Although fundraising is undoubtedly hard, it can — and should — be a rewarding experience. It is also an experience that should be shared. For leaders of community organisations, one of the challenges is ensuring that all board members, and in fact everyone in the group, have some involvement in raising money.
Designate a fundraising coordinator
As a first step, assign the overall responsibility for fundraising activities to one person. Even if you have a fundraising committee or outside consultants, one person in your organisation still needs to be in ultimate control of your fundraising efforts.
The role of the fundraiser is often under-valued, but it should not be. Without sufficient funding, groups can struggle to get their message across, deliver their services, or survive as an organisation.
Develop a fundraising strategy
A fundraising strategy should be developed annually, evaluated throughout the year, and updated as circumstances change. It needs the flexibility to respond to new opportunities or pull back from activities that are not working. Schedule time for your board or fundraising team to share ideas and set goals.
First steps:
- Outline your goals. What do you hope to achieve?
- Review past fundraising activities — what has worked, and just as importantly, what has not?
- Identify your supporters and potential supporters: businesses, government departments, individuals, families, philanthropic trusts, and foundations.
- Conduct research with members and friends, collecting their ideas and examples of what has worked in other groups.
- Build a case to support each prospective fundraising activity.
- Decide on the methods you plan to use to raise funds.
- Set an estimated target for each method.
- Set a timeline and year planner noting good times for fundraising. Pay attention to grant deadlines.
- Document your progress so that if things are not going to plan, you know early enough to change tack.
- Establish an evaluation strategy.
If you are asking for money, it is easier to raise funds for a specific project or activity than for the organisation as a whole. Most people would rather know exactly where their money is going.
Fundraising options
There are a number of sources of funds your community group might be able to tap into:
- Grants: Identify federal, state, or local government, philanthropic, and corporate grants programs open to your group. Our Community's Funding Centre provides a grants and fundraising newsletter and database to help.
- Sponsorship: Identify possible sponsorship arrangements your group could pursue — naming rights for your team, building, uniforms, scoreboard, events, newsletter, or other assets. See more information about sponsorships and community business partnerships.
- Membership fees: Introduce different levels of membership — standard, family, non-playing, associate, lifetime, or tiered pricing — and charge a fee for each. GiveNow's membership feature makes it easy to set up and manage registrations and renewals.
- Bequests: Provide information to long-time benefactors about how they can leave an ongoing gift for your organisation.
- In-kind support: Seek donations of goods, venues, office supplies, printing, transport, pro bono professional services, or other non-financial contributions. GiveNow's Other Ways to Give feature lets you list what your organisation needs.
- Donations: Set up your organisation to receive online donations through GiveNow. Pursue personal donations, general appeals, direct mail, and email campaigns to your database of supporters.
- Special events: Fetes, trivia nights, art shows, film nights, fun runs, raffles, auctions, and sponsored challenges. GiveNow's event ticketing feature can help you manage registrations and payments.
- Merchandising: Sell branded clothing, products, or other items.
- Sales: Sell your goods and services directly.
Explore which of these avenues are feasible, achievable, and profitable for your group. The trick is to be creative and make each initiative work for you. For each event or activity, look for opportunities to layer in other fundraising — sell merchandise at your event, run a raffle, and always include a donation link and membership information in your communications.
Legal obligations
When making an appeal for public funds, there are certain laws you must follow. Each state and territory has different rules for different methods of fundraising, separate from the tax and incorporation laws you are also required to observe. For more details, see What are the fundraising legislation and regulations in Australia?
Keeping your strategy alive
- Share your draft strategy with the board and a cross-section of the organisation before finalising it. Incorporate feedback into the final version.
- Do not draw up the strategy and then forget it. Provide regular updates at committee meetings and feature milestones in your newsletters and communications.
- Update the strategy as circumstances change.
- Stay alert to new fundraising ideas. If you see something that works elsewhere, adapt it for your organisation. Subscribing to The Funding Centre will help you stay across grants, and The Easygrants newsletter will keep your ideas flowing.
- Build in the ability to walk away if something is not working. It is better to cut losses early than to push ahead with an activity that will lose more money. A strong risk management plan will flag problems well before that stage.
- Always acknowledge those who have helped — volunteers, donors, and sponsors. Recognition can take many forms: a mention in your newsletter, a personal letter from the CEO or chair, signage, a plaque, or a framed certificate for significant contributions.
A strong fundraising effort can ensure there are adequate funds to support all of your activities. A poor effort can drain resources and threaten the survival of your organisation. Investing the time to build a solid strategy is one of the most important things you can do.