Budgeting and planning are critically important, but it is instructive to start this chapter with an old fundraising saw: “Fundraising is 10% planning and 90% follow‐up calls.” Although many people hate planning, it is as common to find people who take so much time to plan that they have no time to actually do the work. So this is a short chapter because, although planning has to be done thoughtfully and as thoroughly as possible, a plan that is not implemented is more problematic than working with no plan.

Planning for fundraising is not difficult to do. And even though planning should not be what you spend most of your time on, another old saw is also true: one hour of planning can save three hours of work.

There are five steps to creating a workable plan. They are detailed here.

STEP 1: SET A GOAL

Your financial goal will come from your budget, which you can create using the principles outlined in Chapter Twenty‐Nine.

STEP 2: SPELL OUT THE DETAILS OF EACH INCOME STRATEGY

The biggest lament people have about planning is “plans don't work.” This is true—plans are not prophecies. They are created assuming that most of what has been true will continue to be true—they do not factor in massive natural disasters or arson or fraud, although an implemented plan will have done what can be done to prepare for or insure against such events. However, the main reason plans fail is not because of huge unexpected occurrences but because there was no detail to the so‐called “plan.” Many fundraising plans are some combination of wish list and outline. An actual plan includes details such as these:

• For each strategy—acquisition, retention, upgrading—the specific tasks needed
• Due date for each task
• Who is in charge of each task
• How much the strategy is going to cost and how much it is going to raise

STEP 3: PLOT OUT YOUR PLANS FOR RAISING MONEY FROM INDIVIDUALS

Your organization may raise money in any number of ways, but here we are focused on your plan to raise money from individuals. You may need to create other plans for how you will raise money from foundations, corporations, or government, or how you will market products or collect fees for service.

Given the amount of money that must be raised from individuals, determine how much will be raised from each segment of donors discussed in Chapter Six, “Financial Needs and Fundraising Strategies”: first‐time donors, repeat donors, and donors upgrading their gifts. Following the formula described in Chapter Twenty‐One for major gifts programs, assume that 60% of the income will come from 10% of your donors, 20% will come from 20% of your donors, and the remaining 20% will come from 70% of your donors. The first number (60% of the total) is your goal for major gifts; the second number (20% of the total) is your goal for habitual donors responding to retention strategies, particularly those donors who give several times a year; the last number (another 20% of the total) is your goal from first‐ or second‐time donors giving through acquisition strategies.

Analyze your current donor base using the following questions, noting the conclusions you can draw from the answers:

• How many donors do you have now in each category: major gifts, habitual donors, first‐time donors?
• What is your first‐gift retention rate? That is, what percentage of people who have made one gift make a second? (This should be about 20%).
• What is your retention rate? That is, what percentage of donors who have given at least twice keep giving? (It should be around 65%.)
• What is your renewal rate? That is, what percentage of all donors who give in one year give in the next? (It should be about 50–60%.)
• What are the organization's strengths in working with donors?
• How good are you at inviting people to become donors who visit your website or who are on your email list but haven't given?
• Do you do a good job of acquiring donors but have a lower‐than‐normal retention rate? Or do you have a strong base of very loyal habitual donors, with a higher‐than‐normal retention rate, which indicates you are not acquiring enough new donors?
• Do you do a good job of identifying the top 10% of donors and regularly seeking upgraded gifts and major gifts from them, and from habitual donors who are capable of increasing their giving?
• Has the number of donors to your organization grown, decreased, or stayed the same in the past three years? (If it has decreased, you are not doing enough acquisition and may also have a problem with retention of donors. If the number of donors has stayed the same, you are doing a good job with either retention or acquisition, but not both; otherwise, you would see an increase.)

STEP 4: DECIDE ON NUMBERS OF DONORS AND MATCH THEM TO STRATEGIES

On the basis of your analysis in the previous step, decide how many donors and what size of gifts they need to give for you to meet your goals and match them with the strategies—acquisition, retention, upgrading—that work best for reaching those donors. Notice the greater emphasis on numbers of donors rather than on amounts of money. Of course, how much you raise is a big factor, but if you really work hard to attract donors and work with them, you will raise the money you need, you will not be overly reliant on any one donor, and you will have a base of people who can be asked to do other work for the organization (serve on committees, host house parties, sign petitions, come to rallies and meetings, and so on).

STEP 5: PUT THE PLAN ONTO A TIMELINE AND FILL OUT THE TASKS

Voilà! A fundraising plan is created. (See examples of fundraising plans in the case studies that follow.)

By using these steps, the planning process can be both simple and accurate. Once a plan is developed, working the plan should bring in the money you need.

Following is a template that many grassroots organizations find useful in putting together a plan.

RAISE, DON'T CUT

As you make your plan, always think of ways to RAISE the money you need before you ever consider cutting costs. Grassroots organizations operate on a shoestring in the best of times. Our instincts are to do everything as inexpensively as possible, but we also need to develop our ability to solve financial problems and shortfalls by raising more money.