Understanding the Objective of Fundraising: 10 Fundraising Goals for Nonprofit Success

Your fundraising objective isn’t simply ‘to raise more money,’ it’s about creating a shared vision that motivates your team, builds donor confidence and makes sure your campaign stays on track. Choosing the right objectives in a logical manner will allow your nonprofit to create a systematic way to decide, implement and track your objectives so that each campaign can be improved upon in the future.

Your objectives or goals need to be realistic and not too grandiose, and they should also be based on past experience and the ability of your donors to support your ambitions. In addition, there are many parts to creating reliable objectives like your staff and volunteers to do the work, your leadership to effectively get the job done, and the value of your objective as it pertains to your overall mission.

1. Aligning Fundraising Objectives with Organizational Goals

All of your fundraising objectives need to reflect the larger goals of your nonprofit and have a clear reason for being created. These objectives are most effective when they connect directly to your charity's mission and strategic priorities of the organization. After all, it’s your mission that attracts volunteers and donors and sparks the communal aspect of your organization. By aligning everything with your broader purpose, you create a clear link between financial targets and the impact you aim to achieve.

For example, if your nonprofit’s mission involves providing educational resources to underserved communities, your fundraising objectives might focus on raising funds in order to supply books, digital tools, or scholarships to the community. Similarly, if your organization needs operational support, your objectives could center on recruiting new volunteers, covering existing staff salaries, paying for utilities or covering administrative expenses.

When you keep your objectives in line with your overall mission, it helps to build further trust with donors as well as attract new supporters. This is because clear connections between what you’re raising the money for, and what your nonprofit will use the money for allows people to clearly see how their involvement in you obtaining your goals allows them to be involved and make a real impact. People are always more likely to contribute to your cause when they see how their support will drive real change.

To put this into practice, review your nonprofit’s current needs and future plans. Ask questions like: What is the most pressing need? What initiatives will have the greatest impact this year? Use these answers to shape your fundraising objectives, creating a goal that support both your mission and the practical needs of your organization.

2. Engaging Your Leadership and Key Advocates

Engaging leadership and key people within your organization is extremely important due to the collaborative aspect of involving everyone and making them feel part of the team, plus allowing the chance to ignite collective passion and focus in everyone involved. When your board of directors and leadership team actively participate, they bring fresh ideas, credibility, and valuable resources to the table.

So your first step is to organize a strategy session with your board of directors and any key management or people that may have an in-depth knowledge or special skills pertaining to objectives. Lay out your nonprofit’s vision and the specific funding needs you are seeking to fulfill. For example, are you looking to expand a youth program, support operational costs, or invest in new equipment or buy land to expand? The clearer you can make your smart goals the easier it will be to have open, productive discussions.

But creating a plan isn’t the only reason to have all of these key players on board. Ask each individual to step up and get personally involved with your objectives. This can include asking your board members to tap into their networks to connect with potential donors, sponsors, or grant opportunities. Their personal connections often unlock funding that would be out of reach otherwise. This can be done with all your people, just be aware of each person’s limitations on the amount of help they can offer.

Leadership can also lead by example. If your executive director or board chair makes a gift personally or shares your campaign on Facebook or other social media channels, it sets a powerful precedent. When your advocates see their leadership fully involved in your quest, they’re more likely to follow suit. This collaborative energy can turn ambitious fundraising objectives into a set shared journey with tangible results.

3. Evaluate Past Performance and Data

By looking to the past you can clearly see what types of fundraising worked and often why. You can also see which ones fell short and possible ways to improve their performance for next time. This past data can also help you gauge how much money you could possibly raise, the number of attendees to your event and the likelihood of attracting new supporters to your cause.

If you haven’t started already, begin by tracking key metrics and KPIs such as:

• • Total funds raised versus goal
  • Number of new donors acquired
  • Donor retention rates
  • Average donation size
  • Return on investment (ROI) of campaigns
  • Non-monetary impacts (e.g., awareness raised)

If you’re using a nonprofit software platform like Paybee, it’ll be easy to retrieve all of these numbers and look for high performers and any data that can suggest how to promote your fundraising opportunities more effectively. For example, did a specific campaign or messaging approach resonate strongly with donors? Can you improve upon this and make it work for your current objectives? Have you overlook potential fundraising methods, like corporate partnerships or matching gifts?

