Fundraising PLAYBOOK: How Molly secured 100% of her nonprofit’s funding by month 6 of her fiscal year (and was volunteer-run 2 ½ years ago)
100% Funded by Month 6: Molly’s Success Story
Two and a half years ago, Molly’s organization was 100% volunteer-run. Today, she has paid staff and raises double what she used to. In fact, this year, Molly raised 100% of her budget by the sixth month of her fiscal year.
Can you imagine what meeting your fundraising goals with six months to spare feels like?
“I was going to update you when we meet next week, but we are officially fully funded for the year!” - Molly
Molly is awesome and embraces the discipline that comes with fundraising, but I promise, she didn’t do this by magic. She didn’t have decades of fundraising experience, or a ton of generous millionaire friends, either. Instead, she completed my 90-Day LET’S GROW Fundraising Accelerator, where she learned how to do three important things that completely transformed her organization and her fundraising.
What are those three things?
Molly learned where to use volunteers and where she needed to pay a professional
She created a budget that communicates her organizations’ true needs and plans for revenue
She prioritized her fundraising time on the activities that raise the most money
See, I told you it wasn’t magic. Moreover, Molly’s success didn’t come from a gala, government funds, or project-based restricted funds or grants. It came from deciding to push into things that felt risky but were actually good business decisions.
I spend my time teaching nonprofit leaders who have zero fundraising background how to ask individuals 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 the planning and budgeting to be fully funded are just as important.
So let’s take a deeper look at the steps Molly took to raise 100% of her budgeted need six months into her fiscal year.
Step 1: Not Every Job is a Volunteer Job
“We’re 100% volunteer-run!”
This may not be the good news you think it is. I know that not having staff is a badge of honor in the nonprofit sector, but I hope we can move away from that attitude. It’s keeping organizations from growing and becoming fully funded.
It’s not that volunteers aren’t valuable. They absolutely are! It’s just that eventually most roles outgrow the duties and reasonable time commitment of a volunteer position. That caps your growth.
Volunteers give their time and expertise out of the goodness of their hearts and their belief in your mission. But that means that you can’t expect the same amount of commitment and priority that you could ask from a professional. Eventually, you’re going to need a professional for some roles. Look, I understand. You started with what you had, and you’d never have gotten to where you are without volunteers. It’s just that some volunteers should play very specific roles for a certain length of time. If you’re too dependent on them for too long, you’ll hit a ceiling and struggle to secure the funding you need to grow. Learn more about when to transition from a volunteer to a paid professional my checklist, here.
When she started, Molly’s organization was 100% volunteer-run. To really grow her organization, she needed staff. Consequently, she also needed more money. But when you transition to paid professionals, you can ask a lot more and do a lot more, which translates into raising more, too.
Action Tips:
Actively move to a paid staff model. Each year, you must review the current volunteer roles and modify them to support your growth initiatives.
Embrace the growing pains when volunteer founders, volunteer bookkeepers, or volunteer program managers turn into paid staff! Because when you spend money you raise more money.
Step 2: Budget for Your True Need
I love helping nonprofits create their budgets. LOVE IT.
What’s funny is that I wasn’t a person who loved data and numbers until I entered the world of nonprofit years ago. Much to my surprise I now live, eat, and breathe numbers every day.
When clients start my 90-day Fundraising Accelerator they are often surprised to hear we’re starting with the budget.
Why is this?
They are your guide - your compass - your direction every month, every quarter, and all year long.
If you don’t have a robust month to month expense and income budget in place, 9 times out of 10 you aren’t growing at the rate you could be. In essence, you’re leaving money on the table.
Your budget helps you (might say forces you) to spend the right amount of time, and the right amount of resources, so you can bring in the right amount of money.
So, if you want to hire staff, expand your programs, or get real about creating a sustainable organization, you’ve got to budget for it.
It’s that simple. Only then can you raise to that number.
My students regularly exceed their annual goals every year by creating a budget that feels like a stretch.
I know - it feels counterintuitive. 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.
If setting your expenses to include growth seems overly optimistic, don’t worry. There’s a practical counterpart on the income side of the budget. To hit your fundraising goal, you must commit to spending just as much time planning how you will raise to meet that need. Make your plan month- by- month, with up to 75% of your revenue coming in from your Top 30 sources.
