Donor Cultivation

Edited Digest of FundClass Topic #17, May 1999

Facilitated by Lorraine Urquhart

Lorraine Urquhart's experience in fundraising is broad. She is currently the Campaign Director for the Birmingham Hippodrome Theatre in Birmingham, England. From leading multi-million dollar appeals to establishing a high profile identity for her organizations, Lorraine has applied her skills to the competitive environment of charitable appeal fundraising and has found success driving through change using management, communication, and marketing strategies.

Opening Message from Lorraine

Cultivating and nurturing donors is a topic close, I'm sure, to all our hearts. I can only speak from my own personal experience as a fundraiser who, for the last 5 years, has been working on 3 very intense fundraising campaigns, 2 of which were for capital projects. In all cases the charities had no strategic approach to fundraising; the approach was very spontaneous! Often the teams I've worked with were starting from scratch; we had no database, or there was a database which was so out of date that it was rendered almost useless.

One thing they all had one thing in common, whether they realised it or not, was that they all had access to potential, lukewarm donors. A non-profit organisation does not work in a vacuum.

You may be in the fortunate position of having some people or organisations who already give money to you. How you nurture them will be a subject covered in this class. However, one area you may not have thought about, whether a new or old charity, is identifying potential 'lukewarm' donors who you have access to, either directly or indirectly.

During the discussion, I will try to emphasise any cultural differences that relate to the UK system and the UK donor which may be of interest.

Looking for 'Lukewarm' Donors

Non profits generally provide a service of some kind to the community. They are established because of a need. The charity's role is to fulfil that need, whether it be for providing information, raising awareness, opening up access to the community, etc. Therefore you can identify 2 target groups you have contact with: those who receive the 'service' and those who 'provide' it.

Your big fans will (hopefully) be those who use the service and who are impressed with what you do. Let's take a few examples:

A health charity - patients are cared for by the charities staff and volunteers. They are grateful for this support. They have families and friends who are grateful for this support. Whilst this kind of relationship takes place, there is ample opportunity to raise awareness of (though not necessarily ask for help at this stage) the charity and how it is funded. Perhaps using existing opportunities to help the people you come into contact with realise the numerous ways they can support you and say 'thanks' for the service... giving a donation, organising a fundraising group, volunteering their time to keep running costs down, etc.

A major cancer charity in the UK uses every opportunity to mention, when producing services literature, that they need to fundraise. All leaflets give a few examples of support and invites the reader to tick the box for more information.

I am currently working for a non-profit theatre that I have persuaded to include fundraising information and a response mechanism in their programmes and literature - even the ticket wallets have been redesigned to mention how people can help, and converts into a response card!

Whether you decide to mailshot this target market with a specific request and a good story to tell at a later point is one option. But fundamentally you could be opening doors to potential legacies or access to private trusts simply by raising awareness. You could be enhancing your approach to a company or organisation because the contact has realised that your organisation relies on fundraising. You are creating lukewarm donors who have as yet not been asked.

Staff is the other group who can help you open doors. I am often amazed at the number of bigger organisations who do not communicate with those providing the service to explain any new fundraising initiatives or ask for any leads on a particular area, e.g. trusts. Again somewhat hopefully they should be your biggest fans and want to ensure that projects can be completed or the future of the charity can be secured. How do you communicate with them... presentations? A newsletter? Noticeboards? Mailshot memo? The point is that by starting the dialogue they will feel involved and they may have an idea or a lead which could bring in some cash. Good ideas are not exclusive to fundraisers!

Example: my theatre project is facing a closure because the building work has to take place. Some of the staff face the prospect of losing their job. However my team took the time to speak to them personally about the Appeal and the various ways they could help. Several of them have subscribed to our 'name a seat scheme' and others have held fundraising events including raffles and car boot sales.

Another reason for approaching those who know you well, warts and all, is that they deserve to know about the ideas and schemes you are running to raise money and feel the privilege of being involved from the very beginning. (NB - using the word 'scheme' in the UK refers to a plan... I believe that in the US it may have rather more sinister implications :) )

Other opportunities could be suppliers (eg; printers, electricity company or phone company?) In running your charity you will come into contact with a number of different companies even if it is in a different type of relationship compared to fundraising. Maybe you aren't a big client, but start with your sales contact - ask their advice or who you should write to, what their policies are (remember your contact may not know much about that but it doesn't mean that they wouldn't be interested).

