Fundraising Tips for Friends Groups
While creating a fundraising plan, consider the following strategies to help make the process go smoothly and ensure your group is bringing in the support!
An important step in creating a fundraising plan is identifying what your group’s financial needs are. Consider the following types of costs.
Utilizing these anticipated expenses, create an annual budget, broken down by month, to get a picture of typical monthly expenses and times of the year where you may incur more expenses. Big projects or events may warrant their own, separate budgets.
Have different board members, volunteers, or committees take charge of a specific portion of fundraising. For example:
Create a funding spectrum that highlights what each dollar amount enables your group to do. For example:
Break down your donations into size categories—small, medium, and large. It is important to focus energy on obtaining contributions from each size category, which will help your group maintain a resilient funding base.
Donations to your group are only tax deductible if your organization has 501(c)(3) status with the Internal Revenue Service and is a Minnesota nonprofit corporation. Some groups attain both of these designations, which require a bit of time, effort, and commitment.
Alternatively, the Parks & Trails Council of Minnesota offers a Fiscal Sponsorship program that enables a Friends Group to become a Fiscal Client under the nonprofit umbrella of Parks & Trails Council. This means, P&TC assumes responsibilities of funds dedicated to your Friends Group, and your group can accept tax deductible donations.
If events you’ve hosted or strategies you’ve implemented have proven successful, use them again! For example:
Make procedures and systemize the process so that it gets easier to facilitate each time.
Establish how you will thank your donors. For example: