organization is conducting a financial assessment of each of your fundraising programs, says Alice Are you really generating more L. Ferris, partner at GoalBusters Consulting, LLC (Flagstaff, AZ). revenue from your annual appeals? “As much as possible, make sure you can track all the money that comes in Or are you spending more and to your organization for each fundraising program,” Ferris says. “For example, netting less? you will want to know how much you have raised from special events, annual Monitor your yearly mailings, advertisements, etc. If you can track it back to the program it originated average gift size as one way to from, that will help you analyze those programs later in the development of your measure direct mail acquisition fundraising plan.” effectiveness. If your average yearly In addition to identifying the revenue from each of your fundraising programs, gift is on the rise, for instance, you you will also need to calculate the expenses, says Ferris. She shares two ways to can assume your direct mail appeals do that: have become more effective, thanks 1. Calculate your expenses based on true net. The true net of an event or to current donors giving at higher program includes two additional things that organizations don’t always levels, first-time contributors giving accommodate for, she says. They are 1) how much staff time it takes, and 2) at higher levels, or both. Whatever how much volunteer time it takes. “When we calculated the true net for one the case, however, tracking yearly organization that conducted an annual four-day event held over a holiday, they average gift size should help you ended up netting somewhere in the neighborhood of $6,000 to $10,000 for the draw conclusions about future direct event,” she says. “That was not worth the four days of heavy staff work.” mail efforts. One word of advice: Consider 2. Benchmark your expenses against other programs. Some sectors have pulling larger one-time gifts out benchmarks you can compare yourself against, but if you don’t have a benchof the equation to provide a more marking tool in your nonprofit area, Ferris recommends segmenting revenue accurate representation of average by individual giving, planned giving, foundation giving and corporate giving, gift size. then determining what percentage of your revenue comes from each area. “For instance, some organizations are going to have a huge percentage of revenue coming from foundations,” she says. “Others will have a large percentage of revenue coming from corporate support.” Average Gift Size — 2006-2011 What you’re looking for, says Ferris, is whether your percentages line $60 up with the GivingUSA statistics. These statistics are available online at www.givingusa.org. $50 “GivingUSA (Glenview, IL) tracks charitable giving in the USA in $40 four areas — individual, corporate, bequests and foundations,” says Ferris. $20 “You want 75 percent, or at least the majority of your contributions, to be $10 from individuals. Individuals are going to be your most stable source of $0 renewable income. If they aren’t right now, that will give you an opportunity to plan for the future and try to move things toward that 75 percent.” Source: Alice L. Ferris, Partner, GoalBusters Consulting, LLC, Flagstaff, AZ. Phone (928) 606-1692. E-mail: [email protected] 2011 © Stevenson, Inc. 41 www.stevensoninc.com The Operational Plan: How to Create a Yearlong Fundraising Plan — 2011/2012 Edition MONITOR PROGRESS & EVALUATE SUCCESS Complete a Year-end Report Whether your fiscal year ends in December, June or July, make time to complete a year-end written report that summarizes and analyzes your development shop. Both the process and final document will provide insight into planning future goals and objectives. The report should include: 1. Data on gifts — Total revenue raised over/below goal; percentage increase/ decrease over previous year; where the funds were directed (general operations, endowment, capital, etc.). 2. Data on donors — Number of donors compared to previous year; number/ percentage of unfulfilled pledges; percentage of funds raised from various sources (businesses, individuals, foundations, board members, etc.); number/ percentage of first-time gifts. Conduct a Year-end Gift Comparison If you haven’t yet done so, do a comparison of all annual gifts received last fiscal year prior to Dec. 31 to see who’s missing from this year’s contributors. Then contact them now. 3. Summary of fundraising methods/programs — Direct mail appeals; telesolicitation; community campaign; face-to-face calls; special events; etc. 4. Budget issues — Line items that were significantly over/under budget and why. 5. Personnel issues — Employee vacancies; key performance issues; instances in which the staff/individuals exceeded or failed to meet expectations. 6. Summary of shortcomings/disappointments — Programs/fundraising methods that failed to meet expectations; internal/external factors impacting fundraising efforts. 7. Summary of key accomplishments — First-time initiatives; instances in which goals were met/exceeded; department/individual awards; individual performance accomplishments. 