Free Annual Fundraising Plan Template for Nonprofits + Steps
Planning an entire year’s worth of fundraising is a lot of work. You need realistic goals, detailed budgets, and clear steps for achieving your nonprofit’s top priorities. With all the moving parts, it’s easy to get overwhelmed, especially if your organization has limited resources and staff time. That’s where a streamlined fundraising plan template comes in.
Strategic fundraising plans are critical to scaling up your nonprofit’s work in sustainable ways, and the Donorly team is proud to have helped countless organizations do just that. This fundraising plan template and guide sums up our team’s years of expertise on the frontlines of fundraising. Here’s what we’ll cover:
Our Free Step-By-Step Fundraising Plan Template — the complete, free resource
What is a Fundraising Plan & Why Do You Need a Template? — the benefits
Core Components of an Annual Fundraising Plan — the essentials
Steps to Create Your Own Fundraising Plan — additional details and tips for each step
Our Free Step-By-Step Fundraising Plan Template
This comprehensive fundraising plan template walks through all the strategic essentials for goal-setting, budgeting, and focusing your annual fundraising plans.
Our template is designed to help growing nonprofits orient themselves around strategic fundraising goals, but any organization can use it, regardless of their size or experience level. Structure your own strategy and planning process by downloading our free fundraising plan template.
What is a Fundraising Plan & Why Do You Need a Template?
A fundraising plan outlines all the tasks and resources your nonprofit needs to reach its annual revenue goals. These include setting goals, identifying target donors, developing outreach tactics, and more.
Since nonprofits’ goals vary drastically based on a range of factors, fundraising plans naturally come in all shapes and sizes. However, as professional fundraisers will tell you, a concrete fundraising plan or roadmap is the common denominator across all successful organizations.
We understand that not every nonprofit has the resources to create comprehensive fundraising plans from scratch. That’s where a template comes in! By filling out our fundraising plan template and following the steps outlined below, your team can create a detailed roadmap to keep your organization’s fundraising strategies on track all year long.
Core Components of an Annual Fundraising Plan
We’ll cover each of these components more thoroughly as we dive into the details of each step, but it’s worthwhile to understand the essentials before you jump into the planning process. Whether it’s your first or your fifteenth, every nonprofit fundraising plan should include:
Clear fundraising goals, including a topline revenue goal based on a thorough assessment of your organization’s past fundraising data and current levels of stakeholder support.
A revenue budget that considers past fundraising data, committed funding sources, projected giving, and estimated revenue.
A narrative fundraising strategy that breaks down specific goals for strategic focus areas like major donor cultivation, fundraising events, and matching gifts.
Expense budgets that account for all the tools, materials, and staff time you’ll need to support your narrative strategy.
Timelines full of important dates, key fundraising activities, and donor communication cadences that will help you reach your goals.
Now that you know what elements of a fundraising plan you need to iron out, let’s explore each step in more depth.
Steps to Create Your Own Fundraising Plan
If you’re in the midst of planning already, click on any step to jump to that section of our fundraising plan template:
If you’re right at the beginning, start by digging into the details of goal setting.
Step 1: Set monetary goals and create your revenue budget.
Before completing any other part of your fundraising plan template, you must solidify your topline fundraising goal. How much of your annual revenue needs to come from fundraising? How will you raise that much, and from whom?
To answer these questions, you’ll need to anchor your budget with insights from previous years. Data on how your earlier strategies performed will be invaluable to setting a realistic goal for this year. Gather your past fundraising plans, full-year (FY) giving data from your constituent relationship management system (CRM), and institutional giving trackers from the past year.
Then, break down last year’s actual revenue by source and make projections for this year using our template:
This exercise should give you a detailed view of how your organization’s fundraisers performed in the past year to guide the budgeting process for this year. Break down total and net revenue by source, and see how they stacked up against your goals.
Combine this data with information about any committed sources you have and expanded needs for the year. This data and the following steps will help you build out assumptions for this year’s fundraising revenue:
Start with institutional giving. Institutional donors like foundations, corporations, and government agencies can contribute a significant amount of money to your cause. Create an institutional giving tracker based on last year’s giving and any pledges you’ve forecasted for this year. Make conservative estimates here since institutional donors can take a long time to take action.
Map out lower-level individual giving. Next, determine how much you can expect to raise from small-gift and mid-level donors based on previous years’ data. Be sure to factor in any special campaigns you’re running (like GivingTuesday or a spring auction), along with rates of renewal and donor attrition.
