Moving from Fundraising to Financing

Moving From Fundraising to Financing

Forbes Funds
Fundraising Assessment

Please complete all of the fields, as applicable to your organization, in the assessment below (you can type directly into the gray boxes, or just handwrite your responses). You may need to consult with other people in your organization to gather the necessary information. Fill out the answers to the best of your ability, taking only a maximum of 2 hours to complete it. It is fine to leave items blank if you don’t have an answer.

Please bring this completed assessment to the workshop onNovember 5th.

General Info

Nonprofit Name

What are the biggest fundraising challenges facing your nonprofit? What do you think are the 1-3 things holding you back from bringing more money in the door?
In what area(s) are you most successful at bringing money in the door?

Strategy

Do you have a current strategic plan?
Briefly list the main goals of your strategic plan
How much does your strategic plan guide the work of your organization?
If you don’t currently have a strategic plan, what are the 3-5 broad things you would like to accomplish as an organization in the next 3 years in order to get further towards your vision?
How involved was your board in creating the strategic plan? And how active are they in monitoring its execution?
Do you currently have a theory of change or logic model for your overall organization? [A theory of change articulates who your target population is, what outcomes you hope to achieve for them and what activities you undertake as an organization]?
If yes, please include it here, or bring it as a separate document to the workshop.

Mission, Vision

What is your current mission statement?
Does your mission articulate your target population, and your organization’s main activities?
Is it compelling, inspiring and memorable?
What is your current vision statement?
Does your vision statement articulate how the world will (eventually) be different because of the work your nonprofit does?
Is your vision statement compelling, inspiring and memorable?

Program Delivery and Impact

Do you currently evaluate the results of your programs or services? If so, briefly describe the results you have found.
Please list all of the main programs or services your organization currently operates.
Please plot each of these main programs/services into one of the four boxes in the Program Analysis Matrix below. For each program/service ask first how well the program contributes to your overall mission (social impact), whether it is a low contribution or high contribution. Then, ask whether that program is able to attract enough revenue to not only pay for all of its own costs, but also throw off additional revenue to other aspects of your organization (positive financial returns), or whether the program cannot even attract enough revenue to cover its costs (negative financial return). It’s not an exact science, just do the best you can:

High Financial Returns / Sustaining
/ Beneficial
Low Financial Returns / Detrimental
/ Worthwhile
Low Social Impact / High Social Impact

Board Staff

How many board members do you currently have?
How active are they inbringing money in the door?

What is your ballpark estimate of how much money the board as a whole brought in (either as personal contributions or contributions they helped to secure) as a group during the most recently completed fiscal year?
What percent of your total annual budget is that?
Does each board member have a give/get (“give” a certain $ amount, and/or “get” or fundraise for the remaining $ amount) requirement? If so what is the requirement?
Does the board have an overall fundraising goal as a group, and if so what is it?
Do you currently have a board fundraising committee that is focused on bringing money in the door? And if yes, how effective are they?
Does your board have by-laws or a responsibilities document that describes their responsibilities as a board member, including their fundraising responsibilities?
How many of your staff members play a role in bringing money in the door (including donor database manager, thank you note generator, government grant writer, prospect researcher, earned income business manager, and anyone that works with donors/prospects in any way)?
Are all of your money-raising responsibilities overseen by one person, or do you split different money functions among different departments?
What do you think are the weaknesses in how you currently staff your money raising function? What would you like to change in terms of staff structure, skills and expertise of current staff members, number of staff, etc.?

Marketing & Communications

Do you currently have a marketing and communications strategy for the organization?
If yes, how much does it guide the staff’s day-to-day work?
Why do you think people should give money to your organization?
In 3-4 sentences summarize the “case” you make for people to give to your nonprofit.

Revenue Lines

What is your total operating budget for the current fiscal year?
Do you anticipate meeting that budget? Why or why not?
What percent (%) of your total annual revenue comes from each category below (make your best guess). Enter N/A if a revenue line does not apply to your nonprofit:

Foundations
Corporations
Individuals
Events
Government (city, state, federal)
Earned income/Fee-for-service
Other (please explain)

If you had to guess (or better yet, if you have the data) what percent of donors and entities renew their gift to you every year? If you want to split your renewal rates by foundation, corporate, individual, etc. that’s fine too. Whatever is easiest.
In order to meet the strategic goals you outlined above in the “Strategy” section of this assessment, what dollar amount do you need your annual budget to grow to?
Where do you think there is room for growth in revenue in your nonprofit?

Calculating the Cost of Fundraising

Select a single fundraising activity that you conduct, perhaps an annual event or a direct mail fundraising campaign. This should be a distinct activity whose goal is to raise money. Use this distinct activity to fill out the following questions.

Name of the event/activity:
Date(s) of the activity:

How much revenue did this event or activity gross? In other words, without factoring in any expenses at all, how much money did this activity bring in the door?
Complete Table #1 below to list and then sum all of the direct costs of the event/activity. (For an event, this would be things like: venue rental, decorations, entertainment, food, invitations. For a direct mail campaign this would be things like: postage, design, paper, list purchase, etc.)

Table #1 Direct Costs

Item / Cost
Total Direct Costs

Using Table #2 below, calculate the indirect costs (the financial value of staff and board time) of the event/activity.
Note: You may disagree with this approach, but please complete the table to the best of your ability. There will be plenty of time in the workshop to raise your concerns about this approach.
To do this,

First list each staff member who worked on the activity or event (to keep salary information confidential here, I have filled this in as “Position #1”, “Position #2”, etc. as opposed to asking you to include staff member names).
Then for each staff position, calculate the number of hours (your best guess) they spent working on and attending the activity/event.
Then calculate the value of one hour of each staff member’s time by taking the total of that staff person’s annual salary and benefits and dividing by 2,080 (the number of work hours in a full year of 40-hour work weeks).
Then list each board member that worked on the activity or event and the number of hours (your best guess) each member spent working on and attending the activity/event. You will calculate one hour of board time at $23.07, which is the Independent Sector’s annual calculation for the value of one hour of volunteer time.
Now multiply column 2 (# of Hours They Worked/Attended the Activity)by column 3 ($ Value of 1 Hour of Their Time) to get the Total $ Value of each staff and board member’s time spent on the activity/event.
Finally, sum all of column 4 (Total $ Value of Their Time Spent on This Activity) to get the Total Indirect Costs of your event/activity.

Table #2 Indirect Costs

Position / # of Hours They Worked and/or Attended Activity / $ Value of 1 Hour of Their Time(for a staff member it is their annual salary + benefits / 2,080) / Total $ Value of Their Time Spent on This Activity(multiply column 2 by column 3)
Staff Members:
Position #1
Position #2
Position #3
Position #4
Total $ Value of Staff Time
Board Members:
$23.07
$23.07
$23.07
$23.07
$23.07
$23.07
Total $ Value of Board Time
Total Indirect Costs
($ Value of Staff Time + Board Time)

We will use your Total Direct Costsand Total Indirect Costs calculations in the workshop to determine the cost of fundraising for your nonprofit in this event/activity.

Thanks for your time, and I look forward to meeting you on November 5th!

Don’t forget to bring with you to the workshop:

This completed fundraising assessment

Your nonprofit’s current year revenue and expense budget

Your nonprofit’s current strategic plan, if you have one

At least 2-4 people from your nonprofit (including a board member or two)

A laptop computer (optional) if you would rather not handwrite during the workshop