Strategic Direction
Getting you to where you want to be!
A strategy is a document that maps out what you will do to generate sustainable income to carry out your mission. It helps you to take more control of your financial future, fuels flexibility to run projects of your own design, meet unexpected costs, helps with core costs and enables your non-profit organisation to be better placed to deal with an increased need for your services.
It makes sense to formulate an income strategy, so you are better at raising funds. Clear the strategic direction will bolster your financial health and spread risk by pinpointing income streams that are a good fit for your social enterprise or voluntary organisation.
It will help you pre-empt and deal with challenges and make timely use of opportunities by utilising strengths that you may not yet have discovered.
Travelling together
It is important that we work in partnership. We know lots about marketing and attracting money, and you know lots about your organisation and its stakeholders. It is only by marrying the two knowledge bases together that a top-notch fundraising strategy can be devised.
Deciding on the destination
We will carefully consider your objectives to establish what should feature in your bespoke two to five-year fundraising strategy. Focus will be where it is most needed, and a timeline agreed to highlight milestones to complete the job.
We recommend keeping an eye on the future to secure long-term regular income, but also understand the importance of getting a prompt return on investment. Funding solutions, such as securing grant funding or running a lottery will result in income within a relatively short time span. Promoting legacy giving can be very lucrative but takes longer to come to fruition. It is crucial to have a carefully balanced fundraising mix!
Exploring where you are now
The next stage is to review your organisation and the environment in which it operates. We believe in fundraising with confidence because it is proven to be effective. However, it is foolhardy to do so without a clear plan, and rash to have a plan for the future without a good understanding of the present.
Information, which is gathered via a combination of feedback from key stakeholders and desk research, provides the background knowledge required for prudent strategic decisions to be made.
We can explore an assortment of elements, to help ensure that your fundraising and marketing strategy is a good fit for your organisation. This can include internal strengths and weaknesses, and external opportunities and threats; similar organisations and fundraising trends and benchmarking; stakeholder and supporter profile; branding and messaging including your vision, mission, and beliefs; social media; current fundraising activities and procedures; evidence of the impact of the work you do and stewardship of donors, fundraisers and volunteers.
Drawing out your route
Your strategy can be as in-depth or light-touch as you wish! From identifying one or two fresh income streams, harnessing social media more effectively, and ensuring a fulfilling supporter experience. To a thorough organisational audit and five-year strategic fundraising and communications plan with staff input to encourage their buy-in and featuring a diverse fundraising mix, ethical parameters; communication and social media plan, compelling cases for support, brand identity, a programme of activity linked to resulting financial projections; monitoring and control procedure.
Keeping you on track
Delivery of the strategy is what really counts! Your audit will reveal what resources are required to implement it. If it is a new member of staff and we can help seek out funders for salary costs. If there are knowledge gaps mentoring support may be helpful hands-on delivery, or written project plans that mark out step by step how to execute a fundraising initiative, use social media effectively or craft a supporter journey etc.
We want to work for you for as much as is required but as little as possible. The combination of services is based on what is best for your needs and budget. We would rather complete a funding application and provide mentoring support to enable you to win bids, rather than to continue doing them for you.