List assumptions for major gifts. Estimate major giving revenue based on your historical major giving data and specific prospects you have. Consider the major donors you wish to ask for an increased gift or invite to contribute to a special project, and establish goals with them in mind.
Analyze your fundraising event pricing structures. If you host any large annual events like a gala, review your pricing structure from previous years. Do you need to adjust it? Base pricing decisions and event fundraising goals on specific assumptions, like the number of tables sold at each level.
Then, begin outlining a revenue budget that breaks down where your organization’s funding will come from and a goal for how much you want to raise from each source. In our fundraising plan template, we’ve left room for you to map out revenue from individual giving, foundations, corporations, government grants, and special events:
This budget outlines your estimated net revenue by source and in total. Remember, these are just goals and projections. In all likelihood, you’ll need to continue refining your plans throughout the year by trimming expenses or planning to raise more from a certain source. For instance, if you don’t win the $100,000 foundation grant you hoped to secure by mid-year, you may need to apply for smaller grants and increase your revenue goal for major giving by at least $50,000.
Step 2: Define your narrative fundraising strategy.
Now that you know the amount you need to raise and the sources of funding, create a detailed plan for how you will achieve that goal. This is called your narrative fundraising strategy.
Your narrative strategy for annual giving will likely include many notes like “do more of the same” (i.e., asking major donors to give again, hosting your annual gala, etc.). That’s okay! Keep doing what works well, but don’t forget to plan for donor attrition, acquisition, upgrades, and other priorities, too.
Refer to your organization’s strategic plan if you have one, and consider any changes you can make this year to further organizational goals. For instance, do you want to raise your membership prices this year? Offer additional benefits?
Break down your strategic focus areas and zero in on the steps you’ll take to increase annual giving. Let’s walk through each strategic focus area you might outline plans for and how you might determine your goals.
Individual Giving
Lower-level individual giving includes gifts from community members, mid-level donations, and any other individual contributions that fall below your major gift threshold.
Ask yourself the following questions to brainstorm new individual giving opportunities:
Do you want to start a monthly giving program? Create a plan to develop a monthly giving page on your website and promote the opportunity to specific donors.
Could you launch a peer-to-peer fundraiser? Survey your base of loyal supporters to see how many people are interested in fundraising on your nonprofit’s behalf.
Do you need better donor segmentation strategies? Test out new segments in your CRM and see if they inspire more effective personalized outreach.
Are you interested in expanding to new fundraising channels? Explore this guide to consider your options and determine the best channels to try.
Do you typically run GivingTuesday fundraisers? Consider ways to boost social media engagement on GivingTuesday in order to target small-dollar donors.
You might set several goals for increasing annual individual giving based on your answers to these questions. For instance, one goal might be to boost recurring donor acquisition by X% or to secure 100 new monthly donors. To reach this goal, your plans might include revamping your website’s monthly giving page and sending personalized appeals to X number of donors.
Major Gifts
How will you increase major giving revenue this year based on the donors and prospects you have? Analyze your annual major donors and prospect research findings to determine if you need to:
Ask selected major donors for an increased gift.
Take extra steps to retain a major donor.
Cultivate prospective major donors to make your first ask.
Identify new major donor prospects.
Cover annual revenue lost by a major donor contributing to a special project.
Reengage a lapsed major donor.
Then, list prospective major donors and determine both baseline and stretch goals for each one. Here’s an example of what this could look like from our template:
Plan how you’ll cultivate donors to achieve these goals. Say that one of your narrative goals is to increase three major donors’ annual gift sizes. You should create individualized cultivation plans and touchpoints for each donor, strategizing around key cultivation moments. If you need to identify new prospects, you might hire expert prospect researchers like the consultants at Donorly to help you discover and prioritize prospects.
Foundations
Securing and retaining grants from foundations takes a lot of work and a thorough strategy. Whether you’re looking to win new grants or upgrade grants from previous years, plan how you’ll:
Research and identify funding opportunities.
Prepare for grant applications.
Draft, revise, and finalize grant applications on time.
Track grant applications and timelines.
Meet grant reporting requirements.
Build or strengthen relationships with funders.
