For those interested in non profit fundraising, help is available over the Internet. You can go online and find a management library set up for both profit and nonprofit groups. It is free for you to use. Find this web site at www.managementhelp.org. There are some great categories of topics that you can choose from. You have such things as advertising and promotion to e-commerce and leadership development. I clicked on fundraising (nonprofit) found somewhere in the middle of this long list. Here is what came up: “This topic in the Library will help nonprofit leaders to ensure a strong fundraising plan and program for their nonprofits…”
They advise describing a very well designed program plan in your fundraising proposal, which includes how that program will be evaluated. You can click on the link “Field Guide to Nonprofit Program Design, Marketing and Evaluation” for help through every step of designing a comprehensive program plan and the following evaluation plan. Also get a grant proposal. I clicked on the link to this guide. Authenticity Consulting, LLC’s field guide seems to have a lot of helpful advice to offer. For example, they discuss the topic of effective marketing analysis, advertising and promotion. In their guide, you can get worksheets in an appendix to help with your design, marketing, and evaluation.
The guidebook can also help you increase the results of your fundraising. You need to design a program that regularly meets the needs of your clients effectively and efficiently. Keep in mind that in the area of fundraising, you will need to do such things as “plan your program start-up and development, plan your program’s finances” and “plan your program’s approach to evaluation”.
You need a lot of plans. This guide offers hundreds of guidelines and 25 worksheets to help you put together these plans. What are some of the plans to consider when you are involved in non profit fundraising? Some of these are: a marketing plan, a sales plan, a customer service plan, and operations plan, a fundraising proposal, a business plan, and more.
The “nonprofit fundraising and grant writing” page found here and assembled by Carter McNamara, has plenty of good advice for those who need information on fundraising, (found at the free management library under the link fundraising-nonprofit).
For example, it is useful to know that, “A healthy nonprofit organization often has highly diversified sources of funding, for example, from individual donors, foundations, corporations and governments.” And the good advice continues, such as “if you are just getting started with your nonprofit, then you should plan and set up your financial accounting system before you begin fundraising”. Visit the library for more good information.
If you are a small nonprofit organization interested in non profit fundraising, you can take a look at www.grantproposal.com. See the article on “teaching yourself to be a grant writer”. This is a good starting place.
Good luck with your non profit fundraising efforts. Explore the possibilities of using the Web.
By Laura Hogg