I have focused the first chapters of this book on looking at the importance of raising money from individuals, and I’ve looked at what motivates people to give. Before you can begin fundraising, you need to have a clear cause for which you are raising money. Traditionally, this is called your “case for support,” written in a “case statement.” Basically, this means your organization sets down in writing why it exists and what it does. The document details three key facts: the need the organization was set up to meet, the way the organization will meet that need, and the capacity of the organization to do so. This written document is for internal use by staff, board, and key volunteers. It is not a secret document, but it will have more information than someone at any distance from the organization would want to read and it is not created with any external audience in mind. The document talks about your organization in language people closest to the organization use when they are not trying to impress anyone. This content is then the basis of material for your website, any other virtual platforms, and for proposals, reports, speeches, and so on. The messages are also given by anyone presenting information about your organization to people outside the organization. Everyone close to the organization needs to agree with the information presented in the internal case statement, and nothing produced by the organization for external use should contradict it, even if the external versions of it take many different forms.

WHAT IS IN THE CASE STATEMENT?

The easiest way to understand a case statement is to imagine the questions a person truly interested in the kind of work you do would ask about your organization and the order in which someone would ask them. The questions correspond to the sections of the case statement, indicated in parentheses:

• “Why does your organization exist?” (Vision statement) AND/OR
• “What do you most believe?” (Mission statement)
• “What do you do about what you believe?” (Goals)
• “How do you accomplish those goals?” (Objectives or outcomes)
• “What have you accomplished?” (Results or history)
• “Who is involved in this organization and how does it run?” (Structure)
• “How much does it cost for your organization to function, and where do you get your money?” (Budget and fundraising plan)

Each of these elements needs a clear and concise explanation. In many organizations, the vision and mission statements are merged into one. Other organizations use the vision statement to describe the world when your organization is no longer needed (e.g., “A world without AIDS” and the mission statement to describe the beliefs that propel their overall work, e.g., “We believe health care is a right, not a privilege”). Multi-issue organizations may need to summarize their many goals into a few broad statements.

Many organizations don’t include objectives in their case statement; instead they point to accomplishments described in the history section. Older organizations will need to choose their best accomplishments to include. In other words, you need to adapt this format to suit your organization.

Having this information in one document, making sure that key people in the organization all have—and have read—copies of it helps guarantee consistency of what is presented by board members, staff, or volunteers. Although it can be time-consuming to develop the case, it saves time in the long run. People are less tempted to come to meetings with brand new ideas of what the organization should do; funders are approached with work that the organization wants to do, rather than work the organization has created simply to win funding; and there is much less likelihood that donors or board members will misunderstand organizational direction. The case also motivates the fundraisers by reminding them why they are raising money. Much of the case statement—objectives, history, budget, funding plans—needs to be updated every year, and the entire document should be reviewed at least annually to ensure that everyone is still in agreement with its premises and that it still accurately describes what the organization is doing.

I recommend opening each board meeting by calling to mind why you exist and what you most believe. A board member of a local ACLU chapter once told me that the board chair opened the meeting by welcoming everyone and saying, “Let us remember that we are here. . . ,” and everyone would complete the statement in unison: “Because the Bill of Rights can’t defend itself.” This custom never failed to get even the most tired board member to sit up straight and focus on the content of the meeting. For our fundraising to be successful, passion and commitment have to be front and center of all that we do.

The following is a more detailed explanation of how you answer each of the questions.

WHY DOES YOUR ORGANIZATION EXIST?

WHAT DO YOU MOST BELIEVE?

The answers to these questions provide a foundation from which all programming arises. People in an organization will often claim “We know why we exist” and then give a jargon-laden description of their work. For example, a women’s economic development program has this statement: “We help disadvantaged women become agents of their own future by providing actionable templates for change which replace destructive psychological messages with compelling new narratives.”

Although this is quite an excellent organization, it appears to be trying to disguise that fact with this statement. When they called on my help with fundraising and I asked what their mission statement was, none of the board or staff could repeat this statement. Eventually, I learned that the organization helps women coming out of prison to find jobs or even start their own businesses. With support groups, advocacy with employers, skills training, and providing clothes for interviews and work, the organization succeeds in finding permanent employment for about twenty formerly incarcerated women each year.

