Fundraising PLAYBOOK: How Serena raised 37% Budget in December alone (and that’s not the best part)
What does it take to raise $250K from individual donors during the last 30 days of the year?
To answer that, we have to ask my LET’S GROW student Serena, who raised 56% of her $670K budget in December 2019 alone.
Wow! One quarter into her fiscal year and she was already more than halfway to her budget.
In fact, her budget, and her approach to it, are a big part of the secret to her success. In this post, you’ll learn:
Exactly what Serena did to grow her fundraising
The benefits of a growth mindset
What’s wrong with your current budget
Why you need an income plan
How to get the most out of your time
How to apply Serena’s success to your own organization
Meet Serena
Serena is the founder of a nonprofit that serves women who have been rescued from trafficking and are rebuilding their lives. Lest you think that she has some kind of special advantages that you don’t, you should know that:
Serena founded her organization with no major-gifts fundraising experience to speak of.
She launched it out of the church she attended - so everyone initially thought the church fully funded it. But, truthfully, it covers less than 2% of the annual need.
The program is high-touch and super-deep - so people always question why she serves a very small number of participants.
Because of the nature of her mission, there were many in the neighborhood and community who didn’t want her there.
As you can see, the secret to Serena’s success was not that she was already a fundraising expert, or had a program everyone wanted to give to, or significant institutional funding.
Still, in December of 2019 alone:
She raised over $250K of mid- and major-level gifts from returning and new donors
Giving comprised of MOSTLY 4-figure and 5-figure donations
$100K of funds were raised to start a new program
56% of her annual budgeted need, with the year only 33% over
In December of 2018, she’d raised $100,000.
2019 was a 2.5X increase.
So, how’d she do it?
She never got caught up in the spin-cycle of small gifts
She used her budget to prioritize her time on her top 30 major gifts every year
She knows her numbers and plans - this leads to investment-level conversations and gifts
She got really confident asking for what her organization truly needs, using the tools we created together in my LET’S GROW Fundraising Accelerator.
So, what did it take? Getting super clear on how to create a budget every year that leads to growth, what she needs to spend her time on every single week, and the confidence to ask for what her organization needs.
It’s All About Planning
Whenever I check-in with Serena, it never fails. She always reports on another large gift she’s secured and makes me laugh when she says ‘I just do what you tell me to do.’
I spend my time teaching nonprofit leaders who have zero fundraising background how to ask for large sums of money in a way that feels good and involves less dread.
The key to that how to is certainly in ‘the ask’, but just as important is the planning for ‘the ask’. Serena is proof of that because she’s tripled her organization’s revenue in the last few years doing this exact approach.
Here’s what we did:
Step 1: Budget
Serena uses her budget as a planning tool to grow all three areas of her nonprofit - Programs, Admin, and Fundraising. When the expense budget is created every year, it’s created in a growth mindset. What I mean is it’s not solely a number that reflects the hope that she’ll raise a bit more than last year. It’s set to really reflect what she needs to grow. I call it cautiously aggressive. Here are the three core questions we ask every year:
[PROGRAM] What should I put in the budget that will propel the programs to the next level?
[ADMIN] What infrastructure do I need to invest in to ensure my ops can sustain my program growth?
[FUNDRAISING] What should I SPEND money on that then helps me RAISE more money to accomplish #1 & #2?
Step 2: Income Plan
Then she creates an equally robust Income Plan in her budget. You can’t spend all your time planning every single expense without planning every single way you’re going to bring it in. The income plan is:
A.) Designed per donor segment
B.) Balanced to the expense need and inclusive of a reserve
C.) And most importantly, broken down per month
Step 3: Time Prioritizing
Finally, Serena prioritizes and plans her time focused on the three lines of that Income Plan that account for 75-80% of her Goal Income.
These three steps work every time.
She’s never NOT hit her goal.
Growing Your Growth Mindset
Is your approach to your annual budget keeping you from raising funds?
If you’ve used the phrase “We really want to grow” followed by “but we want to spend as much money as possible on programs this year…” here’s why that doesn’t add up:
When you plan to invest money in your Admin/Ops and Fundraising then you have more money for programs. So run this calculation for me:
If you want to grow your programs, I want you to allocate anywhere from 10% - 20% of your expenses toward fundraising. Seriously. Don’t buy into the fear of the percentages - allocate expenses in your budget that will lead to you raising more money that you can then spend on programs.
A growth mindset asks, “What do I need to do the things that will propel growth and take us to the next level?”
A scarcity mindset asks, “How much of this will I be able to do, based reactively on whatever money comes in?”
You can’t express your organization’s true needs with a scarcity mindset, and if you create your budget based on scarcity, you’ll never grow.
Be Brave, Invest Money
I see so many organizations stuck and not growing because they’re afraid to spend money on Admin and Fundraising. Your mission won’t be successful without it. So, bravely put it in the budget and create a plan to propel your organization forward.
Are you unconsciously hesitating to invest in things that would allow you to grow your organization?
I’m not suggesting any organization haphazardly turn their budget into a wish list of frivolous expenses. What I’m saying is the risk to grow costs money.
So often I watch organizations avoid spending money on things that would actually help them run better and secure more funds. These hesitations prevent growth.
Are you planning to invest in things like:
- CRM
- a (paid) bookkeeper who can truly help you understand your numbers
- online tech for an easy giving experience
- mission-focused photography from a professional
- graphic design services to create stronger communication templates that compete
- major-gifts training for a founder who has never needed to know how ‘to ask’ (until now!)