8. Key recommendations — Specific changes recommended for upcoming fiscal year. Are You Working Your Plan? It’s a significant accomplishment to prepare a written operational plan that outlines fundraising strategies for the year. But it shouldn’t stop there. Be sure to work your plan as your fiscal year unfolds. Do that by: Referring to it at regularly scheduled staff meetings. Setting benchmarks throughout the year that compare the document’s deadlines to actual results. Making notes on your operational plan that should be discussed or can be incorporated into next year’s document. Monitor Progress of Your Fundraising Efforts On a monthly or quarterly basis, produce and review a report that shows who gave last year by this date but hasn’t given yet this year. By regularly comparing that data, you can follow up with nondonors before too much time elapses. 2011 © Stevenson, Inc. 42 Regularly Review Your Top 100 Prospects Your top 100 prospects represent a dynamic, ever-changing group of individuals. To properly rank and steward this important group, review your list regularly — at least monthly — and prioritize who should remain, who should be added and who should be moved to a lesser priority (or inactive) level. Include in this review process criteria related to both capability and inclination to give. Give staff and highly involved board members a list of your current top prospects, along with additional names not presently on that list. Instruct those persons to first review the list individually, assigning a rating of 1, 2 or 3 beside each prospect’s name — 1 meaning keep on the list, 2 meaning discuss for possible change in status, and 3 meaning recommendation to add to the list. Then, meet as a group and compare your thoughts, and adjust your top 100 prospect list accordingly. www.stevensoninc.com The Operational Plan: How to Create a Yearlong Fundraising Plan — 2011/2012 Edition MONITOR PROGRESS & EVALUATE SUCCESS Complete a Comparative Analysis of Key Fundraising Actions Whether you do it twice a year or once at the end of each fiscal year, it’s helpful to compare key fundraising actions with what was accomplished during the previous one Development Calls Evaluation 2007/08 2008/09 2009/10 to three-year period. These measurements NUMBER OF FACE-TO-FACE CALLS indicate — to both the person being mea Introduction to new prospects sured and his/her supervisor — how actions Individuals stack up compared to previous years. Businesses If yearly fundraising results are up Other or down over a previous year, these results Cultivation calls on former contributors may give some indication as to why that Individuals may be the case. The annual comparison Businesses can also serve as an incentive to beat last Other year’s numbers. Solicitation calls on new prospects The chart pictured left shows some actions you may wish to include in an indi Individuals vidual’s comparative numbers. Businesses Other Solicitation calls on former contributors Individuals Businesses Other Stewardship calls (thank-you calls) Individuals Businesses Other A full-size version of the chart can be found in the appendix of this manual for your personal use. Track Last Year’s Contributors’ Current Year Giving Your periodic gift report may look something like this. Sounds simple, but you’d be surprised by the number of development shops that don’t track their last fiscal year’s contributors. Whether you have a computer program that will do it, or it’s done manually, develop a report that lists, alphabetically, every one of last fiscal year’s donors along with his or her gift amount and the current year’s target amount. Then, as you proceed through the year, periodically mark everyone who’s been solicited and has given to date. This helps to better visualize where you’re at in gift retention and helps prevent past contributors from falling through the cracks. 2010-11 Donor Retention Report 2009-10 Contributors 06/10 Amount Abbas, Richard Acme Printing Anthony, Susan Bedell, Richard/Emily Bosco Pharmacy Byron, Noel 2011 © Stevenson, Inc. $ 150 $ 400 $ 250 $ 75 $ 250 $1,000 05/11 Target 05/11 Actual $ 200 $ 200 $ 500 $ 500 $ 300 $ 100 $ 75 $ 300 $ 1,500 43 Comments Fall phonathon Personal call: 8/7 Community campaign Fall phonathon Community campaign Personal call: 11/10 www.stevensoninc.com The Operational Plan: How to Create a Yearlong Fundraising Plan — 2011/2012 Edition MONITOR PROGRESS & EVALUATE SUCCESS Form Provides Helpful Way to Monitor Activity All too often, procrastination and other distractions prevent development personnel from carrying out those functions that are most critical –– making regular contact with prospects and donors. Recording that activity weekly helps to reinforce its importance among all involved. If you manage others who are responsible for calling on prospects and donors as a part of their responsibilities, it’s important to have them regularly record their activity. Why? For several reasons. First, doing so helps them more accurately analyze how their time is being spent. Second, it helps you, as the manager, to monitor how their time is being used. And finally, the written report provides a lasting record that can be used to improve effectiveness as you plan subsequent years’ goals and objectives. Whether staff track cultivation and solicitation activity via computer software, their PDA or with a simple pen and notebook, the report should include the kinds of information provided on the weekly calls report depicted below. A similar blank weekly calls report can be found in the appendix of this manual for your personal use. Weekly Calls Report Methodist Medical Center Name_________________________________________ Week of_ ______________________________________ Name of Appt. Corres- Phone Intro. Cultivation Solicitation Stewardship Prospect/Donor Date Set pondence Call Call Call Call Call Comments Monitor Progress of Operational Plan at Staff Meetings After you and your staff complete the important process of establishing a yearlong operational plan — including goals and quantifiable objectives, strategies, action plans and a master calendar — how do you monitor its progress throughout the year? To be sure you’re on track, include notebooks at regular staff meetings that can serve as a way to measure progress toward fundraising and other related goals. The notebooks should include: A copy of your operational plan. q Each meeting’s agenda. q Assignments that grow out of each meeting (with corresponding deadlines). q Periodic reports (e.g., annual fund updates, evaluation summaries of events, etc.). q 2011 © Stevenson, Inc. 44 Evaluation Tip Send a memo to all employees quarterly asking them to share accomplishments related to their departments and those served by your organization. These accomplishments may provide fodder needed for an upcoming appeal letter. www.stevensoninc.com The Operational Plan: How to Create a Yearlong Fundraising Plan — 2011/2012 Edition MONITOR PROGRESS & EVALUATE SUCCESS Compare Completed Calls at Weekly Meetings If time doesn’t allow you to review individually completed calls during staff meetings, you should at least review the number of face-to-face calls completed that week. Some development teams will use staff meetings to review who’s called upon whom, what action took place and what type of followup should occur. But available time doesn’t always allow for group review of each prospect’s current status. Reviewing a summary of face-to-face calls, however, should be a must for any development office. Doing so on a regular basis illustrates: 1. Who among your staff is completing the most calls for a given week. (A little competition can be healthy.) Make Board Contacts Regular and Meaningful How often do you make contact with board members on an individual basis? If building a can-do board is a priority for you, then making time to meet oneon-one with board members should be a priority as well. Individual contacts with board members helps you strengthen their relationship with your organization in many ways, including: 1. Educating board members on matters you consider to be priorities. 2. Demonstrating your interest in and appreciation for them. 3. Enabling you to learn more about your board members’ skills, interests and circles of influence that may be of value to your cause. Individual contacts with board members should be regular, but at irregular intervals and appropriate, not contrived. Each meeting should have a clear objective in mind: to ask for a commitment of time, to clarify an issue or to seek the board member’s advice, for instance. By planning and monitoring your meetings with individual board members, you will not only create a more cohesive board, but also motivate members to new levels of involvement and ownership of your cause. Springhill College YEARLY BOARD MEMBER CONTACT REPORT Board Member ________________________________ For Year Ending ________________________________ DATE OF CONTACT CONTACT TYPE OBJECTIVE FOLLOW-UP COMMENTS JAN. 2. What type of prospect/donor action has taken place (e.g., cultivation, solicitation). FEB. 3. Total team accomplishments with regard to face-to-face contacts. MAR. APR. Maintaining weekly call statistics over time also provides an historical measurement from which to establish future goals. MAY JUNE JULY AUG. A full-size version of the chart shown to the right can be found in the apprendix of this manual for your personal use. SEPT. OCT. NOV. DEC. Contact Type V = Personal Visit 2011 © Stevenson, Inc. T = Telephone 45 C = Correspondence www.stevensoninc.com The Operational Plan: How to Create a Yearlong Fundraising Plan — 2011/2012 Edition MONITOR PROGRESS & EVALUATE SUCCESS Identify Who’s Not Giving and Why Since it’s a proven fact that it’s far less costly — both financially and in terms of time — to retain donors than it is to acquire new ones, doesn’t it make sense to pay close attention to who’s not giving and to know why? Whether you’re evaluating current fiscal year donors or analyzing those from the past year, it’s important to identify all lybunts — those who gave last year but not this year — and attempt to understand why they chose not to support your effort. Doing so may yield clues to changes that may be needed in the way you conduct certain development functions and also point out how you can reverse nondonors’ giving decisions in the upcoming year. Maintain a monthly or quarterly lybunt identification report, such as the example illustrated here, that monitors who’s not giving throughout the year. Periodic review of such a report might even prevent some donor attrition during the current year if you are aware of why individuals are choosing not to contribute at present. In some instances, it may simply be a matter of timing. Whether or not you are able A full-size version of the chart shown to save them as donors for the current fiscal year, you will have a ready list of those below can be found in the appendix of whom you should reapproach in the upcoming year. this manual for your personal use. Date_________________________ LYBUNT IDENTIFICATION REPORT Constituent Donor Type 2011 © Stevenson, Inc. Last Year’s Gift Amount 46 Previous Gift Designation This Year’s Solicitation Date Reason for Not Contributing www.stevensoninc.com The Operational Plan: How to Create a Yearlong Fundraising Plan — 2011/2012 Edition APPENDIX 2011/2012 Appendix of Forms and Documents Organization is crucial to effective fundraising operations. Feel free to copy the following forms to systematize your organization, department or office, or use them as a starting point to develop your own operational plan suited to your specific programs and circumstances. 