This is Mistake #51 from my new #1 Best Seller on Amazon’s Nonprofit Fundraising List, 101 Biggest Mistakes Nonprofits Make And How You Can Avoid Them. I hope it helps improve your fundraising results!
This weekend I received an email from a nonprofit asking if I could help them decide on an acceptable year-over-year growth goal. Was 15% right? Maybe 20%? The development team had been asked to decide on a rate of growth that they would commit to on an annual basis.
My guidance to this organization was that setting an arbitrary goal like this is a really bad idea. Instead, I recommended setting goals based on the data available to you.
Review the status and health of each revenue stream. What do you know about the donors in each area, and whether they will maintain, increase, or reduce their giving in the coming year? What will you need to change to hit your goals in each different area? Consider what has changed in the economy over the past 12 months, and how donor giving behavior has changed — both in your organization and nationally. Assess what your expense budget is for all fundraising, stewardship, travel, and associated activities. Has it increased year-over-year? Decreased? All of those elements should be factored into your organization’s development planning process and contribute to the assumptions you use to get to a goal for the year.