If you have the time and resources one of the best ways you can gather data is to ask everyone involved with past fundraisers including your staff and donors. Use open-ended questions like, what motivated donors to give or engage? What barriers did supporters face in participating or donating? Were internal processes clear and efficient for staff? And so on. These first hand accounts can often give you insights that hard statistical data never could.

4. Understanding Your Donor’s Capacity and Behavior to Reach Your Goal

Knowing your donors inside and out is extremely important for any nonprofit looking to making a lasting impact. This means knowing what social media channels they frequent most, how they like to be contacted, what types of communications they engage with the most and what motivates them to continually support your cause. This type of information is invaluable and can be used to direct your marketing to its fullest potential efficiently.

You also need to understand their capacity to give to your organization. Are they a one time small donor? Do they support your monthly giving program? Are they far enough along on the donor cultivation cycle that they can be convinced to become a major donor? Knowing who supports your nonprofit and why allows you to create strategies that resonate with your audience, meet their expectations and allow you to reach your objectives much more effectively.

5. Factoring in Fundraiser Costs and Smart Fundraising

Many nonprofits overlook the costs involved in holding their fundraising events. It isn’t always true since you’re a charity everything is going to be free. For example, the amount of funds you’d need to support a golf charity will most likely be much different than if you’re doing a bowl-a-thon at the local bowling alley.

Start by listing all potential costs for your fundraising activities. Common expenses include event space rental, marketing materials, staff time, and technology tools like donation platforms so you can share your donation form easily. Include any hidden or indirect costs, such as volunteer training or travel expenditures. Clearly understand all of the costs involved helps you determine if the event is even worth pursuing.

You should also look to analyze past fundraising efforts to identify strategies that brought in the most support. Did a particular email campaign outperform others? Did a smaller event lead to higher donations than expected? For example, if previous campaigns showed that online digital fundraisers had a lower cost and broader reach, you might consider doing more online events than in-person ones.

6. Incorporating Community Input

Even though all charities can benefit from the input of their communities, local organizations are specially suited to taking advantage of the very people they serve. And we’ve found that incorporating community input into your fundraising objectives greatly improves your chances of financial success.

This is because when you involve the people your nonprofit serves, you show that you care about their opinions. It helps build trust and strengthens the connection between your nonprofit and the local community.

But the most important reason to listen to them is that they can tell you exactly what would resonate with them and what they’d like to most be a part of. After all, they are the community so why wouldn’t they be the best source of ideas for how to raise money effectively.

And all of this can be done easily using surveys, asking for feedback on your social media channels, or even getting seriously into it and hosting community panels or focus groups.

For instance, imagine you’re planning a 5k run for your charity. You might ask your community what route they prefer, if they’d like additional family-friendly activities, or what kind of incentives would encourage them to participate. Their answers might surprise you and lead to new opportunities.

7. Building the Right Team and Strategy

Building the right team is one of the most important steps in making your fundraising objectives successful so give this some serious thought. After all, these will be the people to not only help you plan, but to make all your activities a reality. So you need a capable team that will bring diverse skills and ideas to the table as well as people who are passionate about your cause and are willing to put in the real work. When assembling your team, think about the different roles required to pull everything off.

You’re going to need individuals who are skilled in marketing and communication, organization, and managing finances among others. It’s also smart to know each person’s strengths and place them in positions where they can bring as much value as possible. Your people are the most valuable resources available, so make sure you’re using them in ways that benefit your nonprofit and themselves.

Once you have the right people, you’ll also need a solid strategy. Once you know your overall goals, simply chunk them down into smaller pieces and assign each person to track progress or assign them a task that brings you closer to your goal. It’s about giving your team a clear framework to follow while allowing room to adapt when necessary. For instance, if your goal is to raise $50,000, break it down into monthly targets. Then each monthly target into actionable items like cold calling or meeting supporters in person and asking them for their support. This keeps everyone on the same page, involved and accountable for their part.

