The 7 P’s of Successful Nonprofit Fundraising Strategy
When a million people are giving you advice on fundraising—online, in podcasts, in articles and books—it can quickly feel overwhelming.
Rather than chasing bits and pieces of advice, I advise all my clients to instead focus on a core fundraising strategy and framework that you can repeat and use forever.
After running five nonprofits and raising hundreds of millions of dollars, I developed an incredibly simple fundraising strategy framework that almost any nonprofit can use to raise money in any state, sector, country, and growth stage.
I call it the Nonprofit Fixer Fundraising Formula, and it boils the fundamentals of fundraising strategy into seven (7) areas that conveniently all begin with the letter P.
The 7 Ps of fundraising strategy is your key to clearing out the clutter, getting clarity, and raising money more easily.
The 7 P’s of a Successful Fundraising Strategy
Whether you are a fledgling nonprofit or an organization with a $50M budget, you still need a smart and customized fundraising strategy to achieve long-term success.
I have seen organizations with seed funding from a wealthy donor, or those that receive windfall gifts, get overly cocky and forget the fundamentals. If you don’t nurture your development program, team, and strategy, your nonprofit will suffer.
This is why I created a simple tool to remember the fundamentals. I teach this framework in my coaching and consulting practice. Here are the steps.
Step 1 is the Pitch: This is where you create the compelling need or "case for support" for your cause.
Step 2 is the Platform: This is how you deliver your pitch (events, mail, digital, face-to-face, etc.).
Step 3 is the People: Who is doing the fundraising, and who is being solicited?
Step 4 is where you put it all together in a Plan (who does what by when).
Step 5 is Policy. Organizations thrive when they have standards and alignment.
Step 6 is Perspective. This comes down to attitude and mindset. It is fundamental to fundraising.
Step 7 is Practice. We always get better when we draft, tweak, role-play, and workshop our methods.
Fundraising Strategy Part 1: The Pitch
The term “pitch” has gotten a bad reputation as being salesy and inauthentic. But that does not have to be the case.
When it comes to fundraising strategy, your pitch is a practiced, strategic, deliberate, and repeatable explanation of your organization, the work you do, and why you do it. A pitch is usually brief and compelling, and may be followed with an “ask” or call to action.
An “elevator pitch” is an even shorter way of explaining your work or organization. All pitches should be practiced—even if it feels awkward at first. Over time, as you practice your pitch, it will improve and feel less rehearsed.
Alongside your pitch, you will need a "case for support" that goes further into why someone should care about your nonprofit and then hopefully act.
For example, one strategy out of many that I teach is “show, don’t tell.” You don’t want to explain things in words if you can do them in a narrative story, picture, or even video. Showing the work you do is always better.
Another technique is to use “benefits” language rather than “features” language. Instead of listing your programs and activities for potential donors, describe how your work makes their lives or world better.
For example, a feature of a pencil may be that it has six sides. But the benefit is that it won’t roll off the table. A feature of your organization may be that you have a homeless shelter. The benefit is that “people have a place to stay warm and dry in their hour of need.”
Fundraising Strategy Part 2: The Platform
Your fundraising platform is the method by which you deliver your pitch. Your platform could be a gala, a grant proposal, a direct mail solicitation, or any other way you deliver your pitch to potential donors.
“The key is finding your strongest platforms and then utilizing them to share your polished and compelling pitch. ”
For example, at a gala, you may use your pitch at the microphone during the dinner program. Elements of your pitch may also find their way onto materials at people’s seats, and it may be repeated on screens around the event. These are all elements of your platform.
One fundraising strategy I teach is to “do 3 things well instead of 20 things poorly.” When considering platforms for sharing your pitch, you want to be highly focused on areas where you have the greatest potential.
In my consulting work, I’ve found that many organizations’ strongest platforms are not always the ones where they have been focusing the most energy. That’s why one of the first things I do with consulting clients is take an inventory to identify where the organization has assets and special powers.
With that information, we can home in on the most high-impact fundraising strategies using those assets.
For example, if you have access to a fantastic event or meeting space, you could focus more on events. If you know influential people, you may want to focus on small house parties or an influencer strategy.
To learn more about conducting your own comprehensive fundraising inventory, check out my full fundraising course.
Fundraising Strategy Part 3: The People
You can’t do fundraising without people. There are people from your organization involved in fundraising, and there are people being solicited. There are also people involved in every step, like the employees at your direct mail vendor and others.
Getting clear on who is involved in fundraising at your organization is important for later steps. It also helps you assess current talent and gaps.