What about associations which you are affiliated to.... A children's hospital may have access to groups who are set up to deal with a particular ailment, a theatre may have connections with theatrical groups or fan clubs, a humanitarian charity may access to a particular profession (law) because their trustee is a lawyer.

Leave no stone unturned - identify as many different target markets you possibly can, you edit it down later. Once you have this list you can decide on what you want to achieve and how you would like them to get involved. The First Communication

Before you start to write streams and streams of copy, write down a list:

What does your organisation do?

Who does it help?

What difference does it make to a person/child/animal's life or difference to the world?

How long have you been going?

What are your plans for the future?

How are you funded?

What happens if you can't provide the service (eg; if you don't get donations), put into personal terms, not..."our service would stop", but "it would mean that we couldn't offer kids a chance to take part in the xxxxx course" or something similar.

Can you give any case studies of work you have done which could give a good example of what you do?

What makes your organisation so different to all the others; what makes it special?

Who else supports you? Give actual names of individuals or organisations.

Comprehensive little list, isn't it!

But you need to have a clear answer to all these questions before you put pen to paper for your letter or newsletter.

Once you've got the answers to these (and it won't happen overnight!) you can start to think about writing your first communication.

Always, always, always put yourself in the shoes of the person you are talking to before you write that letter. You may know your subject inside outbut it could be the first time the prospect has even heard of you. Make it interestingdon't bore them with facts and figures or give technical names/info (unless you are trying to raise money for organisations/people who are very familiar with what you do and who would expect this level of detail).

Explain to people the difference their donation would make in real termsgive real life examples. Perhaps even state how much you want them to donate. I know this is difficult but if you can show how a donation of £50 or £100 can make a differenceit could help a prospect raise their donation level.

Don't put thousands of different leaflets in a mailshot...imagine receiving it and all the info falling out onto the floor...annoying and it will be soon in the bin!

The letter should be no more than one page, yes I said, one page. If you run onto two pages, you will lose their interest. And no cheating by reducing the size of the type! It should never be smaller than 10 pt so that it is easy to read. Try not to do what most direct mail agencies do which is underline the key points you want to emphasise...if you can't do that through the text, then rewrite the letter.

Think about who should sign the letter...will they be impressed if it is signed by the fundraiser (in UK the answer is 'no!') Preferably, get the most senior person to sign the letters. Even better, get the letter signed by someone who is carrying out the work of the charity. My experience has been that the response rate rises when the request comes from the horse's mouth, so to speak.

How do you want them to respond...by phone, by letter? The golden rule is make it easy. Put in a response mechanism which collects their details and perhaps a 'freepost' envelope. It isn't free to the charity but it is free for the donor. Although I confess that most charities normally print a message on the envelope where the stamp should be saying, "if you use a stamp, more money will go towards the cause." It seems to work because everyone usually uses one. Be sure that your letter asks them to help and if possible make it clear what you expect. Refer to the enclosures you want them to use to make a donation.

A good test is to show it to someone who knows very little about your organisation. Perhaps one of your friends, to ensure that it gets the message across clearly. You may even get a donation from them, who knows!

To summarize, here are the main, useful points:

Think about who your audience is (hence the reasons for compiling lists of individuals/groups before you start, who may have some direct/indirect link or interest with your organisation's work)

Take into consideration the culture(now that we can operate globally re the internet) and the varying attention spans.

Take into consideration age and the time available to people who are receiving your mailshot.

Take into consideration the environment in which this person will receive it (i.e; someone at work may give a long letter short shrift, whereas at home may provide a more leisurely pace to absorb the message)

Take into consideration any criteria specified with applications to trusts and foundations or companies (remembering that yours will be one of '00's if not '000's. Therefore if you make a mistake you could be out! Rather like sending in a resume for a job!)

Think about the use of language, the presentation, the order in which you want people to read things, assuming they go through the AIDA process (attention, interest, desire and action)

Think about who should sign the letter. If the letter can be signed by someone known to the prospect, it is more likely to receive some attention.

When I did a degree in Communication at university, the message which was drummed into us day after day regarding presentations and direct marketing was, "don't think about the message you want to send, think about the message you want the recipient to receive." Saying Thank You

So you've sent off your solicitation and it has been successful. You've got a donation, so you need to say thanks. Amazingly, in the UK, there are some charities who believe that if a donation is too small, for example a couple of £'s or $'s, that saying thanks defeats the purpose of the donation because it costs you as much to say it. Whilst I understand the practical, short term logic of this approach I personally don't agree with it.

