Fundraising for Social Change, 8th Edition

chapter SIXFinancial Needs and Fundraising Strategies

Organizations have three financial needs: the money they need to operate every year, not surprisingly called annual needs; the money they need to buy or improve their building or purchase or upgrade equipment needed to do their work, called capital needs; and a permanent income stream to ensure financial stability and assist long‐term planning, the source of which is an endowment or a reserve fund or sometimes both.

ANNUAL NEEDS

Most organizations spend most of their time raising money for the program needs of the current year. This kind of fundraising is often referred to as the “annual fund” or the “annual drive” or, to cover all tracks, the “annual fund drive.” Raising money for the annual fund involves several strategies, such as online fundraising, direct mail, special events, phoning, and personal visits, all of which are covered in Part Three. The purposes of annual fund strategies are to acquire new donors and to encourage current donors to give again and, if possible, to give bigger gifts.

Because the overall goal of fundraising is to build a base of donors who give you money every year, it is helpful to analyze how people become donors to an organization and how, ideally, they increase their loyalty to the nonprofit and express that increased loyalty with a steady increase in giving, as they are able. Organizations working for social change (ending violence against women, dismantling white supremacy, creating ...