We’ve all been there, looking at the upcoming fiscal year’s fundraising revenue targets and budget document with the title “FINAL_FINAL-FINAL_Final Budget.v7”. It’s not that you had a major strategy shift mid-budget process which caused your team to change course seven times, but often is a result of an unclear future for the fundraising program that makes us all go back to the drawing board during a budget cycle.
Today the use of fundraising revenue scenario building is widespread. Some are tweak changes, others are transformational program shifts.
But all too often, organizations conduct the exploration exercise of possible futures and then set whatever they learn from it on the shelf. Causing the team who pulled them together to think those possible futures are unachievable or unwelcome at the organization.
If you (and your team) want to make effective strategy decisions in the face of uncertainty, work on setting up a process of constant exploration—one that is focused on specific metrics allowing for meaningful bridges that connect the logic around your actions in the present and their possible impact to the future.
Initiating this process with your team is never easy, but here are three focus areas to get you started:
1) Adopt a Multi-Year Mindset. Making a 2-3 year fundraising plan for your program can be difficult with shifting markets and staff retention (among other things), but having a general goal for the program that expands past the current fiscal year helps you test. Above all, make it a stretch goal! Small goals and targets result in small tests that will require the same amount of your time with little return.
2) Focus on the things that will have the greatest impact. Document the details of each income strategy. Plans are not prophecies, but a gathering of assumptions to reach the budget goal. Know what success means for your team or organization.
3) Identify the measures you’ll track to understand success. Outline the KPIs needed to reach the goal based on previous year actuals and performance. It’s important to understand the health and performance of your file so testing is meaningful. For example, if you’re going to see more donations come in at year end (Oct-Dec) manage your strongest campaigns at that time and donation channels with focused testing.
What’s necessary is not just imagination of your fundraising program’s future but the safe (and number founded) decision making process to anchor your program’s growth.
fundraisology.com 