4 Essential Fundraising Practices for Nonprofits in 2024
The new year inspires us to take stock, get organized, and energize the efforts we put toward our goals and dreams. Nonprofit organizations have meaningful, and often challenging, goals, so starting the year off by adopting these four essential fundraising practices to set the pace for a fruitful year ahead.
Reflect on Your Challenges
Start moving forward by taking a quick look back. Where did you achieve your goals and where did you fall short? Consider all aspects of your organization: fundraising, engagement, and impact. Are there tasks that you would approach differently in the future? Take intentional notes to be able to refer to in the future and avoid repeating history.
When you have a clear picture of what worked and what didn’t, outline your plan for the upcoming year, keeping in mind both short and long-term goals.
Refine Your Annual Fundraising Calendar
Your goals will include fundraising objectives, so take a close look at your calendar, including all events, campaigns, and grant applications. Create a detailed budget and plot out the fundraising goals month by month.
Being able to plan ahead and visualize the year will help avoid missing deadlines for submissions and successfully execute your signature events.
Once you visualize your year, you can identify any time periods available to add opportunities to your year. Can you identify any new income streams?
Prioritize a Well-Developed Marketing Plan
Now that you know what you want to achieve, and when you plan to achieve it, a meticulous marketing plan will help make it happen. Some questions to ponder include:
- Who is your target audience and what methods will you use to reach them?
- Is your brand awareness strong enough or does it need strengthening?
- Do you need to work with an external marketing team or do you plan to design materials in-house?
- Are you taking full advantage of digital marketing and social media?
Creating a timeline that includes the who, what , when, and how of your marketing to get your WHY across to your audience is essential for success.
Reflect Often and Be Flexible
All plans need modification throughout implementation, so understand that there will be changes made along the way. Revisit your annual fundraising calendar, reflection notes, and marketing plans often. The nonprofit fundraising world can be unpredictable but with a plan in place, you’re off to a great start for the New Year. Be ready, however, to pivot and change plans as needed.
The Angeletti Group can help your organization develop a plan to reach your organization’s goals in 2024. Contact us and we will help set you up for a successful year. It’s going to be a terrific year!
