Have you put together your fundraising plan for next year? Are you taking this year’s plan and just giving it a few new themes and running with it? If you raised as much money as you projected, then it may be fine to do the same things this year, but most of us can always find expansions, remodels, or new projects that require more money than what was raised this year.
The first step, if you’re willing to put all fundraising avenues on the table, is to see what was actually accomplished with each avenue (silo).
Here’s a list of a some of the silos that centers use in fundraising:
- Mail Appeals
- Mail Newsletter
- Planned Giving/Bequests
- Grants
- Major gifts
- Church visits
- Events – list separately, e.g. banquets, golf tournaments, walk/runs Online Donations – list separately, E-newsletters, FaceBook, Web page
- Earned Income – list separately, e.g. work projects, thrift store, products
After compiling all the income, also combine the expenses for each silo into a form to see where you’re making the best profit—where you need to spend more time and perhaps where you need to consider making changes to silos or events that aren’t producing enough revenue.
Remember that some silos also have a promotion benefit as well as a fundraising benefit; these two-way benefits make it harder to decide to cut them altogether. But put your money and staff’s time into the silos that produce the most revenue for the time and expense.
You can take it one step further by investigating your donor database to see where new donors are coming from and if they are more than one-time donors. If lots of your donors don’t make a second gift, then try something new for your next letter to new donors. We know, at Teen Challenge, USA we will be working to slow down the donor attrition. We’ll be trying to get that elusive second gift.
