Your Nonprofit Development Plan for Building Sustainable Support

When most people speak about nonprofit development, they’re usually talking about fundraising and engaging supporters. And while this is an extremely important part of your nonprofit’s activities, it’s simply not the entire picture. Implementing a solid nonprofit development plan give you a much larger picture of your organization and when done correctly can make your charity far more sustainable in the long run.

This is because ‘nonprofit development’ looks much deeper than just funding and donors and gives your organization the ability to strategically create a plan that works together as a whole to build a well rounded organization that is truly rooted in its community and funded in a myriad of ways. And although not all organizations will have the ability to garner a team for this process, with our help even a small one person charity will have the ability to create something that can be far more effective than just planning a bunch of fundraising events and emails or posts on social media.

What Is Nonprofit Development Exactly?

Nonprofit development’s ultimate goal is to create a long-term foundation of support that ensures your nonprofit can thrive. This includes a strategic processes involved in fostering relationships and strengthening connections to build a sustainable support network around your organization while also implementing as many alternative funding possibilities as possible.

It’s not just about securing financial support, it’s about how to increase growth overall in all manner of speaking which does include fundraising, but also so much more. It includes activities such as donor cultivation, community engagement, marketing and funding alternatives. It provides a roadmap for identifying priorities, setting achievable targets, and measuring success.

Nonprofit Development in Action

At its core, nonprofit development is about relationship building. Development teams focus on attracting diverse sources of funding, finding new supporters, engaging existing donors, and retaining supporters over time.

Key components of nonprofit development include:

• Fundraising and Campaigns: Activities such as annual giving, major donor appeals, and crowdfunding efforts.
• Donor Engagement: Hosting events, managing donor communications, and crafting stewardship programs to maintain strong connections.
• Grant Writing: Researching and applying for grants that align with your mission.
• Marketing and Outreach: Utilizing digital and traditional marketing channels to amplify your message and attract new supporters.

These activities are typically guided by a development plan that outlines your organization’s goals, strategies, and keeps track of your KPI metrics to gauge your successes or failures. The development director often leads this plan in larger nonprofits so they can be sure your plan is aligned with your organization’s objectives, but even smaller charities can harness the power of a well laid out plan.

How Does Development Differ from Advancement and Fundraising?

The terms advancement, development, and fundraising are often used interchangeably, but they serve distinct purposes:

• Advancement is the overarching strategy that encompasses all efforts to promote the organization’s mission, secure resources, and achieve sustainability. Think of it as the nonprofit’s comprehensive roadmap for growth.
• Development sits within advancement and focuses on strategies that nurture relationships and expand support networks. It informs specific fundraising initiatives.
• Fundraising refers to the actual actions taken to secure financial contributions such as hosting fundraising events, soliciting major gifts, or launching digital fundraising campaigns.

In larger organizations these roles are often very distinct from one another, with advancement providing high-level guidance, development crafting the overall strategy, and fundraising strictly executing donor focused activities.

Create Your Nonprofit Development Plan in 5 Steps

In order for your plan to be accurate and useful, there are five primary areas that you’ll need to focus on to be sure your plan is effective in driving your charity forward. We’ll go over each step in detail, but here’s a quick overview:

1. Clear Goals: Define what success looks like in terms of donor acquisition, retention, and funding in ways that strategically align with your mission.
2. Audience: Identify your key supporters, including individual donors, corporate partners, and grantmakers. Outline how you’ll build relationships with supporters, from events to personalized outreach.
3. Evaluate Past Performance: Understand your past performance and understand how to enhance your results.
4. Diversify Your Fundraising: Look for alternative opportunities for funding you may not be aware of.
5. Metrics for Success: Track progress through KPIs like donor retention rates, campaign ROI, and community growth.

1. Setting Strategic Objectives and Goals

In order to understand where you want your charity to go, you need to have a direction. This is where clear objectives both long and short term come into play. These goals must align with your nonprofit's mission, vision, and core values to guarantee that all of your effort contributes to the organization’s intended purpose while at the same time allowing for your charity to be operational on a daily basis.

One of the best ways to effectively set strategic goals is through implementing the SMART goals framework when deciding on the strategies that will shape your future. This framework takes out most of the ambiguity that often exists in organizational goal setting. SMART stands for:

1. Specific: Goals must be clear and detailed. Avoid vague terms and focus on measurable outcomes.
2. Measurable: Set criteria to track progress. Use data to evaluate success.
3. Achievable: Ensure the goals are realistic based on available resources.
4. Relevant: Align goals with the nonprofit’s mission and current priorities.
5. Time-bound: Set a deadline to create urgency and focus.

