Developing your fundraising mix

Balance your funding income from a broad range of sources

As a developing organisation there are certain elements of fundraising that you do and have probably done for some years. The faster growing charities are not only assessing the validity of their programmes by reviewing their strategic plans but are also looking to match their fundraising capacity and capability to realise the strategic plan. This means an on-going assessment of the income streams - which ones are performing well and those which are not, essentially measuring Return on Investment (ROI).

Trusts and Foundations. This may have performed well one year – an annual review of why is essential to continue to grow this source of income. Look at how many have made repeat donations – if not, why not? Could relationships with particular trusts be developed – a site visit, a meeting with your CEO, an invitation to an event?

Corporates may be included in your fundraising mix. Again what is the ROI on this? Are you a candidate for their Charity of the Year or are you spending too much time on this particular option, which may never be a reality for your organisation. Should you set your sights perhaps on sponsorship, corporate gifts?

Statutory and Lottery funding means working with organisations such as the Big Lottery Fund and the European Social Fund to receive money from the government in the form of grants. These grants can be hugely important and help in terms of advocacy, setting up services and supporting research etc. Find out what funds are available for the services you provide and focus on what makes you significant and different to competing organisations. (See How to improve your bid-writing for advice on statutory contracts.)

Individuals. Some organisations do not have the budget to develop their mailing lists but all charities have the ability to develop their donors through timely, appropriate and targeted communications. Developing this area may include the individual fundraiser from one-off gifts to Direct Debits through to considering your organisation for a legacy gift. Individuals have networks which can support your corporate and community fundraising, making them a valuable source of funding.

High Value Donors and Major Donors. This may come from any of the above areas. The definition of a high value or major donor varies from one organisation to another. What does not change is the need to develop those that you might have. (See Key steps to a successful major gift strategy for tips on major gift fundraising.)

Community fundraising from cake sales to coffee mornings, sponsored head-shaves to supermarket collections, supporters have energy, enthusiasm or fantastic ideas on how they can raise funds. This requires an investment in terms of materials and staff time but the ROI needs to be weighed up in terms of not only income but also awareness building, providing the awareness is in keeping with the organisation!

One of the most significant risks for any form of fundraising is neglecting to keep any donor informed of the value they have added by supporting your Charity. Make them feel engaged and involved. Finding new donors involves significantly more investment to that of nurturing existing donors. Methods to achieve this vary according to the income stream but nurturing must be built into developing each element of your mix.

Another risk is the loss of knowledge through staff changes. Mitigate against this loss by ensuring that another person within the organisation is known to donors, trusts etc or that the successor is introduced.

The keys to developing a successful mix of income are to assess the success or not of each funding stream and analyse the reasons for this; develop the areas where you do well and bring on new areas with a watching brief on ROI. Be realistic about what works for your organisation and your donors. Be swift to acknowledge what is creating donor fatigue or elements which are affected by external factors, such as economic situations. Using this information, adapt by making changes to your organisation’s fundraising mix.