When it comes to fundraising efficacy and efficiency, there’s no substitute for a good system.
One common complaint I hear from nonprofits is that they feel like their fundraising program is always in crisis mode. Many development offices are understaffed and under-resourced, constantly trying to fit fifteen hours of work into an eight-hour day.
Likewise, given the frequent turnover in most fundraising shops, many development officers feel like they are always reinventing the wheel, trying to figure out how to hold an annual gala or send out another mailing, all while maximizing ROI for the organizations they serve.
For many of the organizations I work with, the solution to what ails them is systemization. Specifically, these nonprofits should be looking for ways to build fundraising systems that help them regain control of their development programs.
What Are Fundraising Systems?
When I recommend implementing fundraising systems, I am not talking about installing a new database or building out new technological solutions. Instead, I am talking about building knowable, repeatable, scalable processes that your staff can follow to make fundraising easier and less resource-intensive. Good fundraising systems will help your organization do more with less and achieve a higher return on your development investment.
One of the most common fundraising systems for nonprofits to have in place is a thanking and stewardship system. This type of system dictates exactly what to do when you receive a new gift. Depending on the level of the gift and the type of donor, your team knows what type of thank you note to send, whether or not the donor will get a thank you call or invitation for a meeting, and whom the call will come from. Your staff won’t be left wondering what to do when a gift comes in. You get a $1,000 gift from a first-time donor? Send a welcome packet with a handwritten note from the development director, who will also call the donor within 72 hours of the gift coming in. Then, the donor will be placed into the high-dollar stewardship system for future cultivation.
The Four Components of a Strong Fundraising System
Smart nonprofits have systems in place across all their donor activities, from prospecting and cultivation to communications, solicitation, and stewardship. Good fundraising systems include four key components:
1. Well-Defined Goals
Good fundraising systems require well-defined goals. In order to be effective, your fundraising tactics need to be measured against deliberate goals that advance your development program. For example, if your organization builds out a donor stewardship system, you could have three well-defined goals: (1) increasing your donor retention rate; (2) increasing the number of donors making upgraded gifts; and (3) increasing the number of major donors referring your team to new prospects. Each of these goals can be measured and tracked so that you know if your stewardship system is succeeding.
2. Timelines
Successful systems include action steps for your development strategies as well as timelines and deadlines for each of those steps. Timelines keep everyone working at the correct pace and ensure that everyone knows when items will be completed. For example, your donor stewardship system may indicate that thank you calls be made within 72 hours of receiving a gift and thank you notes be sent out within five days.
3. Responsibilities
In addition to defined goals and timelines, every good fundraising system needs to list responsibilities. By this, I mean that your systems need to make it clear who is responsible for each action item. You can do this by listing the staff position at your organization that will be responsible for each task. Including this information in your fundraising systems helps avoid confusion and ensures that everyone is clear on which team member is responsible for each task. For example, your donor stewardship system may specify that each major gifts officer is responsible for sending out their own hand-written thank you notes, and that your development director is responsible for calling each donor who gives over $5,000.
4. Segmentation
The final thing that every good fundraising system needs, in addition to goals, timelines, and responsibilities, is segmentation. Because you are working with limited staff, time, money, and bandwidth, you’ll need to segment your donors and make decisions about how much time and money you can spend on each of them.
Thus, while it may be beneficial for your team to call every single donor who makes a gift to your nonprofit to thank them for their gift within 48 hours of receiving the gift, you may only have one full-time fundraiser and a very limited supply of board members to help you make these calls. So, you may decide to segment your donors and only call those who make a gift of over $100, $250, or $1,000—or whatever makes sense for your organization.
Good donor systems establish donor segments to make sure that you are using your time, money, bandwidth, and other resources in a responsible manner. Ideally, you will invest them in a way that results in maximum return for your nonprofit and the people you serve, without leading to staff burnout.
Every nonprofit can benefit from systemizing its fundraising. By establishing clear goals for each development process, adding well-defined timelines and responsibilities, and laying out different strategies for each segment of your donor universe, your organization can increase the return on its fundraising investment and build a thriving development program.
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