The Strategy Of Chess

In today’s volatile economic environment, charities need to continuously reassess their abilities to generate future funds. Like it or not, change is inevitable. The ability to adapt to relevant strategies and introduce innovative successful tactics will be the game changer for whether or not your charity or cause is able to hit their financial goals.

So how do you do this? What strategy planning should be utilized to help enhance my fundraiser?

The first thing you need to understand is that you cannot become too reliant on government grants. As much as these grants can give you a head start in setting up the foundational aspect of your charity, it cannot be the only financial game plan in keeping your organization afloat. For you to expand, you need to venture into new tactics that go beyond the austerities of leads or former donors. Instead, you need to constantly internalize, reflect, and revamp your system so that it can keep up within the tough climate that is fundraising.

Begin by looking at your organization holistically. Strong, successful, and effective fundraisers are powerful in their own right because they are still able to both engage with their previous donors and reach out to new donors year after year. To keep that continuous momentum alive, you need to understand what the problem is. Ask your team the following questions: What is your cause? What are your goals? How will these donations aid with supporting your causes? What happens if you do not meet your financial goals? Why is your organization qualified to tackle this problem? By asking yourself these overarching questions, you will be able to externally focus on any weaknesses you are seeing within your campaign.

Once you have internalized the strengths and weaknesses of your foundation, now you can begin to analyze the necessary steps for a successful campaign. Start by reviewing the numbers. Look at the statistical metrics of how your donors and donations grew or fell within the past three years. Even go as far as to analyze it on a meticulously month-by-month basis. By analyzing this information this way, you will be able to see your charity as a business. In addition, the numbers themselves will give you a variety of different levels to structure an efficient and effective attack plan that can further benefit your cause within the next up and coming months.

When building your attack plan, make sure you continue your research by identifying the specific donors you plan on targeting. Yes, as you can see, research will be a constant role in developing your fundraising campaign to its fullest. For this particular research, you are now looking at the market instead of your campaign. This will allow you to find new and exciting sectors that are looking to support your organization to the fullest. Start off by researching your current donors and their businesses. Ask yourself why they are affiliated with your foundation and what groups they are associated with that you can connect with them. This internal system of connections will allow you to tap an untouched market that can be incredibly fruitful in the future. Once that is done, incorporate a strategy of how you will reach out to them. Will it be by email, word of mouth, or through an in person presentation? Whatever is the case, you want to make sure you are well prepared. That means tailoring your pitch and your presentation (PowerPoint) to that specific organization. The more centralized and specific your cause is to an organization, the better opportunity you have in gaining new donors.

After the restructure attack plan, go back to see how well it worked. If it was successful, great! Continue the strategy and the overall process again. If it wasn’t, reflect upon what was its weakness and what you and your team could have done to improve upon it. Remember, the only way to see this continuous success is by understanding your campaign’s flaws and adapting to any changes that can lead you to your future financial goals.