12 steps to a successful fundraising strategy

Fundraising is never about luck. To build a multichannel program that consistently raises hundreds of thousands — or even millions — of dollars each year, you need a fundraising strategy that delivers. That means creating a plan that unifies different areas of fundraising and drives your organization toward its goals.

Creating that plan can be daunting. In this article, we’ll explore what a fundraising strategy is, the key elements of an effective plan, and 12 steps to help you achieve your goals. You’ll also find some practical fundraising strategy templates to kick-start your journey. 

What is a nonprofit fundraising strategy?

Put simply, a nonprofit fundraising strategy is a roadmap for generating the income your organization needs to deliver its mission. It sets out your goals, the fundraising processes you’ll use to reach them, and the resources you’ll need along the way. More than a list of isolated aims and objectives, your fundraising strategy is a structured plan that links to your organization’s wider ambitions—with every dollar raised taking you one step closer to your goals.  

Why is a fundraising strategy, or nonprofit fundraising plan, important?

Fundraising strategy or nonprofit fundraising plan. It’s not the name that matters, it’s the content. Fundraising comes in many different shapes and forms, and without a clear strategy it’s easy to lose focus, chase every idea, and stretch your resources too thin. In contrast, a well-designed nonprofit fundraising plan will help keep you on track and direct your efforts toward the activities that are most likely to deliver a good return on investment.  

Elements of a successful fundraising strategy

Where to begin? Before you start putting pen to paper — or finger to keyboard — it’s important to understand the key elements that come together to make your strategic planning process a success. That means making sure that: 

You work collaboratively

When you’re creating a fundraising strategy, it can be tempting to try and do everything on your own. Resist this urge. The best fundraising strategies are shaped from the bottom up, as well as the top down. Your team will be the ones carrying out the activities. Tapping into their experience and securing buy-in from the start will help you design a realistic, achievable strategy that everyone has a stake in delivering.

Decisions are based on evidence and data

Good fundraising will always be based on data. When you develop your strategy, try to avoid making assumptions. Look at what your fundraising metrics are telling you. Was there a capital campaign, fundraising event, or direct mail appeal that performed especially well, or fell flat? Deep dive into your data and use this information to create an action plan that’s designed to do more of what works and less of what doesn’t. 

Fundraising goals are challenging but realistic

When the pressure is on, plugging gaps with high, catch-all targets can feel like a quick and effective fix. But wishful thinking only creates new challenges down the line. This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be ambitious. It means setting fundraising goals that are realistic and achievable. That way, you can be confident you’ll have the income you need to deliver, and an action plan that has been carefully designed to match. 

Activities aligned with organizational ambition

Your fundraising strategy and operational plan should be two sides of the same coin. A great fundraising strategy will operate in direct support of your organization’s short, medium, and long-term operational goals. In turn, those goals should be based on income targets and strategic ambition that can realistically be achieved. 

Your strategy is unique to your organization 

The nonprofit world can be very competitive. But just because other organizations are running a jazzy new social media campaign or jumping on TikTok, doesn’t mean you have to. Yes, it’s important to be aware of trends and opportunities. The trick is to pick and choose the activities, fundraising events, and marketing strategies that work for you. 

12 steps to create your fundraising strategy

Once you understand the basics, it’s time to start developing your fundraising strategy. These 12 steps will help guide you through the process. 

Step 1: Understand your organizational ambition

Before you set your fundraising goals, you need to understand how your work fits into the bigger organizational picture. That means being clear on where your organization is headed, the amount of money it needs, the projects and services it will support, and how they will evolve. 

Without this bigger picture, you will find it difficult to set realistic targets, focus your efforts, and create a fundraising strategy that truly supports your organizational growth.

Step 2: Run a SWOT analysis

Fundraising doesn’t happen in a vacuum. Your team is raising funds from real people in a world that is constantly changing — and as their reality shifts, so does your fundraising environment. 

For example, rising living costs may leave people with less disposable income to donate to your nonprofit. Cuts in funding from government agencies can also prompt more organizations to launch new fundraising campaigns, ramp up prospect research to identify donor prospects, and expand major donor strategies and giving programs. This all intensifies competition for limited resources.

But there are opportunities too. Growing public interest in health, social, and environmental issues can inspire current donors to give more, or new donors to join your cause. At the same time, advances in technologies like artificial intelligence can help you optimize your outreach, personalize donor engagement, and take your individual giving to the next level.

A SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) will help staff members think through — and map — these different elements. This will help you design a fundraising strategy that plays to your strengths and make sure you’re ready to mitigate and act on any weaknesses. 