Additionally, plan what you’ll do if you don’t win a certain foundation grant (or if you don’t secure the grant until the following year). How much revenue will you need to make up for the lost grant? Can you apply for more? Would you need to adjust your revenue budget so there’s less reliance on grant funding? Answer these questions to set your organization up for success despite unexpected challenges.
Corporations
Institutional giving opportunities from corporations abound as more and more companies prioritize giving back to their communities. Ask yourself the following questions to determine how your organization can tap into more of these opportunities this year:
Do you have strategies in place for boosting matching gift revenue? Increase individual giving and corporate donations at the same time by pursuing matching gifts. Consider investing in a matching gift tool to automate communications and secure more matches.
Could you get more out of existing corporate partnerships? Think about your existing relationships and how they support your organization. Brainstorm mutually beneficial ways to deepen these partnerships, such as hosting a corporate volunteering day.
Do you need a new event sponsor to fund a certain event? Review these tips for researching and securing a new corporate sponsorship that benefits both your organization and the company.
Are you tapping into volunteer grants? Let your regular volunteers know that their employers may grant funds to your organization just for volunteering. Provide information about requesting these grants and remind volunteers to pursue them.
Based on your answers to these questions, your corporate giving goals might include winning a certain number of grants, securing a new sponsorship worth $X, or increasing matching gift revenue by 20%.
Government Grants
If you’re applying for grants from government agencies, follow the same steps we mentioned above for foundation grants. However, keep in mind that many government agencies place more value on data than storytelling. Factor extra time into your plans for pulling reports on your programs’ impact data and aligning your data collection strategies with grant requirements.
Additionally, note any important restrictions or compliance requirements you’ll need to follow to use government funding once you’ve secured it.
Special Events
Fundraising events that bring in a significant amount of annual revenue, such as galas, auctions, or golf tournaments, warrant their own strategy. Start planning these events well in advance, and consider ways you could increase event fundraising revenue this year.
For instance, you might consider questions like:
Do you want to increase the price of gala tables?
Are you looking for new event sponsors to cut down on costs?
Is increasing attendance and ticket sales a priority?
Would you like to add an auction to your annual gala?
Should you invite a major donor or special guest to speak at the event?
Could you raise more money by adding a paddle raise?
Include any relevant revenue opportunities in your fundraising plan, and revisit your ticket pricing strategy to make adjustments as needed. You can use the “Special Events” section of our fundraising plan template to test out different pricing structures and estimate total fundraising income from your event.
For this strategic focus area, you might set goals like “Increase gala attendance by X%” or “Raise $30,000 during our paddle raise.”
Capital Projects
Finally, don’t forget to factor in any capital campaigns or projects your nonprofit is in the midst of. Even though this revenue won’t go towards your annual fundraising goal, it’s still important to outline how you’ll further this project throughout the year and how it may affect your annual revenue.
You might set a goal to reach a certain campaign milestone, like raising 30% of your quiet phase revenue goal. Or, you might create additional goals to take advantage of the additional attention a capital project brings.
Step 3: Outline your fundraising expense budget.
Next, create an expense budget based on your narrative strategy. Gather your FY expense projections, strategic plan, revenue budget, and the plans you made in the last step. Then, consider what resources, staff, and investments you’ll need to carry out your plans successfully.
For instance, do you need to:
Hire a new major gifts officer?
Expand your development staff team?
Purchase a new CRM?
Invest in a donor-advised fund (DAF) widget?
Hire a fundraising consultant?
Cover printing costs for a direct mail campaign?
Invest in new prospect research tools?
Send staff to a conference?
Refresh your donation page?
Once you’ve answered these questions, outline the tools and resources you’ll need to meet this year’s fundraising goal and start gathering cost estimates. Make sure that your expense budget supports your narrative strategy with everything you need to succeed.
Put together, your overall annual fundraising expense budget might look like this:
In our template, we’ve provided sample expenses like personnel salaries, software costs, marketing expenses, and more. However, this is by no means a limit to what you can do. Expand your own fundraising plan based on the resources you need to carry out your unique narrative strategy.
The main purpose of this step in the fundraising plan template is to give yourself a concrete idea of how much you expect to spend and how that spending will impact your fundraising goal. Having a solid budget in place early will also be critical once it’s time to advocate for your fundraising plan and secure buy-in from your board.
Step 4: Create a fundraising timeline.
With your budgets and strategic goals in place, you can move on to creating annual fundraising timelines or calendars. Start by mapping out key dates, activities, fundraisers, and events for the entire year. Make sure to factor in major donor cultivation and year-end giving, as these activities will take up a big chunk of your team’s time.