As we tried to craft a more meaningful statement, the importance of having all the players involved in its development became clear. The phrase “Women coming out of prison” became a sticking point. Everyone agreed that using it would make the statement more accessible, but many also believed that being identified as formerly incarcerated contributes to discrimination of these women in the workplace. The consensus was to omit any reference to prison in the statement. Asked to simplify and clarify what they most believed, they came up with these statements:

• VISION: We imagine a world in which everyone has access to fulfilling work.
• MISSION: Seeking, getting, and keeping a good job and recruiting and keeping good employees are similar skills, which must be learned and practiced.

These vision and mission statements are simple and easy to remember. As the board members use them, they discover that they are great conversation starters. The vision statement leads to discussions of types of work and whether certain kinds of work can be made fulfilling. The mission statement leads to discussions of how employers can be more compassionate to their employees and still make money. These introductory statements are, of course, accompanied by what the organization does and what success they have had.

Here’s another example. An educational organization that primarily teaches economic literacy has this lofty mission: “Authentic human freedom begins with every person living free of economic compulsion. Understanding how economic forces work and how they can be changed is fundamental to this freedom.” The organization’s goals include teaching that practices that are unhealthy for people, such as unsafe workplaces, wage discrimination, toxic dumping, substandard housing, and poverty itself, are not unavoidable by-products of a functioning economy, and that societies can be structured to eliminate these injustices. This organization went through a major change in focus while working within its mission. At first it simply taught the practical skills of how to live within a budget or how to set up a savings plan; now it includes broader aspects of economic literacy, such as understanding how public schools and roads are paid for and what kinds of taxes are fair or not. The organization has also expanded to include the much broader work of advocating for changes in the country’s basic economic structure. It still teaches practical classes, but its students are also introduced to larger ideas. The organization’s broad mission statement enabled it to embrace a larger perspective on its work as its vision of that work expanded.

Organizations need to take the creation and maintenance of vision and mission statements very seriously. These statements have an impact on all programs and, indeed, the direction of the organization. When the wording is neglected or put together hurriedly, disagreements will arise, some of which will take months to resolve, and, more important for fundraising and communications, donors will be confused, resulting in a loss of donations.

Keep in mind that a vision statement should be no longer than one sentence. In fact, it will often become a tag line or a slogan. For example, a small organization promoting affordable housing in an upscale California region: “Affordable homes make a rich community.” A cutting-edge racial justice organization has this tagline: “We will find a way or make one.” In both cases, the mission and vision have been shortened into something people will remember and repeat. The mission statement should also be short. Two sentences is about all a person can remember and repeat to another. The purpose of either statement (and it’s fine to have just one statement) is to catch the attention of potential donors so they want to learn more and to reinvigorate current donors.

We live in a world of constant messages—advertising, warnings, directions, prompts, signals. Some experts have said that if we work outside our homes, we are exposed to as many as 3,000 messages a day. Our conscious minds don’t even take in most of these messages, which our subconscious mind is busy filtering out. In addition to external stimuli, we have our own worries, plans, and daydreams. Although this may come as a shock, your organization and its needs are not foremost in the minds of the people hearing about you. You have to catch their attention and then hold it long enough for them to decide whether they want to know more.

WHAT ARE YOUR GOALS AND OBJECTIVES?

WHAT DO YOU DO?

Goal statements tell what your organization is going to do about what you believe, and as your goals are accomplished, you may write more about them in the section on history.

Goals almost always start with infinitives: to provide, to ensure, to monitor, to educate, for example, “To ensure that old-growth forests are protected forever” or “To teach conflict resolution skills to all elementary school children” or “To find a cure for breast cancer.”

WHAT HAVE YOU ACCOMPLISHED?

The history section summarizes when the organization was formed and by whom and narrates major program accomplishments, including any major program changes. In describing your accomplished objectives, you have the chance to provide further documentation of the work your organization was set up to do and your ability to do it. The more specific your objectives or outcomes are, the more dramatic your history will be. Your track record is one of the most important elements for attracting donors, so making sure you have a way to measure, document, and publish your accomplishments is key to fundraising.

The history of your organization is also the most frequently used content on your website and in your proposals for convincing donors and funders that you can accomplish what you are planning for the simple reason that you have accomplished so much of what you had previously planned.

There are no set rules for the length of the historical piece. A summary of high points will do, with a reference to a longer document, such as an annual report or website, for people who are interested in more details.

WHO IS INVOLVED IN THIS ORGANIZATION AND HOW DOES IT RUN?

