Fundraising Strategy
Based on an organization's strategic plan, nonprofit organizations usually need a defined fundraising strategy for how sufficient resources will be secured to implement the goals outlined in that plan. The Oertel Group works with organizations to review their existing fundraising capability based on an analysis of their last five years. This assessment will examine board readiness for fundraising,
Consulting Assistance
Goals for resource development consulting assistance can include:
- Determine the revenue needed for the coming three to five year period.
- Assess the yield and effectiveness of the organization’s current fundraising efforts from internal effectiveness measures.
- Analyze the yield and effectiveness of the organization’s current fundraising efforts through competitive analysis of a sample number of comparable organizations and established industry benchmarks.
- Identify any challenges to implementation of various fundraising options. Challenges may include name recognition, donor affinity tied to founders, board expectations regarding fundraising involvement. Develop strategies for addressing those challenges.
- Through competitive analysis, determine the potential revenue streams from these various types of fundraising endeavors.
- Determine any expenses that would be associated with the various types of fundraising endeavors.
These goals would be achieved through reviewing the organization’s background materials including its strategic plans, funding proposals, budgets and financial statements to determine funding priorities and readiness. This analysis would include utilizing the Resource Development Assessment Tool (R-DAT), an excel spreadsheet tool created during my tenure at the Center for Nonprofit Management. R-DAT examines 19 fundraising measures.
Based on this analysis, we would prioritize fundraising endeavors based on short-term and long term yield, ease and successful implementation.
Board Fundraising Training
Frequently board members are reluctant to participate in fundraising and do not have the skills needed for this endeavor. In a half day session, an overview of all fundraising options both individual and institutional will be covered. The session will also focus on the "hows" of fundraising and increasing the skill and comfort levels of the board to engage in fundraising. This involves breaking fundraising down into component pieces, eliminating or reducing any reluctance or fear, providing a new approach to involving people (i.e. asking people to invest in the organization), and inspiring the board through fun and confidence building that they are capable of fundraising activity which will be more profitable than past efforts. During this session, the role of staff and the board in fundraising is explored.