3 things you must do before your next campaign—I’m not kidding.

Why do so many amazing, innovative startup nonprofits struggle to pay their staff when raising money?

You see a need. You meet it. You count the cost and yet it usually isn’t the full cost of what it takes to run your program. Why is this so common?

The truth is this: if you want to scale your impact or raise the quality of the services you provide you need to pay yourself and your team. Volunteers alone cannot scale—at least not at the rate you would like.

Start👏integrating👏 your👏 salary👏 into👏 every👏 cam👏 paign 👏. Period.

Here are 3 things you NEED to do before your next campaign (and every single one after that!):

• You must pay yourself and include it in the amount you need to fundraise. Create a true cost budget of the project or program you are fundraising for. Don’t just include “hard” costs like supplies or things you actually purchase yourself or hire someone to do. Include the “soft” costs of what it takes to raise the full amount needed to run your program. In other words, make sure that you are counting the cost of the percentage of your time spent strategizing, thinking, planning, fundraising, etc. in the amount you need to raise in order to do the work you do. Consider this: If you aren’t doing what you’re doing, what would it cost you to outsource? Factor that amount in your project budget when fundraising. This is sustainable organizational management.

  Extra tip: if you had to hire a fundraiser or fundraising consultant (ahem) to raise this amount, how much would that cost? That’s what you should factor into your budget. Consider that fundraising is a full-time job and you should be paying yourself and your team for it.

• Create a fundraising plan based on calculated projections. Go line by line with every current and potential donor and determine what you can raise from each individual and why. This must be based on actual qualitative and quantitative data and not your feelings or gut alone. Determine: 1) Who are the potential donors to this campaign, 2) What amount are you going to ask them for, 3) Why (they said they would like to give, they have given $XXXX in the past, they are passionate about this type of work, they have given to other organizations or similar projects, etc.) and 4) What is the likelihood they will give that amount and why.

  For example:

  Donor: Jalen Smith

  Ask amount: $10,000

  Why: Passionate about youth and inclusive learning

  Probability: 50%

  Reason: Gave $10,000 last year but said he might not be able to give the same again this year

  Projection: $5,000

  So the projected amount you expect to raise from Jalen Smith is $5,000.

  Do this line by line for each donor and create a total projection that will allow you to see if your projected amount raised lines up with your actual budget for the program. Then you can create a plan for the gap, if there is one.

• Add 10% to top of the budget. Around 10% of gifts promised or pledged are not going to come through. Every time. This is normal. It happens. It is not an indication of your ability to fundraise or the worthiness of your program.

You may be thinking: That’s great Julie, but how do I educate my board or donors that “overhead” or administrative costs are important and worth investing in. Or better yet, how do I convince myself that I should be paid when I’ve been doing this work for so little and it’s gotten us this far?

Fundraisers, volunteers and founders ARE the program. Without you, there is no program. There is no impact. There is no service delivery. How can you be reduced to just overhead?

If you need more help in this arena, I’d love to learn more about you and your work.

I can help you navigate complex conversations with board members, your team and donors. Click here to set up a 1:1 strategy intensive session.