How to build a fundraising strategy

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Building the right fundraising strategy brings together multiple fundraising streams, attracts new donors, retains existing donors, and converts passive supporters into active givers.

A fundraising strategy can help you streamline fundraising ideas, motivate your audiences both internally and externally, monitor the impact of your marketing on how much income you generate, and much more. At its most simple, a fundraising strategy provides charities with an action plan for bringing in more money to support their cause.  

A good fundraising strategy will look different for every organisation. Resource, budget, and audience preferences must be taken into account to ensure that your fundraising strategy is suitable for your specific needs. The job of a fundraising strategy is to determine the fundraising measures you’ll take based on these needs, identifying the trends that apply to you, and how you will use them to reach your fundraising goals. 

Fundraising strategies evolve over time. Many charity professionals described 2022 as a year of trialling new things, as we emerged from the early difficulties of the pandemic and embraced the challenges of the “new normal”. The fundraising techniques that worked in 2019, and even 2020, have not necessarily been carried over to today, with charities needing to adapt to fluctuating donor expectations. 

This article will show you how to effectively build (and rebuild) an effective fundraising strategy. We will explore the fundamentals of creating the perfect fundraising strategy for 2023, looking at new fundraising trends and methods and, crucially, how to identify the right ones for your organisation.  

Skip to: Understand benefits of an effective fundraising strategy 

Skip to: Start your fundraising strategy with an audit 

Skip to: Learn the latest fundraising trends 

Skip to: Write your fundraising strategy 

Skip to: Consider the best fundraising platforms and channels  

Skip to: Explore fundraising strategy examples  

Understand benefits of an effective fundraising strategy 

There are myriad benefits to having a fundraising strategy in place, including improving efficiency, maintaining a reliable stream of income, motivating employees, and gaining a better understanding of your donor base.  

Improving fundraising efficiency 

Putting a fundraising strategy in place helps you identify the key areas where you should focus your efforts in order to achieve maximum effect. Small charities with limited resources can be just as effective as their larger counterparts by concentrating only on the fundraising tactics that suit their audiences, rather than trying to do everything at once.  

Research has shown, for example, that younger audiences prefer donating through mobile phones, while older demographics still prefer cash and Direct Debit. Being able to tailor your fundraising strategy directly to the audiences you want to reach allows you to be more efficient, no matter how limited your capacity or budget is.  

Maintaining a reliable stream of income 

Effective fundraising is vital for charities, allowing them to continue delivering services to the communities they serve even in times of crisis. Recent years have brought their own fundraising challenges for charities, from having to cancel fundraising events amid COVID-19 to putting financial strains on donors during the cost-of-living crisis.   

Rising inflation, soaring costs, and fears that supporters will be less able to donate money to charity have led to an increased risk of charity insolvencies in 2023, according to some forecasts. Creating a fundraising strategy helps charities to keep track of their fundraising activity, double down on what is working, and maintain a steady and reliable stream of income in times of economic uncertainty.  

Motivating employees 

A good fundraising strategy helps to motivate employees by giving them clear goals and the resources to be able to achieve them. The fundraising strategy should be achievable and realistic, with goals determined by previous fundraising data, such as the number of new donors recruited or the rate of churn (when people stop supporting a charity).    

A fundraising strategy helps your organisation to become goal-oriented, increases buy-in as your team collaborates together, and boosts morale as they monitor their progress. This is especially important when it comes to attracting and retaining new employees. More than two in five employees from Gen Z – who are expected to make up 27% of the workforce by 2025 – told a 2022 survey they would rather be at an organisation that gives them a sense of purpose than one that pays more.  

Understanding your donor base 

A key benefit of implementing a fundraising strategy is an increased understanding of your donor base. The donor experience is becoming one of the most important elements of marketing and fundraising. Many donors give to more than one charity, but charities must meet their donors halfway, making it convenient for them to donate whenever possible. The easier it is for them to give money, the more often they will do so.  

Building a fundraising strategy demands that charities get to know their donors in order to understand what will make it easier for them to give. As a result, charities gain a clearer picture of their audience and are able to make key decisions with them in mind in the future.   

Start your fundraising strategy with an audit 

In order to make sure your fundraising strategy is successful, you need to first understand your current fundraising position.  