Molly adapted to a growth mindset and started using what I call a “cautiously aggressive” approach to budgeting. She came to her numbers based on what she really needed to grow.
This seems simple, right? But the mistake people make is not budgeting for the staff you need that might be currently managed with volunteers.
The only way to move into a paid staff model is to budget for it. Then and only then can you truly create a fundraising plan to meet that paid staff model.
So, if you want to grow, there will be years when you won’t invest as much back into your programs. And that’s okay! 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.
As Molly found, this kind of approach requires a growth mindset.
A GROWTH MINDSET asks:
What infrastructure do I need to invest in this year (staff) to help me grow programs in the future?
What should I spend money on that then helps me raise more money?(Oftentimes, staff!)
A SCARCITY MINDSET asks yourself:
I wonder how much we can accomplish based reactively on what money we receive and what volunteers will do?
I see so many organizations stuck and not growing because they’re afraid to spend money on staff. Your nonprofit will hit a ceiling without staff. So, bravely put it in the budget and create a plan to staff in a way that propels your organization forward.
Your budget is your growth plan for the year - don’t limit your growth by creating a scarcity budget.
Action Tips:
Here are the three core questions to 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 3: Spend Your Time Where You Bring in the Most Money
There are a lot of possible fundraising activities you could do, but not all of them will bring in significant revenue. If you want to raise the most money to fund your mission, give your time to the activities that really deliver.
As I advise all my students, Molly shifted her focus to finding, cultivating, and soliciting her Top 30 donors, which account for 75% of her annual revenue. This is what funds the staff positions at her organization, among other things. Molly puts her attention on individuals, not foundations or events.
I teach my students this strategy because it works. It works every time. But for many, it feels scary.
Here’s what my students have done to make this transition successfully:
They plan.
Your Top 30 donors should make up 50-75% of your revenue. Every year, they plan their expense and income budget in a way to support this metric.
They prioritize.
Because these Top 30 donors should result in 75% of your income, that is what they prioritize the majority of their time on. They don’t get caught up in the quick-fix fundraising ideas.
They ask.
They’ve learned how to confidently lead their donors to solicitations where they regularly receive their donor’s best gifts, every year.
When you’re an expert at your mission, but haven’t ever been trained on how to actually lead an individual to their best gift, you worry about coming across salesy and confrontational. So, it’s easy to dread the simple thought of “making an ask.”
So, if you are making asks, let’s make sure:
You’re patting yourself on the back first and foremost
50-75% of your revenue is coming from your top 30 individuals
You’re confident you’re getting those donors’ best gif
But, if you don’t have a strategy or tools in hand that make this easy:
Donors will never understand what your mission NEEDS (and therefore won’t give larger gifts)
You’re leaving money on the table
You’re settling for small giftsIt’ll be hard to grow your unrestricted funding and reserve
You won’t get the donations from people who want to give to you, especially right now
By the way, the idea that donors won’t fund staff is untrue. If you’ve faced that, you’re likely not presenting the need in the correct way.
Fundraising This Way is a Relief
What would happen if you raised 100% of your budget half-way through the year?
The reason you got into nonprofit work might become clearer again.
Here’s what I mean:
When I had my coaching call with Molly in June, just a few days after she let me know she’d reached 100% of her funding in 2020, she was celebratory, but still laser-focused. I knew there was more to the story.
You see, the weight had released.
She carries the funding stress every day. You know the pressure you feel to fund life-changing work, when people’s lives depend on your ability to raise funds? That’s stressful.
Instead of living in this stress, Molly’s spending the rest of 2020 doing something different. She and her board get to dream about the future, and look further ahead.
When you don’t have a pipeline of large donors or the knowledge how to lead them to ‘a yes’, you can’t think very far ahead. You are always in reactive mode.
You know what’s crazy?
Having money in the bank sometimes gives you more clarity than having a strategic plan. There, I said it. Both help you move into the future, but money in the bank gives you the confidence to think bigger, take risks, and lean into opportunities that lead to growth.
So, is it possible for you to learn how to raise enough money each year that could allow you to be fully funded with paid staff?
Yes, it is!
Are you ready to make that shift today?
-Sherry
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! 🎯