Some of the ways you can use this framework to create a clearer plan is to use it for each and every decision, for example:

• Specific: Instead of saying “increase donations,” set a specific and realistically obtainable goal like, “increase individual donor contributions by 15% within the next fiscal year.”
• Measurable: Track metrics like donor numbers, average gift size, and total funds raised using KPIs and other accountability measures.
• Achievable: Consider resource constraints, such as daily operations and costs like rent, staffing to be sure the target is realistic based on any past performance data that is available to you.
• Relevant: Connect the fundraising goal to broader objectives, such as funding a specific program or expanding your organization’s services.
• Time-bound: Assign a clear time frame to achieve each target you set out.

Important Strategic Objectives and Goals to Include in Your Plan

When setting strategic objectives and goals for your nonprofit development plan, here are some key areas to include:

1. Fundraising and Financial Sustainability

• Increase individual contributions by a specific percentage or dollar amount within a set time frame that is realistic and achievable.
• Diversify funding sources to reduce your reliance on a single revenue stream. Begin looking at alternatives that might include grants, corporate partnerships, or recurring donations.
• Create a reserve fund if possible to prepare for unexpected expenses or economic downturns.

2. Program Impact and Reach

• Expand services to underserved communities by adding new programs or increasing capacity in existing ones that are fulfilling your mission.
• Enhance program quality by setting measurable outcomes that reflect mission alignment and impact.
• Partner with like minded organizations to extend your reach without duplicating efforts.

3. Volunteer Recruitment and Retention

• Develop a plan to increase volunteer numbers by a set percentage annually or quarterly.
• Focus on volunteer engagement with training programs and recognition to boost retention.
• Align volunteer roles with the organization’s strategic priorities and their natural abilities.

4. Stakeholder Engagement and Communication

• Build stronger relationships with donors by increasing touchpoints (emails, personal calls, thank you messages).
• Improve transparency by sharing detailed reports with all your supporters on your website and other communication channels.
• Utilize social media and email campaigns to enhance outreach and engage a broader audience.

5. Internal Capacity Building

• Train staff and volunteers on new tools like Paybee or other types of best practices that can help improve efficiency.
• Set goals for diversity, equity, and inclusion within your team and leadership to keep people involved and enthusiastic.
• Invest in technology that supports operations, such as donor management software or project tracking tools which are both included in our own software platform.

6. Advocacy and Public Awareness

• Set benchmarks for increasing public awareness of your cause through media coverage and other awareness types of campaigns.
• Engage with local and federal policymakers to influence legislation that supports your mission and extends your impact.
• Host community events to educate the public on the problem and your charity’s solution to gain enthusiastic local support.

2. Understand Your Audience

One of the best ways to achieve all the goals you listed above is to know your supporters inside and out. After all, these are the people that will be funding your organization, volunteering to do the work and even managing your day to day operations as staff or board members. So the better you can connect with them and build relationships that go past the normal, “please donate now,” the more effective your charity will be due to a truly passionate group of people that believe in what you’re doing.

Detailed donor personas are a great way to really get to know your supporters. If you’re using a platform like Paybee, creating these personas is easy and highly valuable. In fact, with our platform you can even keep a record of all your dealings with each and every supporter, and then share this information with anyone involved in your organization through our easy to use user dashboard.

This all makes building new relationships and nurturing existing ones easy and targeted. With a persona, you can segment your email lists, understand what types of events your supporters may be interested in, and possibly even make out their ability to donate or volunteer. You’ll also know what types of communications they’re most inclined to listen to and the best ways to get them involved in a passionate way with your mission.

But this isn’t just about donors, it’s about all your supporters and even the community at large. Building relationships within your sector or community can also open a lot of doors, especially for things like corporate sponsorship or even securing event venues cost effectively. Keeping in touch with community leaders and even policy makers can have their advantages in unforeseen ways and these relationships can help keep your mission going well into the future.

Plus using data in a way that can tracked like analyzing past giving patterns, contribution frequency, and preferred donation channels using KPIs that we will dive into more deeply later, you’ll almost have an unfair advantage over all the other competing charities looking to connect to your supporters. Plus you’ll clearly understand just how effective your donor retention programs are over time giving you clues on how to adjust them to make them even more effective.

3. Evaluate Past Fundraising Strategies

Speaking of data, if you’re charitable organization is lucky enough to have raw data on your past fundraising activities, this information can become a gold mine of sorts. Fist, it is a great indicator of what you can expect from certain activities. It gives you a realistic base line figure for certain fundraising activities that you can use in your plan.

