Starting the plan development process
You’ll likely develop your funding plan with your organization’s board of directors or with an executive committee (president, vice president, secretary, and treasurer). Or you might develop the plan with the board’s designated funding committee (board members and program staff volunteer for this committee).
Typically funding committees aren’t short-term commitments. This type of committee meets forever and ever. Why? Your organization’s need for dollars never stops; grantseeking is a continual process. Think of a gerbil on a running wheel — it just keeps running and running after some unknown target. At least your funding committee will plan, plot, and then chase the known targets.
I used to suggest that organizations plan a retreat for the board of directors (or whoever is creating the plan) to jump-start the funding development plan development process. However, in today’s economy and with everyone working different days and hours, it just isn’t practical to think that funds or member availability will allow you to sneak off for a night or two. However, if you have the time and money, feel free to go the retreat route. Just know that you’ll get comparable results by simply finding a large room, closing the door, and cranking out your funding development plan. I recently helped a small nonprofit organization create a funding development plan in a board treasurer’s dining room. That plan is now being implemented. And to think that it
took all of five hours on a Saturday morning!
No matter where you’re developing your funding development plan, you have to maintain everyone’s focus or else you could waste precious time. To do so, apply the following basic rules when you’re ready to start brainstorming and writing your plan:
- Make sure that everyone participates. Explain at the outset that everyone needs to bring something to the table that will assist your organization in identifying priorities for programs and services and finding ways to fund them. It’s important for administrators and front line staff to be strongly encouraged to participate in the funding plan’s development. After all, those at the top of the organization see programs and services in an entirely different light than the staff working with clients on a day to day basis. Everyone’s opinion should be incorporated.
- Plan your meetings carefully so that you aren’t rushed through the process due to time constraints. Rushing through this process will only cause you to make mistakes and overlook important items. To avoid rushing, remember that the funding committee (or the group that’s convened to develop the funding plan) will likely need to meet at least four hours the first time and then for a couple of hours or more monthly thereafter.
- Poll every member to find out the best day and time for everyone to meet. Go with the majority rule theory. If 75 percent of the members can meet on Saturday from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. and 25 percent can’t, choose Saturday morning. And it’s perfectly fine to alternate the meeting day and time every other meeting to accommodate the other 25 percent. If you can’t alternate days and times, look for replacement committee members who can meet on the selected day and at the set meeting time.
- Give homework assignments. Most times, your meetings won’t give you enough time to finish all the tasks that need to be completed. To avoid falling behind, you need to assign funding research tasks to each funding committee member. Give the assignment, set a deadline, and express — with urgency — the need for each committee member to bring his or her completed assignment back on its due date. Using the homework approach enables the meetings to be kept short. Isn’t that every working person’s goal?
Structuring your plan
Too many nonprofit organizations function in crisis management mode all the time. They frantically write grant proposals to pay for programs and projects that are already in the 11th month of an existing one-year grant
award. I often refer to this situation as working on the downside of funding cessation. Everyone is always in a panic, and the threat of layoffs and program closures is a routine fire call. Being proactive in grantseeking and grant writing is extremely important because it saves a group from always running in a reactive mode.
Laying out a funding development plan is the first step to becoming proactive. The following list describes the parts of an all-purpose funding development plan (in the order in which they should appear):
- Mission statement: Maybe your mission statement creates more confusion than clarity. Take a long look at your existing mission statement and ask yourselves whether it reflects your vision. If not, figure out how you can rewrite the mission statement to make it clear and impactful.
- Assessment of funding needs: Ask yourselves “What programs and services do we want to offer? Where is the funding coming from, internal or external sources?”
- Funding goals: Ask yourselves “How much money do we need to raise from external funding sources for each program or service?”
- Funding objectives: Ask yourselves “What benchmarks do we want to set to assure we reach our funding goals?”
- Action plan: Ask yourselves “What are the annual tasks, over three to five years, that must be completed in order to make our funding development plan a reality?”
- Monitoring and evaluation of funding objectives: Ask yourselves “How can our organization track and prove that the project’s measurable objectives were met and at what levels? What are our evaluation tools?”
After you write your funding development plan, stick to it. Before writing any grant requests, first make sure that the grant fits into your plan. If you’re asked to pursue something outside your plan, meet with your administration and other stakeholders and explain that going after every available dollar and making off-track grant requests will come back to haunt you — and them. Be organized, stay focused, and follow your funding plan’s road map to success and stability.
For-profits also can benefit from creating a funding development plan. As a small business owner, I know that determining expenditures and identifying how those expenses will be covered are key components in the funding development plan. Think about what new products and services you want to offer and where the funds will come from to launch your new endeavors. You can use the funding plan’s structure to capture the funding road map components needed to carry out your plans.
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