Saying thank you is an absolute must and saying it as quickly as possible. We receive donations every day at the charity I currently work for and I endeavour to personally sign each letter; never using a scanned signature. If the donation comes with some correspondence, I try to refer to any comment within their original letter and shape it into the 'standard' letter we have composed. If someone has gone to the trouble of sending us a donation, no matter how busy I am, I try to personalise the thank you. At the end of the day the donors are the lifeline for many charitable organisations.

Always check to ensure you have the name spelt correctly; there is nothing more annoying when you are called 'Mr Loraine Urguhart' when it should be 'Miss Lorraine Urquhart'. (You may have made a mistake in your original solicitation and the donor may have enlightened you for your records, but to overlook it again in the thank you letter is unforgivable.)

Try to move away from the standard dry text which some people use in thank you letters and makes the obvious statement that the thank you letter is the typical, standard reply. Try to introduce a bit of personality, or put into human terms the difference their donation will make. Make them feel special.

Leave the door open, especially for first time donors to your organisation. Mention that you would like to keep them up to date with progress and that you will do so in the future if they have no objections. This then gives you an opportunity in, say 6 months, to write with an update and ask for further support.

If the gift is significant to your organisation (remembering that one man's £1,000 donation could be equal, relatively speaking, to another's £10,000 gift ) think about how you can say thanks. Cultivate the relationship; invite them to visit the work they are supporting (if this is practical) or offer for someone to visit them or their group to give a talk. Send them a certificate of thanks with the letter or a memento of some kind.

My charity is running a "seat naming" scheme to raise money. For gifts of £250 and £500, people can name seats in the main auditorium when the theatre reopens. They can have a small plaque on a seat with a 10-word message. We give each person a certificate which is pre-signed by the chairman and confirms the message on the seat. One member of the fundraising team does calligraphy so the message looks really good. So far we've raised £45,000 and we have only run a few tests.

You don't need to be overtly extravagant with your thank you (your donor may wonder where all their money is being spent) but a gesture which is fitting to the gift could be the beginning of a beautiful relationship.

Follow Ups

Whether or not you should conduct follow ups, is determined by your original approach and how well the donor/prospect knows you.

New (lukewarm) individual Donors

I don't want to go into telefundraising in too much detail as this was covered in excellent detail quite recently, but if your first approach by telephone generated a verbal pledge then you will hopefully have followed this up with a letter and response mechanism so that the donor can respond.

If you haven't heard anything after 2-3 weeks, it would be worthwhile either giving them a reminder call or writing to them to ask if they have changed their minds. You can appreciate how busy their lives are but a gentle reminder could do the trick. We recently did a telephone campaign which had pledges of £35k. The response to the written follow up only produced £21k and we were a wee bit disappointed. We wrote a gentle reminder, gave a few weeks for responses then phoned the remaining pledges who hadn't responded. I'm pleased to say that it pushed the income up to £33 so it was worth the effort!

P.S. These approaches were made to people who had already been to the theatre.

New (cold) individual donors

If the first approach has been by letter and these people are relatively unfamiliar with your organisation you can appreciate that your first letter will have to explain who you are, why you are so important and why you need their help.

Some people will respond with a donation (time to say thanks and indicate that you will keep in touch) and some will say "no thanks" and others will simply not respond.

The non-responses could split into two categories, those who just don't want to do anything and those who have put you to one side and are considering it.

My personal opinion is that you need to give a bit of space to the non-respondees: maybe 3-4 months. On this "follow up" you can refer to the previous correspondence and go into a message which indicates that since then you have some more news which may be of interest; new projects or recent publicity. Reiterate the need for funds and include some response mechanism. You may have some success.

I read somewhere once that you shouldn't give up on a prospect (in the commercial world) until you've sent them 5-6 pieces of direct mail. Most charities I know give up after 2-3. So are we missing a trick?

The difficulty is that we are not "selling a product" for which the donor gets some tangible benefit. We are relying on their philanthropic nature that they will do something. However you may take the perspective that by keeping in contact there may come a point where either the prospect or their family/friends has reason to support your charity (eg; cancer). Whilst we don't wish misfortune on anyone, by keeping in touch, the prospect may support you when their time is right.

Another way of keeping in touch rather than asking for general donations is to write with info on specific projects that they can support. Keep the message fresh. I was approached by Amnesty International and didn't respond to any of their mailshots. Then 4 mailshots later I received a moving piece about child abuse in Turkey. I was on the phone making a donation as soon as I finished the letter. People have different "hot buttons" and it may take several attempts to get them to respond.