Your first pass at a general fundraising timeline might look something like this:
Jan-Feb: Donor appreciation and stewardship, strategic planning, create cultivation plans
March-May: Major donor cultivation, spring golf fundraiser
June-Aug: Major donor cultivation, peer-to-peer fundraiser
Sept-Oct: Major donor cultivation, draft year-end fundraising appeals, finalize gala planning
November: GivingTuesday campaign, year-end fundraising
December: Holiday gala, year-end fundraising
This is a basic outline and should by no means be the only fundraising timeline you create. Add to your calendar as you iron out more details, and use this main timeline as a jumping-off point for more focused timelines that guide specific strategic efforts.
For example, if one of your narrative goals is to upgrade a select group of major donors, create major donor cultivation timelines that outline how you’ll cultivate individual donors to reach that goal. Map out specific touchpoints, invitations, dinners with board members, etc. For more detailed advice on what to include in these plans, refer to our full major donor cultivation guide.
Develop communication and marketing calendars for each fundraiser, event, and strategic effort you’ve included in your main timeline. Align each calendar to ensure your communications are spaced out enough to avoid overwhelming donors.
Step 5: Get leadership buy-in and finalize your plan.
Finally, it’s time to iron out the last details of your fundraising plan and build out your systems. To do so, you’ll need to secure buy-in from leadership and start getting into the weeds of team responsibilities. Use this finalization checklist to stay organized:
Present your fundraising draft to leadership and board members. Present a draft version of the plan to key players on the senior leadership team and board, along with any other helpful stakeholders.
Ask for feedback and adjust plans as needed. There will likely be some back-and-forth among your organization’s leadership. Be sure to accurately adjust any relevant documents based on their input as your strategic elements come into sharper focus.
Secure buy-in and rally excitement for tactics. It’s especially important to engage stakeholders who will be key in implementing your fundraising plan, such as board members who will need to invite their friends to a gala or golf tournament.
Set deadlines for important tasks. Create a detailed plan using a project management tool with deadlines for each task, and delegate specific tasks to your team members. Having clearly defined roles and responsibilities early will keep your efforts focused and allow individuals to get a head start on brainstorming and preparing.
Finalize communication, marketing, and events calendars. Solidify the timelines you developed in the last step, adding more details for specific communications, posts, and event promotion.
Set up a metrics tracker and reporting cadence. Determine which metrics you’ll track beyond fundraising revenue (in total and by source), and create a cadence for regular review. Keeping tabs on your fundraising performance throughout the year will help you adjust course quickly as needed.
This final step is ongoing, so keep filling in the blanks and refining the strategies in your fundraising plan as you get new information.
Additionally, if you haven’t yet hired a fundraising consultant or prospect researcher, now is a good time to do so. An outside expert can be an invaluable partner for reviewing your fundraising plans, analyzing your organization’s fundraising potential, creating plans for major donor cultivation, solicitation, and ongoing stewardship, and outlining concrete next steps.
The Donorly team provides custom guidance for these key elements and specializes in helping expanding nonprofits lay out the strategies they need to raise more and connect with the communities that make their operations possible. With customized fundraising consulting for complete campaign support and hourly prospect research services, our experts take the guesswork out of fundraising so you can focus on your mission.
Additional Resources for Creating Your Fundraising Plan
Congratulations! You’ve tackled all the critical essentials of a complete fundraising plan template! Laying a concrete foundation for your annual fundraising efforts and backing it up with solid data is hard work, but it’s essential for keeping your plans focused, achievable, and successful.
For custom guidance on any of the steps in this template or what to do once you’ve completed it, Donorly is here to help. Or, if you’re just getting started and want to keep exploring, we recommend these additional resources:
Fundraising Strategy for Beginners: How to Create Your Own. Stuck on developing your narrative strategy? Explore this guide to learn more about strategic fundraising and how to get started.
Designing a Major Gifts Strategy: Steps for Small Nonprofits. Major gifts will account for a large chunk of your annual revenue. Follow these steps to ensure your strategy for identifying, cultivating, and soliciting major gifts is solid.
Donor Cultivation: How to Build Relationships Before the Ask. Cultivating donors (especially major donors) is essential to meeting your annual fundraising goals. Brush up on donor cultivation best practices with this guide.
