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

Your Fund Development Planning Process

It’s up to you. Design a process that accomplishes the benefits listed earlier in this chapter. Your process must also produce a written plan. Use the previous chapters in this book as a resource. Keep in mind: In some way, your planning process and the resulting plan tackle the items in Appendix 9-A on this book’s website, “Creating the Most Effective Fund Development Program for Your Organization.”

Just like strategic planning, fund development planning is a back-and-forth process. Back and forth between staff and board. Back and forth between the fund development committee and the board of directors. Keep the following in mind as you execute the planning process for fund development:

• The fund development plan belongs to the organization. This is an organization-wide strategic plan and is adopted by the board. From this plan, staff develop operational plans for specific activities. These operational plans do not require the approval (or even the review) of the board. The operational plans belong to the development operation, and to specific fund development task forces that take on particular activities.
• Be very careful about drafting anything. Talk first. Engage people in conversation. Capture some of their perspective and concerns first. Only then do you draft elements of a very preliminary plan. Forget the theory of drafting for review. It doesn’t build ownership or understanding. And you might step on some pretty big toes because you ...