SolveYourProblem
eBusiness Series:
Fundraising
Essentials For Your Non-Profit:
How To Raise All The Money You Want
( 34 pages )
Stay
Organized While Fundraising
Fundraising involves a lot of paper work, a lot of ideas, a
lot of action lists. You can easily become overwhelmed
and lose track of the entire project if you allow yourself
to become disorganized. This is why it is crucial to stay
organized regularly.
The system of
organization that is best depends on you. Financial software
is ideal for some, while other prefer impeccable files. It
does not matter which organizing method you choose. What
does matter is that you use it faithfully and stay organized.
Among the items you will need to keep organized during fundraising:
-
Income
tax receipts -
Your donors will want to receive income tax slips to
claim their gifts on their taxes. In some cases, they
may write to you again during tax season for another
slip. Also, you will need to keep good records of the
money donated for your group’s income tax and other
assessments.
-
Volunteer
information -
Contact information, emergency information, and any
other items of interest will need to be stored so that
you can contact your workers or help them in case of
an emergency.
-
Donor
Information -
You will need to file away information about those
who have donated to your fundraising - not only will
you want to take care not to contact those people again
too soon, but you will want to contact the same donors
again after some time as they are likely to contribute
again. You will need a very good organizational system
to keep track of who you should be contacting when.
For each donor, you will want to keep contact information,
amounts donated, times when the donor donated money,
the donor’s preferred method of being contacted, and
the time you should contact them again. It is important
that you keep this information useable.
-
Market
Research -
You need to file all the information you gather about
potential donors and potential fundraising ideas. This
information needs to be quickly accessible when you
start fundraising in earnest.
-
Research -
You will want to keep information about other similar
non-profits with successful fundraising ideas.
-
Grant
applications -
In a visible place, you will want to keep grant application
deadlines so that you will be able to apply for all
the grants your group qualifies for. You will also
want to keep copies of completed applications on file
to help you with future applications.
-
Letters -
For your records, you will want to keep track of any
letters you send and the responses you get. You will
want to keep letters from donors and from companies who
are willing to help your fundraising efforts, for example.
-
Legal
Issues -
You will need to file deeds or leases for your group’s
space, licensing agreements, proof that your group
is a registered non-profit organization, and other
legal papers that might be crucial at a later date.
-
Meeting
Minutes -
Keeping your group’s records and ideas together will
make it easier for you to see who needs to be doing
what. You can also refer to earlier brainstorming sessions
if you need to be reminded why a certain idea was turned
down or why someone was scheduled for a specific task.
-
The
Operations of Your Non-Profit -
Non-profit groups have lots of logistical paper work
- utility bills, legal bills, notices from government
about changing laws, and so on. You need to keep these
records together so that any disputes can be resolved
quickly.
-
The
Amount of Money being spent, and the amount of money
coming in -
Keeping track of money is crucial in proving that your
business is fundraising in a fair way and in order
to prove that your group really is non-profit. Some
charitable groups think that their records cannot be
seized or audited, but this is not true. Keep excellent
financial records and check them twice - a non-profit
accused to misusing donor funds often has a terrible
time trying to fundraise again. Keep track of every
penny you spend on your group to offset any such unpleasant
problems.
-
Time -
For a non-profit, keeping track of time is as important
as keeping track of money. Keeping track of volunteer
time can help you write accurate reference letters for
your workers, and keeping track of time and money can
help you see whether you could be using your time more
productively in order to help more people.
Obviously, there
are many records and papers that need to be tracked. Medium-sized
and larger non-profits often find that they require the help
of an accountant and one or more office assistants to keep
track of paper. Even in smaller non-profits, having one secretary
or office manager can be a big help. One person should interact
with all the incoming papers and information each day and
should either file papers or act on them. Money spent and
donated needs to be recorded accurately each day. Workers
should always return papers to the same files after each
use. A once-weekly meeting during fundraising can help keep
papers and idea organized.
If you cannot
afford to have one person caring for your files and organization,
deal with papers on a daily basis to prevent information
overload. Get a fundraising software package (even a basic
one) to help you keep track of donors, grant applications,
and the other important details of non-profit fundraising.
 
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