Measuring Success

For some, to measure success means looking at the bottom line to add up the total amount of money you have received as a result of a mailshot. But to help with planning your future mailshots, it is a good idea to keep an eye on other, complimentary measures of your success:-

The average size of gift received (acknowledging the minimum and maximum may skew the results to a certain degree)

The percentage of people who responded.

The return on investment, i.e; for every £/$ you spent, how much did you raise?

The average gift for cold donors in the UK, according to my experience, is about £15. This seems to be an acceptable entry level which people feel comfortable giving. For warmer donors, I would hope to see gifts start at £25 and possibly go as high as £35 if the donor has a long history with your organisation.

Response rates usually go from 1-2% for cold donors to about 7-8% for warm donors. Maybe your results have been higher or lower and this could be influenced by what you send them (the message) and when they receive it (time of year, month, day etc). Hence the reason for testing mailings (if possible) to work out which works best for your type of donor.

Direct marketing is one of the cheapest ways to raise money (in the UK). I try to ensure that my total 'pack' including the letter, materials and postage cost no more than a maximum of £1.50 to produce. Therefore my return on investment is 1.5:15 for cold donors and 1.5:25 for warm.

I realise that some charities have big budgets and spend thousands, sometimes millions on their fundraising. I confess I have never worked for such big organisations and therefore I tend to work on the basis that (across the whole range of fundraising activity) only 10% (or close to that) of every £1 raised is spent on raising it! Sometimes it is difficult to achieve. Different types of fundraising may be more expensive to run, for example, community fundraising may be the most expensive to run in comparison to raising money from trusts, but whilst raising money through the community activity, you are also raising the profile which may offer a longer term benefit you are currently unable to measure.

When we discussed earlier the possibility of testing different mailshots to determine which 'message' works best, it is important to try to code the response otherwise, how are you going to realise where the money came from? I know this sound like a rather simple thing to say, but as your database gets bigger (hopefully) you will need to ensure that you keep track of what you are sending people to:

a) ensure you don't send them the same thing (eg; leaflet/newsletter) twice

b) help you identify which letter/leaflet works more effectively so you can repeat it with other new groups you want to mailshot.

To code your mailshots you either have to get the printer to run batches with the codes at the time of printing, or you set it up so that the code can be printed on the response mechanism (eg; a response coupon, or the envelope).

Finding New Donors

This section is probably best described if I tell you what I am up to at work at the moment.

At the charity I work for, we are about to launch a scheme to encourage people to name seats in the auditorium in return for donations. We've been (and will continue) approaching people who visited the theatre as they are the most loyal prospects we probably have.

However, there may be many other people/organisations out there in the community and it is important that they have the opportunity to know what we are doing and a chance to participate.

Just to clarify, warm donors are people who already give money to your organisation, 'lukewarm' donors (my jargon) are people who come into contact with your organisation and are therefore familiar with who you are and what you do; therefore would be interested in giving you money. Cold donors are people who may have no link with your organisation but would have an interest of some sort in what you are doing, therefore having the propensity to give.

When I was devising the 'seat naming' scheme I had to come up with a list of different categories of cold donors:

Accountants

Bankers

Solicitors

Stockbrokers

Surveyors

Barristers

Architects

Doctors

Insurance brokers

Retailers

Ethnic Business Community

Magistrates

I also identified business groups set up for networking purposes: City 2000, Phoenix Club, Inst. Of Directors, Law Society, Executive Club of GB, Chamber of Commerce, etc.

I then tried to establish links: Did any of my trustees have access to someone in each of these groups or network clubs who would help us to distribute our information? Some of my trustees were lawyers, for example, therefore opened up doors to the Law Society, enabling us to talk to the organisers about how they could help us to push the campaign.

From there we identified how we could promote the scheme; letters from trustees, presentations at business functions (raffles to win a seat!), an article in their association newsletter or an insert in their next publication.

From the 'community' angle, we tried to be creative in our approach; we came up with the following ideas:

PR Agencies: writing to different agencies to get them to encourage clients to name a seat for publicity. If they managed to get 4 clients, they got their own seat named for free!

Funeral Directors: we noticed that a number of people were remembering loved ones, therefore we are consulting with the Funeral Director Association about developing a sensitive leaflet and how this can be promoted.

A fashion show event: we are organising a fashion show and plan to promote the seat naming scheme on that night and through a follow up mailshot to everyone who came along.

