Bentz Group - Essential Fundraising Action Plan

Essential Fundraising Action Plan

What You Can Do Now

Back to Basics: Focused and Right-Sized Fundraising for Challenging Times

The Bentz Group’s Essential Fundraising Action Plan

While the economy and marketplace shift dramatically, your organization must continue to raise funds for current needs, plan for the longer term, and position itself solidly for the inevitable upturn. The goal is not simply to survive, but to become a stronger and more adept fundraising institution that will thrive in an increasingly global environment. Our firm can help you achieve this.

Although many aspects of the current landscape are changing rapidly, the fundamentals of effective fundraising endure— the Bentz Group’s Essential Fundraising Action Plan will assist your organization in staying on track. Extraordinary circumstances often bring the essentials back into focus: adherence to mission; maximization of annual giving and membership; meaningful cultivation and stewardship of donors; enhancement of organizational fitness, and strategic preparation for the future, including attention to planned giving and endowment.

Through recent conversations with current and past clients, we are keenly aware of the immediate need to address annual funds and maintain fundraising direction. It is not the time to flounder, it is the time to be purposeful and act with confidence. Our firm brings objectivity and experience to this assessment and its recommendations—and, just as importantly, guides you through implementation.

About the Essential Fundraising Action Plan

With attention to the following areas, the Bentz Group will:

Message and Mission Focus

Determine if your programs and messages reflect your mission; make recommendations for aligning (or changing) them accordingly.
Work with you to refine your messages so that they are very specific and impart your value to the community and your donors.
Suggest ways to address the current economy proactively to let constituents know you are looking ahead and making changes to strengthen your organization; identify an agreed upon articulation of your financial picture for consistent communication.
Identify ways to communicate more (not less) to maintain the confidence of your donors.

Organizational Structure and Strength

Review your budget to recommend most effective allocation of resources for fundraising.
Meet with development staff to identify priorities and create a work plan that best addresses the current environment.
Interview board members to ascertain role in fundraising efforts; identify methods for greater and more effective involvement.
Evaluate overall volunteer involvement and its relationship to fundraising with the goal of increasing the number of volunteers (even if they can only give time).

Current Fundraising: Annual Fund (Membership), Planned Giving, Cultivation, and Stewardship

Analyze your current annual giving plan, including results; recommend methods for improving efficiency and effectiveness.
Review the institutional budget in terms of annual fund; set realistic expectations for near term.
Evaluate current case for support, as well as materials (appeal letters and emails, brochures, web pages, direct mail) and messages; update them to reflect a renewed focus on mission.
Review membership program (if separate from annual fund) to improve its attractiveness during these times;
Review your stewardship efforts (including donor recognition); identify methods to increase contact that is appropriate and sensitive to economic landscape.
Identify cultivation (not necessarily solicitation) opportunities that will work well in the current climate.
Provide guidance about establishing a planned giving program or positioning an existing one more prominently (bequest giving historically increases during economic downturns).

Timeframe and deliverables:

The Essential Fundraising Action Plan is designed to be completed in approximately 4 weeks (including 2 -4 days of on-site work by Bentz staff members).
Your organization will be asked to prepare in advance for the assessment (you will be given a checklist).
A written report with our findings and recommendations will include a work plan with strategies and tactics that can be implemented immediately.

The Bentz Group will be available to assist with ongoing implementation by telephone, email, or agreed upon additional visits.

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