"Strategy Day" // Funding Building Blocks
We're devoting some time to a tested process that any non-profit organization should take time to do before they fundraise. Not a non-profit? That's OK. These ideas apply to anyone looking to revamp their fundraising efforts. If you're raising funds on your own as a missionary, then gather 2-3 people around you (online or in-person) and ask them to help you go through these questions. Or call us...our coaches would be more than willing to help!
When you think of a “Strategy Day”, do you picture getting your team all in one room, for a day or more, to take the assessment to the next level? Does it sound daunting? That’s a natural response. And so are the thoughts of, “I’m so excited about this!” Sometimes, the two lie in tension with one another. And that’s the perfect spot for a Strategy Day when it’s time to set concentrated time apart to examine the learning from assessment and begin to formulate a path forward. So gather the reflections, spreadsheets, a whiteboard, and the troops, and dedicate the time it takes to start a plan for a maximized fundraising program.
Wait. I thought we were doing a Strategy Day on fundraising strategy? You’ve said nothing about actually raising money!
Fair accusation. But the messaging and organizational alignment are critical first steps.
And now...what you all came here for: funding campaign building blocks. The blocks below apply not only to your overall strategy but also to any particular campaign. Both approaches should include these disciplines, which work together to form the basis of your funding plan. Strategy Day is not the time to build the outline of that Funding Plan document...that happens afterward. During your day, focus on:
Segmenting the Audience: If you’re asking millionaires to give $12 a month, you’re missing something. Likewise, if you’re making a blanket ask of $250 to your whole audience, you’re alienating someone who can sacrificially give $35 and contribute their loyalty. Segmenting your audience is about parsing your entire donor base - current lapsed and potential - into key buckets based on their giving level (potential) and their engagement with the organization. Think of an X and Y axis, where the X is the amount of money they can give and the Y is their loyalty to you at this point. Find the giving circles in those quadrants and communicate to them uniquely. The loyalty part matters because you don’t want to communicate to a lapsed donor who just can’t give at this time but who has had lunch with you recently, in a tone that “asks them to come back.” Define the segment and then attach the spreadsheet of donors to it, and file new donors accordingly.
Develop a Clear Ask: It should go something like this: “For $DONATION$, you can have THIS IMPACT by funding THIS INPUT. Will you give TIME FRAME?” It’s not a magic formula. Except that it is. When you are clear with your ask, you give a donor their entry point into your organization’s impact. Yes, it’s a check or a donation, but they also see their entry point as the impact they can have with you. You can do this organizationally - think of Compassion or World Vision that hang their hat on a monthly donation to a child - or per campaign like a capital campaign that is building a new school building. In a campaign, each segmented audience may have a different ask level, but they should all be related to a similar impact. And, that timeframe matters. Be specific if you want them to give today or if you’re giving them time to think about it for a week.
Create Communication Channels: Some may exist - your website, regularly-scheduled email, mailers, brochures, etc. Make a grid of each during your Strategy Day and outline their purpose, tone, audience, and desired conversion out of that communication. These should be set to a communications calendar each year, where you map out the story you want to tell across the year through little vignettes of impact, that all drive to funding asks. This map allows you to plan and prepare content, balance ask-based, and non-ask-based communication, and measure your progress toward getting each out the door!
You’ll end your Strategy Day with this work, creating a few sets of thinking around segmenting, asks and communications that can then come together as a funding plan. We’ll talk more about that later.