Nurturing Donors

In addition to increasing the numbers of people who support you, it is very important to keep the dialogue flowing with those who already support you. I am a great believer in keeping people informed. If they have taken the time and given money to support you, the very least we should do is to keep them up to date with how the money was spent and what the charity is doing both short term and long term.

Individuals

Each mailshot needs to have a purpose. On some occasions you will simply send an update in the form of a newsletter and a report on the success of your last request for support in terms of how much you raised. Perhaps use this to promote other ways of supporting the campaign (eg; taking out a visa card that supports your charity etc). I would suggest sending this out 3-4 months after receiving the first donation and keep them up to date with a quarterly update.

Reasons for writing to them following their initial donation: when you have new fundraising ideas, like the visa card scheme or merchandise, write to them to let them know about it. If there is any bad publicity in the news about your organisationact quickly and tell them your side of the story. If a crisis appeal is required (like Kosovo), write to your donors telling them what you are doing and ask for a special donation.

You may also include them at key charitable times of the year (eg; Christmas, Easter and September (don't know why the latter is successful, but in the UK it is!) This kind of approach should be geared towards a request for a donation. It isn't simply an update. Ensure that you keep the message fresheither telling them about a new project, or a new element of the project which they donated to initially.

One thing I don't really subscribe to is charities who write with a market research form and include a pen! It is so condescending and is a veiled approach for money. Just my personal opinion.

If you can keep the dialogue flowing and monitor the results, i.e; Mrs X always responds to requests for money over the last year, why not write to them asking for a regular donation by setting up a bankers orderthe advantage is that it provides regular income, helping the charity to plan ahead. In the UK it can include incentives for reclaiming tax, increasing the size of the donation at no cost to the donor through a Deed of Covenant. Once it is set up it is easy to administer. Perhaps give it an identity - the "X club."

Once your supporters have supported you for a longer period, say 2 years or so, let them know that making a bequest through their will can support the charity. You really need to have built up a dialogue and good relationship with your donors before promoting legacies. It is a very personal and sensitive subject.

Trusts

If a Trust has supported you, send them a newsletter to keep them up to date, probably about 6 months after the donation. Some Trusts ask for update reports anyway, but for the others that don't, still keep in touch. Don't overload them with information or contact them too many times. Trusts are organisations set up to give money away but they don't want to be pestered or think that the charity is spending too much on promotional and marketing materials.

I would go back to a Trust for further support probably about a year from the first donation. As before, you have to explain how you've spend their last donation and the difference it made. Keep the message fresh and introduce a new need for further support.

For Trusts who say no because you don't fit their criteriagive up! For those who say no because they don't have money available at the moment, get in touch with them after 6 months to update them on your progress and enquire if the situation has changed. For Trusts who don't respond, acknowledge this and bring them up to date with progress.

Companies

Companies tend to sit between approaches to individuals and approaches to Trusts. It depends on the nature of the first gift; sponsorship or a charitable donation with no strings attached! The former will have strings attached and your written agreement will already specify how you are going to evaluate and report the progress of the project as a result of the sponsors support. For the latter, I would ensure that you keep them up to date with a newsletter on a quarterly basis. If the Donor is big, invite them to a special reception or to witness project activity that their money has supported. Companies normally like publicity so if they can be recognised for their supportthey will remember you and keep the door open for further help.

Keep the message fresh (how many times do I say this!) but it is true - in the busy corporate world we need to ensure that we have something interesting to say. If you have a good relationship with the company, why not introduce the idea of encouraging a cause-related marketing approach, i.e, rather than give a straightforward donation, encourage their staff to give time to raise money. A company matching this £1 for £1 can be a big incentive for staff. Other ideas would be for piggybacking on events/functions they already hold. Try to get them to adopt you as their charity of the year and participate in your flag days or other fundraising schemes you have on the go. Would they allow you to feature in their business and internal newsletters? Would they consider including an insert in regular mailshots?

If we have great supporters: individuals, Trusts and companies, we need to keep the message fresh and think of creative ways of keeping them involved. Simply handing out the begging bowl in this competitive area every time isn't good enough. It is our obligation as fundraisers to keep the dialogue and support flowing.

Discussion and Feedback

Re: The First Communication

From Melinda, with a response from Lorraine:

When you send a letter (more than 1 page) to prospects, and it is the very first communication, i.e: they haven't had a call from you, or haven't been introduced to the subject through friends, or haven't already formed a natural interest in your cause through their beliefs, etc...

