| by Linda Lysakowski, ACFRE, President
and CEO, Capital
Venture
Why You Need a Development Plan
Part One
How many times has a well meaning board member or volunteer
come to one of your board meetings and offered this sage
advice - "We should do a (golf tournament, gala dinner dance,
art auction, walk-a-thon, etc.) because (Girl Scouts, Boy
Scouts, the hospital, etc.) did one and raised $100,000"?
Before the meetings ends, the whole board or committee is
caught up in "event fever" and has the invitations designed,
the flowers ordered, and the T-shirt sponsors listed. And
there you are, the new development officer, trying to meet
grant deadlines, straighten out the donor database, and organize
the other events that your organization is currently conducting.
On the other hand, some organizations make the mistake of
relying solely on a grant writer to raise all the money they
need for programs and operations. Given the fact that foundation
grants account for approximately 12% of all philanthropic
giving in the United States, this approach seems equally
as foolhardy as depending mainly on events to raise money
for the organization.
While both grants and events are important parts of a well-rounded
development program, neither should be the sole method
of fundraising used by nonprofits. So, how does one handle
board suggestions or (in some cases) mandates regarding grant
research? What do you do when the board is bitten by the "event
bug"?
Often boards and volunteers do not realize that events and
grant research can be costly, not only in terms of hard costs,
but in "opportunity costs." In other words, what activities
must you give up in order to focus your limited time on this
proposed new activity? Your first reaction to the board or
development committee that suggests either of these approaches
should be, "Well, let's pull out our development plan and
see if this event/grant is included; if it's not, what other
activities must we drop in order to concentrate on this event/grant?" However,
many organizations do not have a development plan to reference.
If your organization is one of those, this scenario is a
good reason to develop a plan. In addition, the development
plan provides:
- a way to measure the success of your development activities;
- assurance that your development activities provide a
balanced approach - in other words, you avoid putting all
your eggs in one basket;
- a way to determine the appropriate budget for the development
office;
- assurance that you have the human resources to implement
the development activities that are planned; and,
- timelines that allow the development office to best utilize
staff time.
Organizations that have a development plan complete with
timelines, areas of responsibility, and budgets will be more
successful at keeping the staff, board, and volunteers focused
on the activities that are most cost-effective and produce
the best results.
What Should the Development Plan Include?
The development plan should start with an analysis of current
development activities. Some questions to ask:
- What has been the history of this activity; have results
increased or decreased over the years?
- What are the costs of this activity, including hard costs,
staff time, and opportunity costs?
- Does your organization have the human resources to manage
this activity?
- Does your organization have the technology needed to
manage this activity?
- What are the subsidiary benefits of this activity, i.e.,
if the activity is a cultivation or awareness-raising event,
should your organization continue the activity even if
it does not raise money?
- How do current trends affect this activity?
- Are there ways your organization can increase the effectiveness
of this activity?
Once the current activities have been analyzed, decisions
should be made to focus more time and energy on them, drop
them, or keep them as they are.
A solid development plan lists detailed goals for each activity.
Goals do not always have to be monetary ones. For example,
goals might be to raise constituent participation by 5% this
year, to increase the size of the development committee by
four people, or to personally visit three major donors each
month. Without specific goals, it will be impossible to measure
success of the plan next year. (We will discuss goal setting
in a future article.)
A development plan also helps the development office justify
its budget, provides measurement tools to be used in performance
appraisals, and provides donors with a sense of confidence
in the organization.
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