Step 6 (continued). Creating your Plan - The Basics

1. Write out a statement of purpose for the fundraising plan that ties your plan to your organization's mission and priorities that you established in Step 1. For example:

   The 2005 Fundraising Plan for Friends of the Watershed enables all of us to gather the resources to meet our mission to protect and enhance the health and heritage of our watershed.

   You should also create a case statement for your organization. A case statement outlines the mission and history of your organization. It also explains why you are seeking funds and how you plan to use the money. This document is critical to your organization's fundraising success and should be developed jointly by staff and board.

   Download "How to Write a Great Case Statement" (PDF)
   (About PDFs, 3 pg, 19K)

2. Give a brief description of funding history and lessons learned that you determined in Step 2. Note your strengths, weaknesses, threats, and opportunities, as well as the strategies you plan to employ to capitalize on your strengths and minimize your weaknesses.
   
   
3. Create a copy of the budget and fundraising goals you developed in Step 3 to include you in your plan. Make sure to specify exactly how much you need to raise.

   Examples of fundraising goals are:

   • Introduce an annual major gifts program for Friends of the Watershed with a first year goal of $50,000.
     
     
   • Steadily increase revenue from membership and major gifts to help reduce Friends of the Watershed dependence on public funding sources.
     
     
   • Over the next two years, position Friends of the Watershed for a capital campaign to expand its endowment. In the coming year, Friends of the Watershed will increase its income overall budget by roughly 22% by continuing to expand its base of foundation supporters, building a major donor program, exploring workplace funding, and expanding its efforts in all other fundraising areas.
     
     
4. In Step 5, you selected the sources of funding that best matched your organization's goals. Taking into consideration your fundraising environment, selected sources, estimated returns, and sustainability of your options (from Step 4), write down a description of each option, including the following:
   
   
   • A short description of why you picked that option and how it fits your goals
     
     
   • Specified instructions, including a timeline, on how to carry it out and who will be responsible
     
     
   • Detailed description of how you plan to handle the upfront costs (it might be helpful to create a separate budget for each option)
     
     
   • Names of who will begin carrying out the project and who will hold the group accountable for the next steps
     
     
   • A description of how these funds can be leveraged to receive additional funding (if applicable)
     
     

You can visually tie your fundraising goals to your organization's activities, as shown in the figure below.