Fundraising Planning - A Vital Key to Nonprofit Success
Page 2

* Setting priorities, strategies, and goals: New opportunities present themselves all the time, if you are open to receiving them. But which opportunities should you pursue? When you have a clear mission and a plan, the answer becomes clear. By following the plan, you know where your efforts are most needed at any given time, and you can turn down distractions that don't further your defined goals.

* Increasing board involvement: I always hear nonprofit staff complaining about either their un-involved board members or board members who meddle too much without knowing what they're doing, and yet they don't create opportunities for the board to be constructively involved. Asking your board to be a part of the development planning process will both motivate them and educate them at the same time.

* Integrating fund development with other program activities & plans: If you're lucky enough to have staff who work on fund development full-time, you're also risking a disconnect between program people and fundraisers. The result is an annual event that's held the same week as the busiest part of the program staff's season. Written plans that are shared by all staff help to avoid such conflicts and encourage a working team environment.

* Most productive use of team's time: The bottom line is that by being organized, and having clarity as to what is expected of every team member, all your activities will be more efficient.

So what's holding you back? Put your team together and start planning for success today!

About The Author Ken Goldstein is a grant writer and consultant working and living in Silicon Valley. Since 1989 he has been an executive director, a board member, volunteer, and consultant to nonprofits. His education includes a BA in Politics from UC Santa Cruz and a Master of Public Policy and Administration from CSU Sacramento. Goldstein Consulting can be found at http://www.goldsteinconsulting.com. Ken is also the author of "Introduction to Fund Development Planning" - Please see http://www.fundraisingplanbook.com for more information. (c) 2006 by Ken Goldstein, all rights reserved. You may re-print or re-post this article only complete and un-edited, and including the author information, active web links, and copyright notice.

Fundraising Planning - A Vital Key to Nonprofit Success
  Back to Page 1

Additional Resources

category - Grants for Nonprofits

National Endowment for the Humanities: National Digital Newspaper Program
The goal of the National Digital Newspaper Program is to crate a national digital resource of historically significant newspapers published between the years 1836 and 1922, from all of the States and its territories.

---

United States Agency for International Development: Citizen Engagement and Elections Project in Mongolia
The Citizen Engagement and Election Projects in Mongolia aims to encourage increased citizen participation, mobilization and education during the months prior to the Mongolian parliamentary elections in 2012.

---

Origin-Destination Database of Border Traffic Flows for Transportation Planning
The Federal Highway Administration has recently announced a cooperative agreement entitled, Origin-Destination Database of Border Traffic Flows for Transportation Planning, to support Ontario's Ministry of Transportation in conducting training workshops focused on data collection, and the process of understanding and maximizing the use of the data collected.

---

HRSA: Reducing Loss to Follow-up after Failure to Pass Newborn Hearing Screening
Reducing to Loss of Follow-up after Failure to Pass Newborn Hearing Screening program enables eligible health care institutions to solicit funds by establishing project proposals that would greatly improve the number of infants receiving appropriate and timely follow-ups through the utilization of patient-centered interventions.

---