Your Budget is a Fundraising Tool - Part 2

Your organization’s budget is an important - and often unused - fundraising tool. 

In this two-part blog series, we’re sharing how transparency about your budget can create new ways for friends and donors to help support the needs and mission of your nonprofit. Last time, we outlined the foundational strategy of a narrative budget for your board and key donors.

Today, I’d invite you to think about fundraising for your mission in a way that transforms your day-to-day operational costs into tangible gifts. If you didn’t have your current facilities, your computer system, your program vehicle, your staff or your building, how would your mission be impacted? 

I always encourage organizations to use their annual budget process as a way to outline donor impact - how many donors at what level does it take to keep the lights on? The HVAC running?  Take time to break down aspects of your budget into actual dollar “handles” for your donors - this allows them to literally “grab” onto how a gift at each donor level impacts various needs. For example, how many donors giving $150 a month does it take to fund your utilities? Your IT budget? Your food pantry director’s salary? Tangible examples educate your donors on how they do and can make a difference.

This can be an important exercise for your staff and your board - breaking down budget lines into monetized, tangible levels for donors to grasp. This helps the $25 a week donor feel less like their funds are going into an “operational black hole” and more empowered to know how a gift at their level advances the mission in various ways.

As you share messages of donor impact throughout the year - and especially in your annual giving campaigns or solicitation letters - be sure you include those operational costs that donors are helping meet through their generosity. Your missional outreach wouldn’t be possible without staff, infrastructure and operational facilities. Be intentional to outline those donor dollar handles regularly in your messaging and communications. Your IT, insurance, parking lot and staff benefit costs are part of your mission, too. It’s ok to fundraise for those items and have donors understand their role in making the whole of your organization’s work possible.

I can’t emphasize enough how important it is for the development officer to understand budget needs to be an effective fundraiser for an organization. So next time there’s a budget planning meeting, don’t skip it - we have an important role to play in translating our program and operational expenses into donor impact opportunities.

- Tim Smith