For example, if you’re an animal rescue and you raised $5,000 dollars at your last event, planning a similar one should net you at least as much if you’re not saturating your events. This gives you a base line number when laying out your plan and thinking of financials that you can now also assign a realistic goal of improvement. For instance for the next event you may plan to exceed the last event by 10%. This would be easily tracked and you can see your success or shortcoming.

You can drill deeper and look at the number of attendees, the number of volunteers that were recruited and the number of new supporters that signed up to learn more about your mission. These numbers or KPIs can be used to strategically grow your organization and should all be included in your plan when you have such data.

Second, it can show you where you need improvement. For many nonprofits fundraising isn’t always as easy as it looks. And improving any activity even by 5% can mean significant gains over time. This may include needing to increase your budget in order to market better and bring in more attendees. Or working to decrease expenses to get a better ROI (Return on Investment) on each new event. Using a multiple of these strategies can quickly add up to much larger profits for your organization to use for what it’s meant for, helping create a better world in some way.

4. Diversify Your Fundraising Sources and Strategies

Fundraising is vital for the success and growth of any nonprofit organization. Too many nonprofits rely on one strategy like asking for donations on Facebook or simply placing a donate button on their website in order to drive contributions. This is a serious mistake! There are a ton of ways for nonprofits to secure funding, a strong fundraising plan ensures your short term financial stability while supporting your long-term goals at the same time.

Compile a comprehensive fundraising strategic plan that includes all the fundraising opportunities you want to engage in during your fiscal year. Map out the dates they’ll occur and be sure to include initiatives like year-end giving or Giving Tuesday campaigns when opportunities are most ripe to reap donations. Make sure you include real data like the type of fundraising activity, realistic budgets, anticipated revenue, marketing costs, deadlines, intended audience, and any additional notes that can be helpful for success.

But don’t stop there, once you have your basic fundraising in place, start to think outside the box. Look for possible grant opportunities that align with your charity. These can be local initiatives or community based grants that you can apply for due to your sector or geographical location. Don’t just look at federal government grants, but drill down to state and even county offerings. You’d be surprised how many localized grants there are up for grabs. There are even private, and foundation grants to look into. Just be sure the grants you’re applying for align with your overall mission or local.

There’s also corporate partnership opportunities where you can reach out to local businesses or large corporations for sponsorships, matching gift programs, or in-kind donations such as goods or professional services. Many local businesses will jump at the opportunity to advertise to their targeted local demographic and will often offer their merchandise or services at a substantial discount or free for the chance. There’s also the angle of helping the community and showing your supporters they to support your mission. Overall corporate sponsorships are often a win-win for all involved, and a great way to diversify your funding.

Another often overlooked way to diversify funding sources is to offer fee based services, training, or products that align with your mission, like educational workshops or branded merchandise. Just because you’re a non-profit doesn’t mean you can’t legally sell merchandise or offer services. In fact, a nonprofit can legally own an LLC for profit. And selling services and merchandise is a great way to diversify your fundraising activities. They’ll just be taxed differently.

For example, if you’re an animal charity, you could open a grooming and pet supply store to generate an alternative revenue stream. You could still use volunteers to work there and even hire professional employees. The employees and your nonprofit will still need to pay income taxes by law, but the benefits will still outweigh any disadvantages.

There’s also the ability to focus on creating a monthly giving program where donors make a donation on a recurring basis. These programs are easy to set up using automatic processors like Stripe and Paypal and can really make a difference in your bottom line. You’ll need to highlight clear benefits for donors and demonstrate how regular gifts support your long-term projects. But with today’s tools and automation, these types of funding are easy to set up and monitor.

It also helps to be everywhere. There are a ton of digital tools to be taken advantage of today. You can use crowdfunding platforms or peer-to-peer websites to reach larger audiences, optimize your website for donations with user-friendly forms and mobile compatibility or promote your campaigns on social media to amplify your message to a global audience.

All in all, focusing on more than just a quick one time donation or holding one type of event over and over are simply no longer sustainable for many nonprofits. The more you can diversify your revenue streams, the safer and more secure your organization will be both now and in the future. And although some of these possibilities make take some effort to implement, they’re well worth the effort to guarantee your charity will be viable well into the future.

5. Tracking and Measuring Impact

As the nonprofit sector becomes more and more competitive, strategies like using data to track and monitor all aspects of your organization are quickly becoming increasingly necessary to remain competitive. Larger organizations have been using analytics to grow for a while, but luckily with the ease of use and affordability of many online tools like Paybee, even small one person operations can compete at pretty much the same playing field as the big boys.

