5 Questions You Should Ask During Your Annual Fundraising Planning

As we wrap up the year, it’s the perfect time to reflect and prepare for a successful 2025. In this episode, I share five key questions to guide your annual fundraising planning. These aren’t just surface-level prompts—they’re designed to help you align your goals, strategies, and systems to ensure your nonprofit thrives in the year ahead. Whether you’re a seasoned leader or just starting out, these questions will challenge you to think deeply about how you approach fundraising and set your organization up for long-term impact.

What You’ll Learn:

• The five key questions that will transform your fundraising plan.
• How to ensure your fundraising strategies align with your true costs and goals.
• Why robust systems and donor stewardship are critical for sustainable growth.

Key Takeaways

1. Fundraising should reflect the true cost of your mission, not just immediate needs.
2. Tailored strategies and clear systems drive greater efficiency and impact.
3. Prioritizing donor stewardship fosters long-term relationships and stability.

Step-by-Step Process to Plan Your Fundraising:

1. Assess Your Budget: Ensure your fundraising goals cover the full cost of staff, programs, and operations.
2. Evaluate Your Strategies: Focus on high-ROI approaches tailored to your donor base and organizational capacity.
3. Understand Your Donors: Build campaigns that resonate by identifying donor motivations and preferences.
4. Strengthen Your Systems: Implement tools and processes for efficient, sustainable fundraising.
5. Commit to Stewardship: Allocate resources to nurture donor relationships and reduce attrition.

Resources Mentioned:

• Last Week’s Episode on Annual Work Planning: Learn how to create a comprehensive work plan for the year.
• Guide to Effective Donor Stewardship: Practical tips for building lasting donor relationships.

Want to work together?

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Join The Collective, a community of practice for nonprofit leaders who want to build and strengthen the organizational pillars that drive growth!

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