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Slide Notes

It's often very easy to recognize when an organization needs to change, but it's a lot harder to make it happen! Legacy staff and volunteers, “we've always done it this way” perspectives, and plain old inertia can put many frustrating road blocks in your way. There are ways, however, for the persistent and patient to guide the change process and help an organization evolve. Using real world examples, we'll discuss the stages of organizational growth, personality archetypes you may encounter, and strategies to build momentum toward change.
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Copie de Fundraising Health Check: Conducting a Development Audit

Fundraising efforts are constant, so it's often hard to pause and evaluate your program. But how do you know where you're going if you don't know where you're coming from? In this hands on, practical workshop, we'll identify the elements of a development audit, discuss quantitative and qualitative indicators of a healthy fundraising program, and walk through strategies to analyze your own program while still managing your day to day.

PRESENTATION OUTLINE

Fundraising Health Check

Conducting a Development Audit
It's often very easy to recognize when an organization needs to change, but it's a lot harder to make it happen! Legacy staff and volunteers, “we've always done it this way” perspectives, and plain old inertia can put many frustrating road blocks in your way. There are ways, however, for the persistent and patient to guide the change process and help an organization evolve. Using real world examples, we'll discuss the stages of organizational growth, personality archetypes you may encounter, and strategies to build momentum toward change.
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Where are we going and why are we in this handbasket?

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Objectives

  • Elements of a development audit
  • Using qualitative and quantitative information
  • Applying analysis

Step 1

Is anything bleeding?
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Are there any emergency funding issues right now?

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Step 2

Global scan
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Untitled Slide

Step 3

Check the records

And now, the numbers

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Growth in Giving

  • Dollars
  • Number of donors
  • Acquisition and retention

Other information to mine

  • Longevity/lifetime value
  • Largest and smallest gift size
  • Definition of major gift
  • Common demographics

Other information to mine

  • Top 10 major donors
  • Next 25 highest donors
  • Longest tenured donor
  • Highest donor among staff
  • Highest donor on the board

Strategy and Tactics

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Organizational Goals

  • What's fundable?
  • How much are you suppose to raise?
  • How is that amount determined?
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Development Tactics

  • What tactics are already in place?
  • How much do they raise each?
  • What's the cost per tactic?
  • What new things do we want to do?
  • How does this compare to Giving USA?
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Giving USA 2016

Step 4

Talk to people
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Don't rely on the numbers alone.

Who to engage

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The players

  • Peers
  • People who report to you
  • Board and other volunteers
  • Your boss and his or her peers
  • Other organizational higher ups
  • Donors
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Participants

  • Immediate staff
  • Board and volunteers involved with fundraising
  • Major donors
  • Longest term donors
  • Most engaged donors
  • New donors
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What questions to ask?

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Questions

  • Why are they there? Why do they give, volunteer, work
  • Why do they stay? How long have they been around?
  • What are their networks? Community connections?
  • Are there potential or existing issues?

Step 5

Identifying problems and root causes
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Which tactics aren't contributing?
What people are creating barriers?

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Allies, Adversaries, Ambivalent

Step 6

Explain and recommend
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Report elements

  • Context and background
  • SWOT (human factors)
  • Target audiences and their characteristics
  • Key players and why
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Report elements

  • Cost/Benefit of individual fundraising tactics
  • Projected cost/benefit of new tactics
  • Recommendations
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This is hard work.
Do I have to do this all the time?

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Untitled Slide

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How to use the audit

  • Full review with interviews every 2-3 years
  • Annual update of cost/benefit by tactic
  • Annual FEP report

How to use the audit

  • Every new tactic gets cost/benefit analysis
  • Monthly update of top donor lists

A couple more tips

  • Act like a consultant: schedule evaluation for a finite period
  • Use information from audit to inform the development plan

"An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."
Benjamin Franklin

Alice Ferris, CFRE, ACFRE
GoalBusters Consulting
goalbusters.net/free
@goalbusters
@aliceferris

Photo by Justin Liew