2011 © Stevenson, Inc. 47 www.stevensoninc.com Yearly Operational Plan KEY GOALS: (Example: To provide 20 percent of XYZ’s annual operating budget through unrestricted gifts.) 1.___________________________________________________________________________ 2.___________________________________________________________________________ 3.___________________________________________________________________________ QUANTIFIABLE OBJECTIVES: (Example: To generate $570,000 in unrestricted gift revenue.) Objective No. 1:___________________________________________________________________ Fundraising Strategies That Address Objective No. 1: (Note: You will need to develop an action plan that addresses each of your fundraising strategies in more detail.) a)________________________________________________________________________ b)________________________________________________________________________ c)________________________________________________________________________ d)________________________________________________________________________ e)________________________________________________________________________ Objective No. 2:___________________________________________________________________ Fundraising Strategies That Address Objective No. 2: a)________________________________________________________________________ b)________________________________________________________________________ c)________________________________________________________________________ d)________________________________________________________________________ e)________________________________________________________________________ Objective No. 3:___________________________________________________________________ Fundraising Strategies That Address Objective No. 3: a)________________________________________________________________________ b)________________________________________________________________________ c)________________________________________________________________________ d)________________________________________________________________________ e)________________________________________________________________________ 2011 © Stevenson, Inc. Objective No. 4:___________________________________________________________________ Fundraising Strategies That Address Objective No. 4: a)________________________________________________________________________ b)________________________________________________________________________ c)________________________________________________________________________ d)________________________________________________________________________ e)________________________________________________________________________ Objective No. 5:___________________________________________________________________ Fundraising Strategies That Address Objective No. 5: a)________________________________________________________________________ b)________________________________________________________________________ c)________________________________________________________________________ d)________________________________________________________________________ e)________________________________________________________________________ Objective No. 6:___________________________________________________________________ Fundraising Strategies That Address Objective No. 6: a)________________________________________________________________________ b)________________________________________________________________________ c)________________________________________________________________________ d)________________________________________________________________________ e)________________________________________________________________________ 2011 © Stevenson, Inc. PAST METHODS FOR GENERATING FUNDS - PROGRAM ESTIMATED COST ESTIMATED STAFF TIME Fiscal Year PROSPECT POOL NO. OF DONORS REVENUE GENERATED / PROJECTION DIRECT MAIL 1. 2. 3. 4. TELESOLICITATION 1. 2. 3. 4. FACE-TO-FACE CALLS WEBSITE GIFTS SPECIAL EVENTS 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. FDTN/CORP PROPOSALS TOTAL REVENUE 2011 © Stevenson, Inc. $ $ Potential Fundraising Success Fundraising Techniques: Priority: Risk: Description: EasyQ: Gain Potential: Advantages: Notes: Disadvantages: Notes: Typical Prospect: Prospects: Resources Needed: Reminders/ Caveats: To Do Immediately Date Done To Do Long Term Resources: Done 2011 © Stevenson, Inc. Costs Date Done MONTHLY ANNUAL GIVING REPORT for month ending Donor/ProspectNo. of GroupDonors/Prospects Amount/ Avg. Gift Size Increase/Decrease Over Previous Year Repeat Donors Increased Donors Decreased Donors First-time Donors Lybunts Sybunts Total Donors/Gifts / Annual Gift Goal: Gifts/pledges To Date: __________________ Over/under Goal: Lybunt Potential: Sybunt Potential: __________________ Over/under Goal: KEY 30-DAY STRATEGIES: 1.______________________________________________________________________________ 2.______________________________________________________________________________ 3.______________________________________________________________________________ 4.______________________________________________________________________________ 5.______________________________________________________________________________ 6.______________________________________________________________________________ 7.______________________________________________________________________________ 8.______________________________________________________________________________ 2011 © Stevenson, Inc. Annual Giving Patterns / / Alumni Donor retention rate No. first-time donors Average gift size Local non-alums Donor retention rate No. first-time donors Average gift size Non-local alums Donor retention rate No. first-time donors Average gift size Businesses Donor retention rate No. first-time donors Average gift size 2011 © Stevenson, Inc. / / / / Business Prospect Profile & Anticipated Moves Schedule Name of Business Address City State C ompany Contacts Known Gift Recipients Matching gift company? Published gift/grant guidelines? Formal gifts committee/process? Links to our organization: 1. 2. ZIP Titles Phone Approx. Date Gift Use Yes Yes Yes No No No 3. 4. Likely gift/sponsorship opportunities based on what we know today: 1. 3. 2. 4. Anticipated plan for introduction: Who When Anticipated cultivation moves: When What By Whom Gift Use By Whom Objective Target amount: $_ _______ Anticipated solicitation: When 2011 © Stevenson, Inc. CULTIVATION POSSIBILITIES MENU Prospect ____________________________________________________________________ Date _______________________________________________________________________ Objective Steps To Be Taken To involve one or more family members of the prospect.... 1. _ ________________________________________ _________________________________________ 2. _ ________________________________________ _ ________________________________________ To recognize or honor the prospect.... 1. ________________________________________ ________________________________________ 2. ________________________________________ ________________________________________ To help the prospect more fully understand and appreciate the work of our organization.... To make the prospect more aware of the level of gift required... 1. ________________________________________ ________________________________________ 2. _ _______________________________________ ________________________________________ 1. ________________________________________ ________________________________________ 2. _ _______________________________________ _ _______________________________________ To better determine the prospect’s potential funding interests.... 1. ________________________________________ ________________________________________ 2. ________________________________________ _ _______________________________________ To engage the prospect in realizing greater ownership of our agency and its programs.... 1. _ _______________________________________ _ _______________________________________ 2. _ _______________________________________ _ _______________________________________ Other objectives/steps.... 1. _ _______________________________________ _ _______________________________________ 2. ________________________________________ ________________________________________ 2011 © Stevenson, Inc. Development Calls Evaluation / NUMBER OF FACE-TO-FACE CALLS Introduction to new prospects Individuals Businesses Other Cultivation calls on former contributors Individuals Businesses Other Solicitation calls on new prospects Individuals Businesses Other Solicitation calls on former contributors Individuals Businesses Other Stewardship calls (thank-you calls) Individuals Businesses Other 2011 © Stevenson, Inc. / / Weekly Calls Report Name: Week of: Name of Prospect/Donor Date Appt. Corres- Set pondence Phone Call Intro. Call Cultivation SolicitationStewardship Call Call Call Appt. Corres- Set pondence Phone Call Intro. Call Cultivation SolicitationStewardship Call Call Call Appt. Corres- Set pondence Phone Call Intro. Call Cultivation SolicitationStewardship Call Call Call Appt. Corres- Set pondence Phone Call Intro. Call Cultivation SolicitationStewardship Call Call Call Appt. Corres- Set pondence Phone Call Intro. Call Cultivation SolicitationStewardship Call Call Call Comments: Name of Prospect/Donor Date Comments: Name of Prospect/Donor Date Comments: Name of Prospect/Donor Date Comments: Name of Prospect/Donor Date Comments: 2011 © Stevenson, Inc. LYBUNT IDENTIFICATION REPORT Date________________________________________ Constituent Donor Type Last Year’s Previous Gift This Year’s Reason for Gift Amount Designation Solicitation Date Not Contribut. 2011 © Stevenson, Inc. YEARLY BOARD MEMBER CONTACT REPORT Board Member_ ________________________________ For Year Ending_ ________________________________ DATE OF CONTACT CONTACT TYPE OBJECTIVE FOLLOW-UP JAN. FEB. MAR. APR. MAY JUNE JULY AUG. SEPT. OCT. NOV. DEC. Contact Type V = Personal Visit T = Telephone C = Correspondence 2011 © Stevenson, Inc. COMMENTS YEARLY TIMETABLE (Details of who does what when, events, mailings, etc.) Action/Event Date/Deadline 2011 © Stevenson, Inc. Person Responsible
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