For letters of any size, is the letter personally signed, i.e not a scanned signature used in a print job for a 2000 prospect mailshot?

Lorraine: The letter is personally signed, by someone who knows the prospect when possible.

Regarding the mailshot: What kind of envelope do you use...window? Do you use labels? Or do you write the address by hand?

Lorraine: Non-window envelopes, with the address printed. No window envelopes! Occasionally addresses are written by hand, in special cases.

What kind of reponse mechanism do you give...a coupon for them to complete and return, a phone number for donations? Do you provide them with a pre-stamped envelope for their reply?

Lorraine: Pre-paid, return-addressed envelope which includes a space where information is filled out under the flap.

Re: The First Communication

From Donna Patterson:

One of the easiest to read books on fundraising is "The Raising of Money" by James Gregory Lord. Why is it easy to read? The title of his PREFACE is: "On Brevity." As a manager of a large fundraising department, I ask each new employee to read the PREFACE. A few quotes: "It takes more time to make a communication short and to the point than it does to spill forth all our thoughts and ideas." "When we communicate with people, as much thought needs to go into what shouldn't be said as what should be said." "In making a case to a prospective donor, many organizations try to give the prospect every possible reason to contribute. This accomplishes two things: 1. It demonstrates a lack of confidence and clarity on the part of the organization; 2. It's boring.

Most of us fundraisers are also donors. As a donor, I refuse to read a letter that is longer than two pages, and I greatly prefer a well-written one pager.

Re: Nurturing Donors

From Chuck Wright:

We use the RULE OF SEVEN for our larger donors and contact them seven times during the year after the gift:

1) Official acknowledgement and thank you from the President a few days after the gift.

2) Personal thank you from me as Director of Development as soon as possible after the gift.

3) Name on our newsletter mailing list right away

4) Six month letter from staff person in department or project using the gift, explaining how the money is being used and how appreciative we are of it.

5) Letter about ten months after the gift from department or project head for which the money was used with full detail of activity.

6) About twelve months after the gift, a letter and/or copy of annual report from me as Development Director explaining how their gift fit into the whole mission of our organization.

7) Sometime during the last part of the year they hear from me about the next gift!

At first seven contacts sounds like a lot, but as you can see, they are non-intrusive and very logical. We find it works.

Subject: Applying Fund-Raising Information

From Erica Bruce:

Would you say that these discussions are always directed toward large organizations, or would a small organization get useful information?

Tony Poderis responded:

No patronizing intended, but I can tell you the main difference between large and small nonprofit organizations is simply more 000,000s.

Big or small, in the end, a non-profit will raise money from people who have it, can afford to give it, are sold on the benefit of what the organization is doing, wouldn't have given it unless they were asked, and whose gifts are appreciated and respected.

Whether raising money for a grass-roots rape crisis center or a major symphony orchestra, both organizations will address the same fund-raising process requirements as follows:

A Mission Statement: well defined, understood and accepted

Identified principal support base having required giving potential

Guided by a Strategic or Long-Range Plan

Operating budget: to know the overall cost to carry out the mission

Board in place committed to lead and to raise money

Written general development plan leading to specific campaigns

Fund-raising targets or goals projected

Compelling case for support

Board of Trustees to give at or near their maximum potential

Database of those served for links to contributions

Database of the givers of other peoples money

Cultivation via Identification, Information, Interest & Involvement

Rate--evaluate individuals ability to give to maximum potential

Campaign projection of numbers and sizes of gifts needed

Maximize potential from individuals, corporations, foundations

Campaign calendar

Volunteer job descriptions--numbers needed & recruitment

Support materials--information for solicitors and prospects

Achievable goal

Best volunteers to do the asking

Publicity plan

Suggested asking amounts to all prospects

Solicit by: one-on-one, memberships, direct mail, phone, etc.

Gifts: cash--securities, pledges, multi-year, challenge--matching

Monitor, support and encourage volunteer solicitors

Progress: reports, meetings, and sharing information

Mid-course corrections and problem solving

Track gifts, collect the money and issue gift acknowledgments

Announce results

Give recognition and say thank you to donors, volunteers, staff

Maintain prospect--donor cultivation and stewardship programs

Donor benefits and recognition provided as promised

Assess and review: what was accomplished and learned

While not all of these components of a typical fund-raising plan might apply in the same degree or intensity from one non-profit to another, they nevertheless are part of the overall fund-raising process, for both large or small organizations.