Developing a Fundraising Strategy and Diversifying Funding Streams

Developing a Fundraising Strategy and Diversifying Funding Streams • Establish where you stand now • Where does your funding come from? • How confident are you that this will continue in the future? • Are you vulnerable because you are completely reliant on one type of income stream? • Are you vulnerable because you rely on one particular funder?

Potential Income Streams • Gifts • Individuals • Private sector

Potential Income Streams • Grants • Trusts and foundations • Public sector and lottery • Private sector

Potential Income Streams • Contracts • Public sector agencies • Private sector • Voluntary organisations

Potential Income Streams • Open market • Individuals • Voluntary organisations • Public sector agencies • Private sector

Drilling Down • Amount – What is the amount of income per year in each stream? • End date – When is each income stream likely to end? • Proportion of income – What proportion of incomes from each income stream? • Level of risk – What is the level of risk in that income stream (of it suddenly reducing or ending)?

Drilling Down • Once you know where you stand you can start to plan ahead • http: //www. ncvo. org. uk/images/documents/practical_support/fundi ng/sustainable-funding/NCVO%20 Income%20 Spectrum. pdf • NCVO provide a risk assessment tool • It’s a starting point • It helps you understand where you stand • It helps you plan ahead

The Present • It’s scary for you • It’s scary for us • We have a contract with the County Council • We have a smaller contract with the City Council • We pick up bits and pieces from the other Districts like Cherwell • We generate some income from training • We generate some income from some consultation work

The Present • If that County contract goes we’re in real trouble • If that City contract goes we’re in slightly less trouble • If the bits and pieces go then we have less unrestricted income • If the training and consultation work shrinks and doesn’t grow we become even more reliant on our contracts • It’s scary • But at least we know where we stand can plan ahead • The risk assessment highlights where and how soon we must take action

Planning Ahead • It’s intimidating • But it helps you focus • Chops it down • Makes it tangible • Using the risk assessment • Prioritise actions by the level of risk you have identified • There any number of ways of doing this but the key is to keep it tangible and focussed • I’d use a standard planning sheet but you might prefer other methods

AIM: Intended Outcomes: Key activities and tasks Year One Measures: Year Two Year Three Organisational implications:

Planning Sheets • You’ll probably end up with a mixture of planning sheets • Clear, focussed sheets that require immediate attention (those areas that you’ve identified as high risk from your risk assessment) • More aspirational less focussed planning sheets with longer less high priority risks and longer timelines

AIM: High priority – As an organisation we are highly dependent on grant funding. We need to explore other funding avenues and find other ways of generating income to avoid being completely grant dependent. Intended Outcomes: Generate unrestricted income and achieve at least partial independence from reliance on grants. Key activities and tasks Immediate Allocate responsibility Research other ways of generating income. Individual donations Business donations in cash or kind Fundraising events Fees Raising our profile beyond grant givers December 2019 Progress review Donations Business donations Fundraising Fees Profile raising Measures: Identified avenues of funding. Level of individual donations raised. Level of business donations raised. Level of fundraising through fundraising events Income generated through fees. Do people know we exist? What systems are in place to raise profile? Mitigating action plan should initiatives be only partially successful. January 2020 onwards Progress review What’s working? What’s not working? Organisational implications: Build internal capacity for the long term (key individuals) Responsibility, who oversees and manages progress? Impact and outcome measurement systems to support profile raising. Case studies Evidence of impact What’s the story/narrative that we can tell? Mitigating action planning Training? Staffing?

Planning Sheets • High priority • Medium priority • Low priority • There’s a chance that something low priority suddenly becomes a high priority • Particularly if that grant funding doesn’t smoothly slot into place • It’s a hard thing to do • But pay attention to the lower priority issues, keep the momentum rolling if you can, you might suddenly find you need them

Overall Strategic Planning • There’s an advantage with starting with the basics • Starting at the bottom and working up • It helps write your overall strategic plan • If you look to the bottom right of the sheet • The organisational implications • There are issues cropping up that have broader implications than immediate funding • It helps anchor your planning to tangible issues. Systems and structures that might need to be put in place

Overall Strategic Planning • All of which contributes to sustainability in the long term • It’s not all about the immediate funding • It’s also about profile • Awareness raising • Demonstrating impact and outcomes • Networks • Internal structures and systems • Values • Governance

Fundraising Strategy If you do nothing else Do a regular risk assessment Prioritise Then work your way down the list of priorities If you have the capacity or time then pay attention the lower ones as you do need to try to build momentum and diversify. You might need them • Timeframes and timelines are important. The earlier you start the more time you have to adapt. The more things you have in place. The more choice you have. The greater the number of your options • Your fundraising strategy can feed and even help drive your overall strategic plan. Those little issues that crop up in the organisational implications section of a planning sheet • • •

It is Scary • Making things tangible and focussed lessens that fear john. hayes@ocva. org. uk