The structure section shows that the way you are organized—staffing and board size, composition and governance—is consistent with your overall mission. Here are some examples: “We have four staff who work collectively” and “Our board of eleven members is composed of three current clients, five former clients, and three former staff people, so that all decisions about the organization are made by people most interested and knowledgeable about the effects of our work.” This section should be long enough to explain a complicated or nontraditional structure, but brief if the organizational structure is fairly straightforward.

The way an organization is structured is a key to its accountability. For example, an organization claiming it is committed to full participation of all members of a multiracial community that has only one or two people of color on its board raises questions about its commitment to being truly “multiracial.” An organization that claims to organize in low-income communities but whose board members are all well-paid professionals from outside the communities the organization serves raises questions about the organization’s philosophy of power.

Sophisticated donors often request information on structural issues to help determine whether the group understands the implications of its mission and goals. This section can also include brief biographical sketches of board members and résumés of staff, along with statistics on members, volunteers, and chapters, if applicable.

HOW MUCH DOES IT COST FOR YOUR ORGANIZATION TO FUNCTION, AND WHERE DO YOU GET YOUR MONEY?

This part of the case statement may have two sections: a fundraising plan and a financial statement, with a budget.

The fundraising plan shows whether the organization has a diversity of funding sources and an understanding of the fundraising process. The fundraising plan shows all of the organization’s prospective sources of income and describes in a narrative fashion how this income will be raised or how these financial goals will be reached. Like the section on structure, the fundraising plan will show whether the organization operates consistently with its mission. For example, an environmental organization primarily supported by oil or timber corporations or community-based organizations with only foundation funding both raise questions about consistency between their financing and their mission. In contrast, an organization working to reduce high school dropout rates that has significant support from parents and alumnae of the program or a downtown preservation and beautification project that is supported entirely by business and residents of the community both appear to be wanted and needed by the people who most benefit.

A financial statement provides proof that the organization spends money wisely and monitors its spending—both in total amount and by category. The financial statement, consisting of an audited financial report, if available, or at least a profit and loss statement and a balance sheet, is usually part of an annual report. The budget is an estimate of expenses and income for the current fiscal year and should include a description of how finances are monitored, such as: “The finance committee of the board reviews financial reports monthly, and the full board reviews such reports quarterly. We compare our income and expenses with other organizations and with industry standards and are committed to raising enough money to do our work properly and making sure that all our money is spent wisely and prudently” (see also Chapter Twenty-Nine, “Developing a Budget”).

CREATING A STRATEGIC PLAN

People often ask, “What is the difference between a case statement and a strategic plan?” The case statement is a basic blueprint of what the organization is and how it operates. It must be in place before you can make long-range plans. A strategic plan is a projection of the organization’s work into the future—generally, two, three, or five years. To embark on a strategic planning process without an internal case statement is the proverbial building your house on sand. The case statement provides the foundation for a strategic plan. A strategic plan also looks at both internal and external realities (the so-called SWOT test is classic: Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) and uses research on demographic trends as well as the results of an outside evaluation and a variety of other information to help set realistic, ambitious, and mission-fulfilling goals. A well-done case statement provides some of the elements needed for a strategic plan, particularly goals and objectives, and evaluation of the organization’s track record to date. The strategic planning process may help the organization refine and sometimes redefine its goals going forward. Thus, the case statement and strategic plan work together nicely, but they are not interchangeable.

Strategic planning is not a magic bullet. Many organizations have found that their strategic plan had little practical use because it could not sufficiently incorporate a constantly shifting external environment. People now talk about “strategic thinking,” which sounds good, but lacks clear definition. What’s important is that all staff and board are continually invited to help with problem solving and with generating ideas. Organizations that rely on one or two visionary leaders tend to get into trouble when those leaders leave or are unseated or simply no longer put forward a vision that others wish to follow. There is a large body of literature about strategic planning, thinking, and management, but for our purposes all roads lead back to needing a firm and well-thought-through case for support. That case will provide a strong foundation that can weather many shifting priorities and sudden changes in the world around us.

DEVELOPING THE CASE STATEMENT

A case statement is usually developed by a small committee, but the board, staff, and key volunteers must all agree on its contents, particularly the mission and goals. If the people who must carry out the plans don’t like them or don’t believe they are possible, they will not do good work for the group. Therefore, it is worth spending the time needed to develop a strong case statement. Hurrying a statement of mission or a set of goals through the board approval process in order to save time or “get on with the job” will come back to haunt you in the form of commitments not kept and half-hearted fundraising efforts.