Mar 8, 2022
I was having conversations with two prospects, and I always ask: “How much more money do you need? How much would they want to grow?”
Organization A - with confidence - aimed to grow by 5x. Organization B, after some hesitation, answered 5 to 7%.
The latter surprised me. People usually come to me because they want growth by millions so they can invest fully in all three areas of their organization; programs, admin/overhead, and fundraising.
So I asked, “What if you had 20% more? Or 50% more?”
Organization B said, “Of course, we’d use it. But we can’t even fathom how to get there,” and proceeded to list the things keeping their plate full.
I tell you - one organization will grow faster than the other.
One sees that what they’re doing isn’t working and is planning for growth.
The other needs help breaking out of the scarcity mindset that has plagued the nonprofit sector for too long.
This is where a financing plan comes into play. It makes a 2X, 5X, or even 10X growth plan doable.
Is your team creating a Financing Plan every year? Or just a Fundraising Plan? Only one will fully fund your entire mission.
Tune in to learn more 🎬 watch the full episode of The Business Behind Fundraising — Does Your Financing Plan Fully Finance Your Mission with Sherry Quam Taylor.
What You Will Discover:
✔️ Determine your target number. Your financing plan should clearly articulate your financial need and reflect your big vision. Write that number, state your growth initiatives, and don’t let your fear hinder you from fulfilling your mission.
✔️ Align your hours with dollars. Your fundraising team may be stuck on the spin cycle - doing the same events every year, getting little to no revenue. These activities (like events) may be sponsored, but your team is putting paid time into organizing them. Passing hours are like dollars floating away.
✔️ Fundraising is education. Communication is the key to clarity. It’s our responsibility to be detailed in expressing who we are, what we need, and what our initiatives are about to our donors.
✔️ Use your financing plan like a compass. Is your fundraising team going on autopilot? If the destination becomes murky, setting up a financing plan shifts you into high-level fundraising activities.
✔️ Inspiring investment-level donors to fund your initiative is actually quite practical. But it’s a heavy responsibility to carry alone. Your staff should step in and be able to perfectly communicate your true financial need and then ask for that need.
✔️Get on a path to steady revenue. Your financing plan helps pinpoint the things that sabotage time and block our full money-making potential. Since it represents the true need of our organization, it drives us in the right direction to steady revenue. No more landing in the red.