For example, how many of your current donors are returning to donate to you on a regular basis? What is the average gift size? How many donors have lapsed in giving over the last 12 months? 

These are all important questions to ask when building your fundraising strategy. These questions will help you identify barriers to fundraising that need to be overcome and areas of success that you can replicate in the future. 

Below, we show you the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) you need to effectively measure your fundraising activity and where you can find the data you need. 

Which fundraising KPIs charities should measure 

Sector data also help charities find trends that they can capitalise on when building a new fundraising strategy. For example, if research shows that digital donations are rising, charities can ensure they think about the digital fundraising options they provide in their strategy.  

Learn the latest fundraising trends 

The world of fundraising changes all the time. In 2020, virtual fundraising events were all the rage, as all in-person fundraising was cancelled as a result of the pandemic. However, as restrictions were lifted, charities saw a decline in income through virtual events, while physical fundraising events returned.  

Keeping up to date with fundraising trends can determine where to focus your fundraising efforts. Below we highlight some of the most pertinent trends affecting the sector that can inform your fundraising strategy.   

Make the most of email  

The 2023 Donor Behaviour Insights report revealed the importance of social media in encouraging people to donate to the charities they support. Social media posts from family, friends, and colleagues were particularly motivating for donors, as were social media posts from charities themselves.  

The most important piece of advice for charities using social media for fundraising is to focus on where your donors – or your prospective donors – are. There are many channels to choose from, from old favourites like Facebook and Twitter to newer kids on the block TikTok and (the slightly more advanced, but ever-changing) Instagram.  

Each platform has its benefits and drawbacks. TikTok is an excellent channel for engaging younger donors (the vast majority of users are aged between 16 and 25), but creating videos can be time-consuming and it may be a while before you see results. Twitter is one of the few text-based platforms remaining and holds value for charities in sharing information online, but its recent takeover means there are questions around its future. And more than 50 million people in the UK are active on Facebook making it an excellent place to build a community.   

In short, social media is a valuable tool for fundraising, but it should always be aligned with your overall fundraising strategy. Consider the demographics you want to reach and the platforms they use, as well as the platforms used by your existing donor base.  

Crucially, try to choose only one or two platforms that work best for reaching them. It is better to consolidate your efforts to build deeper relationships with your donors on these than to generate limited and sporadic support on many.  

Prioritise supporter needs 

Whether you’re sending out thank you emails or posting a fundraising tweet, the most important thing to think about is who it’s aimed at. It is vital that charities put their audiences at the centre of their fundraising strategy. The easier it is for people to donate, and the more personalised the experience, the more funds you are likely to raise.  

At its most simple, personalisation is about respecting your donors as individuals and putting their needs first in your fundraising strategy. Think of your fundraising strategy as ripples in a pond – the donor is the pebble, determining what comes next. Consider all your audiences – long-standing advocates, lapsed regular donors, one-off givers – and think carefully about what might prevent them from donating and what will help them overcome those barriers.  

User personas can help you develop supporter journeys that are tailored to your audiences and their various needs. User personas are fictional representations of segments of your audience, defined by factors like age, gender, contact preferences, and much more.  

You can build user personas through a mix of quantitative data and qualitative research. Choose nicknames to represent your audience segments – it could be characters from your team’s favourite TV show or book or it could be entirely random. What they represent is far more important. 

For example, one user persona could be Pam, a 50-something woman from the South of England who donates to charity on an ad hoc basis and prefers to be contacted by post. Pam broadly represents the user needs of a section of your supporters. Her persona makes it easier for you to keep the demographic she represents in mind when creating your fundraising strategy to reach them. How will Pam be included?  

There are lots of persona templates online, including these from Miro and Hootsuite. However, it is important to note that user personas are only effective if they are accurate and relevant to your users.  

Start with the welcome journey 

Consider skill gaps 

When choosing a digital fundraising solution, it is also important that charities think about their current resources, including the digital capabilities of their fundraising teams. With the wealth of fundraising channels and platforms available, it is very easy to be over-ambitious. Fundraisers must think strategically about the technology they introduce to help.  

Start small and work to your strengths, always keeping your users in mind. Fundraising strategies are always evolving. You can always add more techniques to your fundraising strategy at a later date – focus on building the foundations first.  

Here are some of the skills gaps affecting fundraising, particularly online, as set out in the 2022 Charity Digital Skills report.