Just remember, anything you can track and measure can be looked at and improved upon once you have the information. Tracking and analyzing the right data can cut costs, improve efficiency and uncover opportunities for growth you would never have seen otherwise. Below we’ll go over some of the most commonly used metrics you can start following up on right now.

Program-Specific Metrics

• Service Utilization: Measure how often beneficiaries access your services or programs.
• Completion Rates: Track the percentage of participants who complete a program or achieve specific milestones.
• Behavioral Changes: Assess measurable shifts in habits or practices (e.g., increased job placements after training).

Financial Metrics

• Donor Retention Rate: Monitor the percentage of repeat donors year over year.
• Cost Per Outcome: Calculate how much it costs to achieve a single successful result (e.g., $500 per job placement).
• Revenue Diversity: Track the proportion of funding from different sources, such as grants, donations, and events.

Community Engagement Metrics

• Volunteer Hours: Count total hours contributed by volunteers, reflecting community support.
• Advocacy Impact: Measure changes in policy or public opinion due to your campaigns.
• Collaborative Projects: Record the number and quality of partnerships formed with other organizations.

Digital Engagement Metrics

• Website Traffic: Track visitors to your site, especially pages related to donations or impact.
• Email Open and Click Rates: Measure donor and stakeholder engagement with newsletters.
• Social Media Engagement: Monitor likes, shares, and comments on posts, focusing on calls-to-action.

Operational Metrics

• Staff Turnover Rate: A low turnover rate indicates a stable and satisfied workforce.
• Program Efficiency: Measure the ratio of program expenses to total expenses, showing focus on mission delivery.
• Grant Success Rate: Track the percentage of grant applications that result in funding.

Stakeholder Satisfaction Metrics

• Donor Satisfaction Scores: Use surveys to evaluate how satisfied donors are with your communication and transparency.
• Beneficiary Feedback: Collect qualitative and quantitative feedback from those you serve.
• Partnership Satisfaction: Assess the value perceived by collaborating organizations.

Long-Term Impact Metrics

• Sustainability Indicators: Measure the lasting impact of your programs over years (e.g., maintaining clean water access in communities).
• Systemic Change Indicators: Assess your contribution to larger societal shifts (e.g., reductions in poverty rates).

If you were to truly combine and analyze these metrics, your nonprofit would be able to comprehensively evaluate its performance, adapt its strategies accordingly and maintain a competitive edge in any of the nonprofit sectors. These numbers have a lot of power, and if used correctly can dramatically improve your charity's performance on multiple levels. They also help with accountability that can strengthen donor relationships and guide your future strategies.

Nonprofit Development Plan Template

Here's an in-depth non-profit development plan that we’ve designed to help you create a robust plan for your own charity. This template is divided into actionable sections and includes prompts and guidance so you can be sure you’ve covered every aspect of a solid plan.

Nonprofit Development Plan Template

Section 1: Executive Summary

• Purpose of the Plan: Summarize the intent of this development plan and how it aligns with your nonprofit’s mission.
• Key Objectives: Briefly list the main goals, such as enhancing donor retention, diversifying funding sources, and increasing community impact.

Section 2: Organizational Overview

• Mission and Vision Statement: Clearly articulate your nonprofit’s mission and vision to ground all development efforts.
• Core Values: Highlight the principles guiding your organization.
• Current Challenges: Outline any operational or funding challenges you aim to address with this plan.

Section 3: Strategic Goals and Objectives

• SMART Goals Framework: Define specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound goals for your organization. Examples:
  • Increase donor retention by 20% within 12 months.
  • Secure $50,000 in grant funding by the end of the fiscal year.
  • Recruit 50 new volunteers within the next quarter.
• Long-Term and Short-Term Goals: Categorize objectives based on timelines.

Section 4: Audience Analysis

• Supporter Segmentation:
  • Individual Donors
  • Corporate Partners
  • Grantmakers
  • Volunteers
• Donor Personas: Create profiles based on demographics, motivations, and giving behavior.
• Community Engagement Plan: Outline strategies for connecting with local stakeholders, policymakers, and other nonprofits.

Section 5: Fundraising Plan

• Core Fundraising Strategies:
  • Annual Giving Campaigns
  • Major Donor Programs
  • Crowdfunding Initiatives
• Diversification of Income Streams:
  • Grant Applications
  • Corporate Sponsorships
  • Planned Giving
  • Fee-for-Service Programs
• Timeline: Map out fundraising activities and campaigns throughout the year.
• Budgeting: Allocate resources for marketing, event hosting, and other operational needs.
• Expected Outcomes: Set financial targets and KPIs.