Step 3: Collate lessons learned

We’ve already talked about the importance of using data to drive your decision-making. Don’t stop there. Before you start building your nonprofit fundraising plan, create space for your team to share their experiences and capture qualitative feedback and lessons learned.

Stories about what worked well, what proved challenging, and where there’s room for improvement are as valuable as any fundraising metric. They can reveal issues that numbers alone might miss and uncover practical ideas, creative approaches, or small changes to your fundraising methods and donor stewardship that could have a big impact. 

Step 4: Identify donor prospects and opportunities

It’s also important to take some time out to dream a little, think about where you want your fundraising strategy to go, and what (or who) could help you get there. Don’t be afraid to think big. Identify donor prospects — individuals, major donors, corporations, trusts, or foundations — and consider the links and networks your organization has with them. 

Are there any donor relationships that could genuinely be developed? Identifying donor prospects and investing in donor stewardship now, will help you direct your time, energy, and resources where they’ll make the most difference in the future.

Step 5: Set your overarching fundraising goals 

With Steps 1-4 complete, you can think about setting some provisional targets. These may change. What’s important now is that you start to quantify where you’re headed and give your team a guiding north star.  

Don’t just choose an impressive number to please board members. Instead, use your earlier insights to define:

• Your baseline target: This is the amount you are confident your team can raise based on past performance and current resources. It is a realistic number you can commit to, and budget core organizational expenses against.*

• Your stretch target: An aspirational figure, this number is an approximation of where your fundraising could go if everything goes to plan. It should spark ambition and help mobilize new projects and services, without putting critical work at risk.

It might seem an unusual approach, but by setting baseline and stretch targets, you give your team a minimum to deliver and an aspiration to reach for. This keeps everyone motivated to push beyond the “safe zone” while ensuring that essential services are never jeopardized. It also helps manage expectations with stakeholders, showing that your plans are both aspirational and firmly rooted in reality.

* If this baseline figure doesn’t cover your core organizational needs, raise it with your senior team. Operational plans may need adjusting, or extra resources brought in to improve donor acquisition rates, boost donor retention rates, and streamline donor stewardship. 

Step 6: Map out your activities

Once your north star is in place, you need to chart a path to get there. This is where your different income streams come in. Work with your team to map out headline activities for each area of individual giving, including one-off and regular gifts, online fundraising, major gifts, and fundraising events. You might also want to do the same for other income streams, like corporate, trusts, foundations, and institutions.  

For each area, you will need to understand your baseline and stretch targets, your headline activities, the amount you can reasonably expect to raise, and other key performance indicators (KPIs). This will help put your fundraising goals in context so that you can assess and review your initial financial situation. 

Step 7: Keep calm and carry on planning

If there is a gap — and it’s likely there will be — it’s important to stay calm. After all, it’s better to identify it now than run into it later! There are a number of things you can do to help reduce the shortfall, such as scaling down your fundraising goals, or reining in your expenses and operational ambition.

And of course, you can always…

Step 8: Make a plan to fill them 

This is the fun part. Fundraising is a wonderfully creative profession, and your team is likely keen to test out some new tactics and ideas. Perhaps you have a fresh fundraising campaign ready to launch, a cause-related marketing concept you’ve been itching to explore, or a new fundraising platform or prospect research tool you want to try. 

Or maybe you’re keen to get into the “weeds” of your fundraising processes and invest in a new CRM to help streamline donor stewardship and improve donor retention rates. 

Defer to your team here — they are the experts in their respective giving areas, and it’s vital to create space for their ideas to take shape. At the same time, you should be careful not to sign off on everything. Go back to your fundraising metrics and ask yourself which opportunities are most likely to succeed? Prioritize these in your top-line fundraising strategy and spread the risk across baseline and stretch targets. 

Need some inspiration? Check out some of our favorite fundraising ideas, and our on how to raise funds for charity.

Step 9: Make sure your fundraising and marketing strategies are aligned

Fundraising and marketing go hand-in-hand, yet in many organizations, they exist in a silo. But what is fundraising, if it isn’t marketing your organization or institution? And what is marketing if it isn’t helping to raise funds? 

Breaking down barriers between each department ensures that your fundraising and marketing materials are consistent, on-brand, and engaging, while also maximizing the use of organizational resources. Shared planning, joint multichannel marketing campaigns, and regular communications help both teams learn from each other. When they’re aligned, each function becomes stronger, more efficient, and more impactful.

