Fundraising Plan

5.1 Fundraising Plan
The plan should be created for any real 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that the student/group is interested in. The plan should be written for a senior member of the organization’s management team. Therefore, the plan should be a practical document (rather than a research paper) that uses theories learned throughout the course to inform the analysis undertaken. The plan should demonstrate the concepts and themes learned in this course. In addition, students are encouraged to explore BoardSource.org for additional resources. The plan should be comprehensive, covering at least one year. Students will be provided a grading rubric that will show how fundraising plans will be assessed.
As we will talk about throughout this course, fundraising plans look different and may take many forms. However, the following headings may be useful to students who have never written a fundraising plan:
Cover Page (title, time period of the plan, author, organization, any confidentiality restrictions)
Executive Summary (no more than one-page review of the main proposals in fundraising plan)
Table of Contents (include key sections and subsections)
Fundraising Audit (what information has been gathered or needs to be gathered to help the organization moving forward)
SWOT Analysis
Summary of Key Issues
Assumptions (if any)
Fundraising Objectives
Fundraising Strategies
Tactics
Budget (assumptions may be made)
Schedule with Timeline of Key Activities
Responsibilities (who should be in charge of what)
Evaluation Strategies
Appendices (may show information on sample donor profile, sample gift chart or donor period, or other information that is relevant to the fundraising plan)
Narrative discussion of Ethics and Stewardship (as related to the plan)
Narrative overview of the process and the project (two-page overview describing how the plan progressed, what was learned, sources that were used, sources you needed but did not have, financial information gathered from Guidestar, annual reports, etc., what should be done differently in the future, what was needed that you didn’t have, what was learned in the process, etc.)
Evaluation Criteria
This assignment will be graded on the following components:
organization selection and inclusion of major components,
clarity,
creativity,
thoroughness of background research analysis, and
design, and professionalism.

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