Sure, sometimes volunteers can do these things, but not for the long-haul, and not for everything.
That old saying about having to spend money to make money is not just for business, it’s true in the nonprofit sector as well.
Every single time my clients extend the bravery to invest in themselves and their organizations, they grow.
Start With Your Expenses
How do you know what to budget for the year?
If your answer is: “Look what we did last year, and add an incremental increase,” you’re certainly not alone.
But you’re definitely not thinking big enough.
Serena has exceeded her annual goals every year for the last three years by creating a budget that feels like a stretch.
I know - it feels counter-intuitive. Here’s why it’s a good idea:
A donor wants to invest in a forward-moving mission – not one that hopes to just squeak by with just a slightly better impact than they had last year.
When you do this it:
Inspires donors to give generously
Allows you the opportunity to celebrate reaching the goal with them
Builds your donors’ confidence that you have a plan and are executing it with great passion and precision.
Set your budget goals based on what it will actually take to truly do what you’re setting out to accomplish. That might mean you need money for a new staff member, or to finally take a salary yourself. It might mean you need fundraising training for your board, or software for your donor data. This isn’t about being extravagant, it’s about addressing what you truly need.
Next, Make an Income Plan
Once you’ve determined your goal/actual need, to hit it, you must commit to spending just as much time planning how you will raise to meet that need month-by-month.
I don’t mean to sound harsh, but the truth is that most nonprofits spend tons of time figuring out every little penny they’ll spend and don’t take the time to figure out every single dollar they’ll raise. Without an income plan, you’ll never feel like enough is coming in and you’ll allocate time and resources to the activities that don’t bring in the size donations you need.
Ask yourself:
What are my top 30 sources of income?
How much of my revenue comes from those top 30 sources?
What are my lowest sources of income?
The answers to these questions will help you plan where to ask, what to ask for, and which activities are worth your time (more on that in a bit).
As you look at your numbers, consider this advice: Your top 30 sources should make up 75% of your income. Make your budget and income plan to support that metric.
What a Reserve Can Do for You
If you’re thinking “I could never take a full salary because our giving is always down,” ask yourself these questions:
Does this dip in giving happen every year at the same time?
Did you stop paying yourself a full salary at some point last year too?
Would this have been avoided with a solid reserve in place?
If you answered yes to these, you need an income plan, but you also need to plan for and raise toward a reserve fund.
Now, before you get nervous and make some statement about nonprofits sitting on a sum of cash, let’s consider this:
A reserve fund helps you weather cash flow issues and world events without impacting your programs or operations
You can invest in your growth with confidence, knowing you have what you need
You can move through the year in a position of strength. Donors want to fund strong, forward-propelling organizations.
Prioritize Your Time
Once you’ve established what you need to raise, and how you need to raise it, it’s time to make some firm decisions about your time and then take action.
(Spoiler Alert: There’s no magic formula. It’s discipline.)
You already know that your top 30 income sources should result in 75% of your income. That’s where the majority of your time should go. Don’t get caught up in quick-fix fundraising ideas or the small gift spin-cycle. Could you theoretically raise some money doing these activities? Sure, but not enough, and every minute you spend on low-result activities is a minute you can’t give to higher-result activities.
Look at the hours in your week, and start getting territorial about your time. A large chunk of it should be spent cultivating and asking your top 30 to make their best gifts. Identify where your schedule gets off track, what can be delegated, and what you can skip entirely. Your time is your organization’s greatest resource.
The Best Result of All
Believe it or not, but raising $250K in a month wasn’t the best result of Serena’s new approach to fundraising.
That came in January. Because Serena raised so much in December, guess what she could do next?
Breathe.
She’d carried the funding stress every day for so long that it had really gotten to her. You know the pressure you feel to fund life-changing work when people’s lives depend on your ability to raise funds.
After that successful December, Serena didn’t vacation or take days off.
She got back to the root of it all. She got back to the mission. She had the time to meet with a woman in the program who had been traumatized and was really struggling and couldn’t see the way ahead.
Instead of being distracted by her fundraising responsibilities, Serena was fully present. Relaxed and refocused, ready to pour into this woman who deserved a second chance.
Serena got perspective and got back to why she started her #nonprofit in the first place.
Successful Fundraising Means More Mission
So, is it possible for you to create a plan and budget to raise enough money each year that you could get back to your mission too?
Yes, it is! With a budget that shows your true need, an income plan, and a schedule that prioritizes your highest-value activities, you’ll be well on your way.
P.S. Whenever you’re ready, here are 3 ways I can help you grow your nonprofit revenue:
1. Follow me on LinkedIn for content and resources first
I give away trade secrets and insider info every week - the same lessons I teach my clients about what they can do to start attracting larger dollars and generate more unrestricted money for your nonprofit.
2. Read my WHITEPAPER to see if your overall approach to financing your mission every year might be keeping you from growing.
Here you’ll learn THE BIG FUNDRAISING SECRET that keeps organizations from having the funds to achieve what’s in their strategic plans. Click here to get it.
3. Work with me to reimagine your overall approach to revenue generation
If you'd like to add 7+ figures of charitable revenue to your nonprofit, just send me an email at Sherry@QuamTaylor.com with the subject line “grow.” Tell me a little about your nonprofit and what you need to raise this year. I’ll get you the details! 🎯
