Preparing for Funding Success

Designing your organisation to be successful at fundraising

Know how much you want, by when, and what it is for

The answers to these questions will be crucial in informing your fundraising strategy. Does your income need to rise with inflation, or increase by 10% a year, or do your plans require a dramatic step change in income in 18 months’ time? Are your activities ‘of the moment’ and likely to command widespread public support or are they best funded through statutory contracts?

Your organisational strategic plan should provide real clarity about how much you want, by when, and what for.

Identify appropriate sources of income

Once you understand the answers to these questions, it becomes much easier to understand the funding sources and activities that are likely to work best for you. Most organisations are wary of being ‘funding led’, but their activities have to be at least ‘funding informed’. And vice versa.

For example, trusts will generally be more likely to support difficult, less popular and pioneering causes. Companies will mostly want to support organisations and projects that will reflect well on them, and enhance their brand. Higher-end major donors may well be attracted to more difficult causes, but will want to support discrete projects where impact can be measured and demonstrated. And so on.

Don’t fall into the trap of putting all your eggs into one basket. For most organisations, sustainability comes through diversification of funding sources (see Developing your fundraising mix).

Have cooperative service delivery and fundraising teams

Service delivery fundraising teams commonly do not understand each others’ problems. This can lead to real tensions, and even a complete breakdown in communications. Make sure there are lots of formal and informal opportunities for both ‘sides’ to talk together and work together. Maybe even ‘embed’ someone from fundraising in the service delivery team.

Help the fundraisers understand that the main responsibility of the service deliverers is to meet the needs of beneficiaries, and that they can’t just drop everything to help write a project proposal. They also need to know the sensitivities of the work and that the types of messages and images that may work best for fundraising may actually undermine the best interests of beneficiaries.

Conversely, help the service delivery teams understand that the fundraisers need a ‘product’ to give to funders - often in great detail and including monitoring and evaluation of the work. They must also bear in mind that without fundraising there are no services - and no salaries!

Organisational structures can help or hinder this understanding and processes.

Where should ‘Marketing’ sit?

One of the questions we are often asked is “where should Marketing sit?” There tends to be an ebb and flow of moving it into Fundraising, then out as a separate department, then back again. The main issue seems to be the skills, interests and effectiveness of the incumbent Chief Executive, Fundraising Director, and/or Marketing Director.

There probably isn’t one ‘right’ answer, because so much does depend on the personalities of these individuals. But the following points must be recognised:

•

Most voluntary organisations have at least two audiences - the beneficiaries of the work, and the people and organisations that fund the work. And these two groups often have very different needs and interests - and sometimes even different world views. So organisational structures and processes have to enable these differing requirements to be harmonised.

•

For most organisations, the volume of fundraising-related marketing spend far outstrips the marketing spend on everything else. So it is crucially important that those responsible for fundraising fully understand not just what the organisation does, but why and how it does it.

Everybody has a responsibility for fundraising

This is a bit of a truism, but it is worth exploring. How do members of staff or volunteers respond when they meet actual or potential donors and funders? Do people keep an eye out for funding opportunities, and pass them on to the fundraising team? Do all members of the Senior Management Team - and Trustee Board - allocate a specific (albeit small) amount of time for direct involvement in the fundraising process?

Equally, the fundraisers should not expect that all members of staff will support their sponsored parachute jumps, Christmas Fairs and Quiz Nights. There are some things that people should only do because they want to, not because they feel obliged to.

Take the funders’ viewpoint

Can we see ourselves as others see us? What do donors or funders see when they visit our head office or a project? What do they see when they read our annual report, or website? What do they learn of us when they look at our organisation’s structure chart, or map of geographical coverage? Do we look and feel ‘fit for purpose’, or plush/shabby, or over-engineered/flaky? Would you invest in your organisation, knowing it as you do?

Revisiting your strategy and stepping back to look at your organisational structure can help to answer these questions. It would benefit your organisation in the long-term and is well worth the time invested.