Step 10: Finalize your budget

A fundraising strategy is not complete unless it includes a budget. There is no shortcut here, and it’s important to take the time to run the numbers — income and expenses. When you do this, take care to factor in the direct and indirect costs of all your planned activities, such as marketing, events, technology, and any external services, fundraising platforms, or training you’ll need to deliver them. You will also need to factor in staff!

A well-planned budget not only protects your organization from overspending but also provides a clear signal to board members and stakeholders that your fundraising strategy is both ambitious and financially responsible. This builds trust and gives your team the confidence that they’re working toward achievable, well-resourced goals.

Step 11: Mitigate risks

A strong fundraising strategy plans for the best but prepares for the worst. By identifying your biggest risks early — from donor attrition to government funding cuts — you can help make sure your team is ready to adapt and stay on track.  

Start by reviewing your SWOT analysis to pinpoint the most pressing threats. You might want to sort these into categories, and rank them in order of likelihood and potential impact. For each risk, you will need to identify and outline mitigating actions. This proactive approach means that even if challenges arise, you will have a clear, considered response at hand.

Step 12: Monitor, evaluate, and adapt

And finally, remember: your fundraising strategy isn’t set in stone — it should evolve as circumstances change. As part of your nonprofit fundraising plan, it’s important to establish a regular review cycle (e.g., quarterly or biannually) to track your fundraising progress and:

• Check in on your KPIs
• Monitor income against your fundraising goals
• Assess the effectiveness of each fundraising activity
• Capture new lessons learned. 

And of course, you can use the data and insights gathered to evolve and refine your strategy. This way, you make sure it stays relevant, realistic, and responsive — giving you the best chance of meeting your goals and growing your income year after year. 

From major gifts to fundraising events: why you need a work plan for every pillar

To make sure your fundraising strategy is as accurate and complete as possible, you will also want to develop detailed work plans for each income stream. 

While your headline strategy and activity plans capture the big picture, your work plans create space for detail. Be specific — identify which donor segments you’re targeting, how you’ll reach them, what messages will resonate most, and what channels you’ll use. Build in timelines so you can pace your activities through the year, avoid bottlenecks, and keep momentum steady.

Having individual work plans in place will ensure that nothing is left to chance. Review them alongside your fundraising strategy and work as a team to evolve your activities in response. 

When they all work together, each of these individual elements will help you create a balanced, resilient, fundraising program that drives team and organizational success. 

Getting started: Our fundraising plan templates

Getting started with your nonprofit fundraising plan can feel daunting, so we’ve created a few handy fundraising strategy templates to help kick-start the process.

• Template 1: SWOT analysis: Take some time to map organizational strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.
• Template 2: Strategy snapshot: A template guide to help you capture the headlines of your new fundraising strategy.
• Template 3: Sample activity plan (Individual Giving): Use this framework to start mapping activities and KPIs for each giving area.

SWOT Analysis

Strengths	Weaknesses
“What internal advantages do we already have that make our fundraising effective?” Examples: strong donor relationships, compelling mission story, experienced team, committed pool of regular donors.	“What internal challenges or gaps could hold back our fundraising success?” Examples: limited staff capacity, lack of digital tools, outdated CRM, over-reliance on one funding source.
Opportunities	Threats
“What external trends or openings can we take advantage of to grow our fundraising?” Examples: growing public interest in our cause, emergence of AI technology, new website.	“What external risks could reduce our ability to raise funds?” Examples: rising cost of living, cuts to government funding, increased competition from other charities, donor fatigue, changes in regulations.

Strategy snapshot

	Amount raised in 2025	Baseline target	Stretch target	Total spend (ex. Staffing)
Individual Giving
One-off donations
Regular giving
Major gifts
Legacies
Online donations
Trusts & Foundations
Corporate Partnerships
SUBTOTAL
Fundraising Events
Community events
Challenge events
Major events
SUBTOTAL
Trusts & Foundations
Low-level trusts
Mid-level trusts
High-level trusts
Institutions
SUBTOTAL
Corporate Giving
Charity of the Year
Grant funding
Cause-related marketing
In-kind support
Other
SUBTOTAL
FINAL TOTAL
TOTAL + STAFFING

Sample activity plan (Individual Giving)

	2025 income	Baseline target	Stretch target	Key activities	Resources (ex. Staff)	KPIs	Budgeted cost
One-off donations
Regular giving
Major gifts
Legacy gifts
TOTAL

Your final nonprofit fundraising plan should be a unique document that’s tailored to the specific needs of your organization. Our fundraising strategy templates are intended as a guide to help steer your thinking, and should be supported by individual work plans and a full operational budget.

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