Strategic Fund Development: Building Profitable Relationships That Last, Third Edition

Defining the Process and Benefits for Your Organization

Like institutional strategic planning, good fund development planning is a process that builds organization-wide understanding of and ownership for—in this case—philanthropy and fund development. Like the process of institutional planning, the best fund development planning process generates learning and change, and produces alignment and shared accountability. Just like institutional strategic planning, good development planning also produces results (e.g., a written plan).

Effective fund development planning depends on the same principles and process as institutional strategic planning. In fact, reread Chapter 6 and just substitute “fund development planning” for “organizational strategic planning.”

No matter what kind of planning, both process and results (e.g., the written plan) are important.

In summary, the most effective fund development planning process accomplishes the following:

• Engages key stakeholders in order to gather quality information, build understanding, and enhance ownership.
• Assesses the return on investment—productivity and effectiveness—of fund development activities.
• Assesses the internal and external environments, responds to the challenges, and capitalizes on the opportunities.
• Ensures that volunteers (board members and other fund development volunteers) understand the most critical principles of philanthropy and fund development.
• Assures volunteer acceptance of the body of knowledge and best practices ...