Writing a fundraising strategy

A fundraising strategy sets out how a charity will raise money to deliver its mission. It should answer three questions:

• where are we?
• where do we want to be?
• how do we get there?

It'll help you focus resources, make better decisions and adapt when circumstances change.

Here are five elements to include in your fundraising strategy.

Understand your external environment

A good strategy starts with a clear understanding of your internal resources and your external environment.

We have two tools that can help you:

• A PESTLE (Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Legal, Environmental) analysis
• A SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis.

Know your income mix

Make sure you know what income is available.

Not every income stream is right for every charity. Relying on a single source of income will put you at risk.

A healthy income mix balances different factors:

• Restricted vs unrestricted: unrestricted funding gives you more flexibility to respond to needs.
• Short-term vs long-term: one-off grants can be useful, but regular giving or contracts offer stability.
• Sustainable vs opportunistic: some income sources are reliable year after year, while others may be time limited.

Use our funding and income planner to plan your income mix.

To achieve a healthy balance, you may need to adjust your fundraising strategy, build new skills internally or invest in better systems such as a fundraising database.

Decide on your direction

Your fundraising strategy should set out where you want to be by the end of a defined period. Most organisations plan over two to three years.

If your organisation is working to a three-year plan, your fundraising strategy should cover the same period.  This ensures income generation is fully integrated into how you deliver your mission.

Use SMART objectives (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time-bound) to track progress.

Develop a fundraising activity plan and budget

This sets out how you will deliver your fundraising objectives.

It shows:

• what fundraising you will do and when
• key dates you can link to (like external events or campaigns)
• what needs to be in place first (such as a case for support, resources, or training)
• who is involved
• who is responsible for each task.

Mapping gives you a clear picture of workload. You can see busy periods, move things around and spot gaps where new activity might fit.

Learn more about preparing a budget.

Monitor and evaluate progress

A good fundraising strategy builds in space to review what’s working, what isn’t and why. This may result in adapting plans as you go along.

It's about more than tracking income, though.  Measures such as donor retention and funding application success rate give you insights that can shape your next strategy.

It also helps you to anticipate risks. This information should then contribute to your organisational risk register.

A strategy only makes a difference if it's implemented.

Everyone involved in delivery needs to know what is expected of them. This might mean including fundraising KPIs in staff appraisals or adjusting workloads so that time is focused on the right priorities.