10 Steps to Create a Successful Charity Fundraising Plan

At a Glance

A fundraising plan helps non-profits set clear objectives, organise resources, and strengthen donor relationships. Core steps include goal-setting, donor research, campaign scheduling, task delegation, awareness-building, easy donation path, appreciation, follow-ups, tracking metrics and integrating a fundraising management software.

Fundraising Strategy for Non-Profits

Are you a non-profit looking to raise funds for your cause? Consider creating a fundraising plan. It can be a part of your non-profit’s fundraising strategy, helping you bring in new streams of revenue and also create a foundation to build your campaigns.

In this guide, we explain the importance of creating a charity fundraising plan and the steps to create one.

Why Do You Need a Charity Fundraising Plan?

Creating a charity fundraising plan is a way to think ahead and develop a roadmap that your organisation can rely on. Think of it as an action plan to raise funds that is in line with your non-profit’s mission, vision, and values.

Having a fundraising plan outline helps your non-profit in:

Setting a Clear Direction

When creating a fundraising plan, you give it a clear purpose and direction. It includes goals, strategies, and key performance indicators (KPIs) that help your charity take actionable steps and make the right decisions.

Staying Organised

A fundraising strategy for your non-profit defines the roles and responsibilities of your staff, board members, and volunteers. This makes sure everyone is on the same page and works as one cohesive team.

Improving Time Management

By mapping out deadlines and benchmarks throughout the year, your organisation can set priorities and chart out daily operations around tasks that get it closer to its goals.

Supporting Problem-Solving

A comprehensive fundraising plan outline in place can clarify and guide in ironing out any uncertainties or confusion about a particular campaign. This plan works like a resource to turn to when unexpected circumstances push the campaign off track.

How to Write a Charity Fundraising Plan – 10 Steps

Your charity fundraising plan will be unique, but incorporating most of these steps can make it a successful one.

1. Define Goals

Defining specific and tangible goals aligned with your charity’s mission is the most important step in creating a successful fundraising plan outline. If your mission is to build a new healthcare centre, an achievable goal will be to raise enough money for one centre.

But not all goals are achieved through funding. Other goals you can set include:

Donor retention: It’s the number of recurring donors that contribute to your non-profit. Define the donor retention rate to target this year.

Donor acquisition: This refers to the number of donors you secure over a defined time. How many new donors are you targeting to bring on board this year?

2. Research Prospects

Prospect research is finding donors with the willingness and capacity to donate, attend events, and support fundraising strategies. It is believed that 80% of donations come from 20% of donors. This makes researching prospects critical to finding loyal donors who can help you meet your fundraising goals.

Understand your donors by scanning the database for various indicators, in terms of their level of involvement, financial backing, and how connected they are to your cause. 

3. Decide on Fundraising Calendar

In your fundraising plan outline, you need to define all the core campaigns you’re looking to run in a calendar year. Set the type of campaign, from auctions to walkathons. Fix a budget, date, and time for each campaign type. Plan and build a complete calendar of fundraising events for the entire year and share it with your team to keep everyone on the same page.

4. Delegate Tasks

Bring together a team and delegate the various tasks and responsibilities. Keep in mind to play to each member’s strengths and assign roles that match their skills and expertise. For example, assign accounting and budgets to a team member who’s good at numbers. Make sure you assign coordinators for managing the events, marketing and promotion, volunteers, and donor relationships.

5. Raise Awareness

The next step is to raise awareness through multiple channels to expand your campaign’s reach and attract more donors to your campaign. Depending on your campaign, consider a mix of traditional media such as direct postal appeals and well-written press releases, and digital channels like email marketing, social media, and influencer marketing.

6. Make Donating Easy

It’s time to raise funds, but make sure the donation process is simple, convenient, and quick. You don’t want your donors turning away because the donation process is unclear or confusing. With a significant number of donors preferring to donate online on digital platforms, it’s better to prioritise online fundraising.

KindLink’s online fundraising platform lets you get started with your fundraising process for free, through quick and easy-to-create online donation forms. Unlike other fundraising platforms, KindLink doesn’t charge transaction or platform fees, making sure 100% of donations go to your cause.

7. Show Appreciation

The sole focus of a charity fundraising plan is not just about raising money; it’s also about appreciating donors and building relationships with them. And it begins by appreciating their efforts.

Appreciating and thanking your donors with a personalised thank you email or appreciation on social media (with prior consent) shows them that your non-profit values their contributions.

Use KindLink’s premium features to send customised thank-you’s to your donors.

8. Follow Up

Recurring donors are known to give more than first-time donors, which is why you need to fortify your ties with those who continually support your charity. Showing the impact of their donations can encourage repeat donations from donors.

Keep your donors informed about how their donations are being used, when the next events are, and also extend special perks to those who give more.

9. Track Metrics

For every fundraising campaign, set specific KPIs that report progress towards your charity’s fundraising goals. For example, if your goal is to acquire 500 new donors, you’ll want to track metrics including:

• New donors acquired
• Donor retention rate
• Average donation amount
• Donor lifetime value

10. Use the Right Fundraising Software – KindLink

Choosing the right fundraising software can help you execute a successful charity fundraising plan. KindLink is a fundraising platform and CRM created by charity experts to help charitable organisations manage, run, track, and analyse fundraising events and campaigns.

From receiving donations to generating tickets for events, you can do so much with our platform, all without additional processing fees.

Our powerful features include:

• Easy ticketing for events
• Peer-to-peer fundraising campaign
• Donor database and effortless donation management
• Donation pages to promote simple giving
• Gift Aid supported, automated reporting
• Both free and premium plans are available

Choose KindLink’s fundraising CRM to save time, energy, and money on raising funds and let your charity focus on what matters most – your mission.

Support your charity fundraising plan by signing up your charity with KindLink.