Who is doing the fundraising in your nonprofit? Is it a contract grant writer? The executive director? Is it a volunteer? The people doing fundraising will change and grow over time, but you will want to account for them.
Every organization needs to decide who the messengers will be for every ask on every platform. Normally, it is a board member, executive director, or fundraising staff member. But other times it may be a state legislator or a direct program recipient.
Every organization must also decide who they are asking for money and how you are reaching them. Are you using ads to acquire cold leads? Are you trying to renew lapsed donors who you know are already familiar with you?
Or are you trying to canvas a neighborhood after a horrible storm to look for donations for needy families impacted by that storm?
Fundraising Strategy Part 4: The Plan
The plan is where you put your fundraising strategy together in writing through your fundraising plan.
It is proven that organizations with plans (and individuals, for that matter) do better when they have plans. To be effective, your fundraising plan must be in writing, be specific, and be updated regularly.
A good fundraising plan will have goals for every fundraising activity, including the person responsible, the time frame for work, and the deadline for deliverables. Think concrete and specific. For example: “Sally will draft the annual appeal by November 1. Stephen will mail the letter at the US Postal Office on November 19.”
If you want a head start, I’ve developed a proven fundraising plan template.
Fundraising Strategy Part 5: Policy
Organizations thrive when they have standards and are aligned. That’s where policies come into your fundraising strategy.
Policies provide structure, consistency, transparency, and integrity. Policies show what you prioritize, such as board fundraising or having a rainy day fund. Policies help explain to donors what gifts you’ll accept and which ones you won’t.
One policy I strongly recommend is the “Give/Get” policy. This requires that a board either give some money to the organization every year and/or raise some money for the organization every year. The combination can be powerful, making your board members more engaged and fostering a sense of ownership in the work. You don’t want a board with lots of opinions but no willingness to financially support the work.
Having a Rainy Day Policy is also a smart choice. Too often, nonprofits think they have to operate at a break-even point. They think they aren’t allowed to save money. This is not true. Passing a Rainy Day Policy ensures that 5% of all new unrestricted dollars in a given year are held in a savings account, inaccessible unless for an emergency or shortfall.
The policy should spell out the terms for saving and accessing the funds. Organizations of any size can have this policy.
Fundraising Strategy Part 6: Perspective
By “perspective,” I mean mindset and attitude. Your approach and attitude have a huge impact on your fundraising success. If you have hangups about money or feel bad asking for a gift, you will have less success overall than those with a better mindset.
When I consult and coach nonprofit fundraisers, we often spend a lot of time unpacking assumptions or outdated ideas about fundraising that must be challenged in order to be successful.
For example, many leaders initially feel guilty asking people for money. One way this shows up is by being both the buyer and the seller: you ask someone for money and almost immediately give them ways to not donate the full amount. “I know things are tough right now, so if you want to give less, you can.” Don’t do this.
Another harmful belief is assuming you are asking for a favor when you ask for money. You are not. You are actually doing the donor a favor by inviting them to solve a social or environmental problem.
Finally, we must stop assuming that lower-income people or people of color will have less access to wealth and therefore should not be held to the same fundraising policies on the board.
By having low standards for your board, you’ll end up with a bad board. You can have a working-class White woman on the board named Stacy who is completely checked out and not willing to fundraise, while at the same time, have a poor Latina named Isabella who puts her mind to it and hits up everyone at her house of worship with a bake sale and raises $500.
Yes, we must be sensitive to race and class, but too often, White-led boards make assumptions that harm their fundraising success based on perspective.
Fundraising Strategy Part 7: Practice
The final step in the Nonprofit Fixer Fundraising Formula and the 7Ps framework is practicing. This includes practicing your pitch, practicing writing plans, and practicing deploying and supporting your people. The more you practice all these, the more your perspective will shift.
“We always get better when we draft, tweak, role-play, and workshop our methods. ”
Every board member should practice delivering their fundraising pitch on stage or directly to a friend. Every staff person should adopt a “customer-service orientation” with existing donors to ensure they feel valued and heard.
Conclusion: Let’s Make Fundraising Fun AND Easy
Fundraising is essential to the success of most nonprofits. Many organizations overcomplicate their fundraising with fads and fancy software.
Fundraising strategy really can be boiled down to a simple framework and a memorable set of seven steps. Whether you are a scrappy startup or a large university, this system can work. Remember the Pitch, the Platform, the People, the Plan, the Policy, the Perspective, and the Practicing.
Get all these right and you’ll be in an amazing place to raise money.