Section 6: Marketing and Outreach

• Branding and Messaging:
  • Consistent branding guidelines.
  • Key messaging tailored to different audiences.
• Marketing Channels:
  • Social Media Campaigns
  • Email Marketing
  • Website Optimization
• Public Relations Plan: Develop strategies for media coverage and awareness campaigns.

Section 7: Donor Engagement and Retention

• Relationship-Building Strategies:
  • Personalized Communication
  • Donor Recognition Programs
  • Stewardship Events
• Engagement Metrics:
  • Donor Retention Rates
  • Average Donation Size
  • Frequency of Contributions

Section 8: Volunteer Recruitment and Management

• Volunteer Goals:
  • Set targets for the number of volunteers.
  • Define roles and responsibilities aligned with organizational needs.
• Recruitment Strategies:
  • Partner with local organizations.
  • Use digital platforms to post opportunities.
• Retention Programs:
  • Recognition Events
  • Regular Training Sessions
  • Feedback Mechanisms

Section 9: Evaluation and Metrics for Success

• Key Performance Indicators (KPIs):
  • Donor Retention Rates
  • Event ROI
  • Grant Success Rates
  • Community Engagement Metrics
• Evaluation Tools:
  • Donor Management Software
  • Surveys and Feedback Forms
  • Regular Reports to Stakeholders
• Adjustments: Establish a process for reviewing and refining strategies based on performance data.

Section 10: Action Plan and Timeline

• Implementation Steps:
  • Assign tasks to team members or departments.
  • Set deadlines and milestones.
• Progress Checkpoints: Regularly scheduled reviews to ensure accountability and track accomplishments.

Section 11: Budget Overview

• Resource Allocation:
  • Staffing
  • Marketing and Outreach
  • Event Hosting
• Financial Projections: Anticipated revenue and costs for each initiative.

Section 12: Sustainability and Growth Plan

• Alternative Funding Strategies:
  • Partnerships with Local Businesses
  • Membership Programs
  • Social Enterprise Models
• Long-Term Planning:
  • Build reserve funds.
  • Develop contingency plans for economic downturns.

Appendices

• Templates and Worksheets:
  • Donor Persona Template
  • SMART Goals Worksheet
  • Fundraising Activity Calendar
• Additional Resources:
  • Links to Grant Databases
  • Sample Donor Letters
  • Marketing Campaign Examples

This template provides a detailed structure for nonprofits to craft their own development plans. Please feel free to copy and use it for your own needs and let us know how we can help you further. If you’d like to see exactly how Paybee can be extremely useful in this entire process, plus so much more, please take a look at our free demo.

Wrapping Up

Building a sustainable nonprofit requires more than the occasional fundraising event or donor appeal, it demands a comprehensive nonprofit development plan. By aligning your goals, diversifying your funding sources, leveraging data, and fostering meaningful relationships, you create a solid foundation for your organization to thrive both short and long term.

Whether you're a large nonprofit with dedicated teams or a small organization working with limited resources, the principles outlined here plus our in depth template can easily guide you toward long term success. Plus you can take advantage of strategies like SMART goals, donor personas, and diversified fundraising achieve your mission more effectively while still remaining flexable to future challenges.

Remember, development isn't just about raising funds, it's about strengthening every aspect of your organization to ensure its impact is felt for years to come. Start today, and watch your nonprofit grow into a pillar of support for the community it serves.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you measure the success of a nonprofit development plan?

In order to really understand the efficiency you will need to track and regurly analyze key data points like KPIs such as donor retention rates, campaign ROI, volunteer recruitment growth, and community engagement metrics.

Is it necessary to hire a development director for a nonprofit?

No, after reading our article and using our template, anyone should be able to come up with their own comprehensive plan, even a small charity.

How can technology help implement a nonprofit development plan?

Technology like donor management software, CRM tools, and platforms like Paybee can streamline donor tracking, communication, event planning, and KPI analysis, making your development efforts even more effective.

How often should a nonprofit development plan be updated?

Review and update your development plan annually to adjust to changing circumstances, evaluate past performance, and set new goals.

Do small nonprofits need a development plan, or is it just for larger organizations?

It doesn't matter the size of your organization, any nonprofit can benefit from a solid development plan. It helps prioritize resources, set achievable goals, and build a sustainable foundation, even with limited staff and funding.