8. Considering Internal and External Trends

When setting fundraising objectives, it's important to think about things like donor retention and the overall economic outlook. Right now nonprofit industry standards report that while donor growth has been on the decline, the amount of donations has risen risen slightly even though it comes from fewer people. This type of information is valuable as it allows you to better understand what priorities to take on now and how it will impact your fundraising goal overall.

For example, Woodrow Rosenbaum, chief data officer of GivingTuesday, stated, ‘re-engaging lapsed donors should be a top priority.’ This is important since now you can focus on your own lapsed donors and create strategies to re-engage them and start supporting your cause again. This can also be cost efficient since these people are already familiar with your cause and have supported you previously.

But this is also where external factors come into play. Economic trends can greatly impact donations. Some donors due to Covid and other problems may have lost their jobs, or been downsized. People may have less disposable income to give for any number of external reason. It’s your job to understand them and know what the chances of their support is if you want to successfully fund your campaigns.

9. Leveraging Nonprofit Human Resources

When deciding on your fundraising goals, your nonprofit’s human resources are a major factor. And when we talk about human resources, we mean anyone involved in your organization from your board members to staff and volunteers. These people can all play a key role in helping you to meet your organization’s goals.

Start by taking stock of everyone’s skills and experience. For example, does your board have connections with potential donors or the ability to influence major gifts? Are staff members skilled at managing campaigns or communicating with donors? Have your volunteers been trained sufficiently enough to handle event planning, outreach, and donor follow-up? Start by mapping out the specific roles each person or group can play. Then, break down tasks by priority.

But don’t forget to be realistic as well. People aren’t robots, they have their own busy lives regardless if they are getting paid or not. Think about how much time and energy each person can realistically contribute. Board members may be too busy ask them to handle day-to-day tasks, but they might be able to lead major fundraising initiatives or make connections to high net worth donors. Your staff might focus on the logistics of a fundraising event while your volunteers can handle smaller less time consuming activities.

You’ll also need to keep track of each individual’s progress to make sure everyone is on target. Start by creating a timeline that outlines each group’s responsibilities and each member’s specific tasks. Keep up with how your progress is going and check in with staff to see if they need extra support. This can help you decide on how much each person can realistically contribute to your fundraising goal without burning out or loosing their enthusiasm.

10. Enhancing Your Donors Experience

It’s far more cost effective to cultivate a relationship with your existing donors than to continually look for new ones. And one of the best ways to build long-term relationships and increase future contributions is to make your donors feel emotionally involved with your cause. You want them to feel their support has real meaning, impact and that they feel as though they are a part of something important and larger than themselves.

Start with personalized acknowledgments. A simple thank-you note can go a long way. But don’t stop there. Add a personal touch by mentioning the donor’s specific contribution or involvement. A message that says, “Your donation helped provide a safe place to stay for a human trafficking survivor,” feels much more personal and connected than a generic “thank you for your support.”

You should continue updating them on the impact their donation provided. To stay with the example, share stories, photos, or videos showing how their support made a difference in someone’s life, and how through their help your charity was able to find these survivors mental health resources, housing and a safe environment to begin healing. Connections like these can be very deep and help to keep your supporters involved at a very personal level with your mission.

Recognition programs also play a big role. Publicly acknowledging donors through newsletters, social media, or even at events can make them feel like they’re not just another checkbook and that your charity values their commitment. This not only makes your donors feel wonderful, but it can really be a spark for others to become involved when they see such a caring organization that is all inclusive.

Wrapping Up

As you can see, creating fundraising objectives correctly can give you a solid plan for achieving your financial goals. You just need to be sure that your objectives are aligned with your charity’s mission and resonate with your supporters while also being focused on creating lasting impact. If you can achieve all that, you’ll have people who are motivated to turn each objective into an achievable task.