Effective Fundraising

4The Annual Fund

A CRITICAL COMPONENT of most social sector organization's development efforts is the annual fund. For many organizations like churches or public-interest-issue groups, it may be their primary source of funds and as such, a matter of major board and CEO focus. Interruptions in its performance can have catastrophic impact on the organization's activities and even survival. At the other extreme lie some hospitals where the annual fund is a useful supplement to the organization's resources, but the hospital's operations are not crippled if there is a shortfall from the budgeted amount of funds to be raised by the annual fund.

Before the start of the year, a revenue target is established for the annual fund together with the estimated sources of these funds (friends, grateful patients, alumni foundations, etc.). Coming up with this number is very much an art. It necessarily contains many assumptions and aspirations that are quite rough in nature. Some of the key inputs to this process include the following.

Last Year's Target and Results

This is clearly the starting point. Did our results diverge significantly from the budget last year and if so, what are the most likely reasons? Had we planned too ambitious a jump from the prior year? Were there unexpected economic headwinds? Were there special factors impacting the institution such as a major scandal or the unexpected resignation of a key officer such as the CEO? Was there unanticipated turmoil in the development ...