An audit of your fund development program is an essential element of developing your fundraising plan. This approach assesses all aspects of your organization through your fundraiser eyes.

1. How to do a
Fund Development Audit
Analyzing your organization through your fundraiser eyes
Gayle L. Gifford, ACFRE

2. Topics
 Audit overview
 Components
 Data collection
 Analysis
 What’s next?

3. Workshop rules:
 This is a taste, not the
whole meal
 Ask
 Share

5. When to do an audit?

6. “… basic assumptions and norms
about how the organization
operated …had to be challenged
and changed ….
“In a number of cases … the
organization had been failing to
meet its fundraising targets for
several years … it was now
assumed that the target would
not be met and that it was
acceptable not to meet it.
“Such assumptions were
unacceptable.”
Adrian Sargeant and Jen Shang

7. Putting charitable giving in
perspective
$73.9 billion
$298.4 billion
$10 billion
$15
billion

9. Private Contributions
 Individuals
 Private Foundations
 Businesses
 Grant making public
charities
Bequests
From Giving USA 2012

10. The leaky bucket:
What to do to keep the
bucket full:
 Keep the givers and
gifts you have
 Replace what you lose
 Grow givers and gifts

11. What is a whole organization
fund development audit?
Comprehensive assessment
of your organization and your
fundraising program with a goal
of strategic improvement.

12. From “Great Fundraising”
“In our view, what makes a fundraising leader truly
great is how they go about answering [this] question:
“How might all these existing systems be
transformed systematically such that great
fundraising may be created?”

13. How do I do it?

14. Prepare yourself

15. Think strategically
Intent focused
Systems perspective
Intelligent opportunism
Thinking in time
Hypothesis driven

16. Know your industry
 Fundraising
 Your cause
 Your marketplace
 What makes
organizations great

17. Where to start
1. External Scan
 Benchmark
 Review data
 Talk to people
2. Internal Scan
 Review data
 Talk to people
 Prepare a SWOT

18. Benchmarking
Fundraising Profile of Peer
Organizations
 Ask
 Compare 990s
 Compare Annual
Reports
 Review the field

19. Reviewing a 990
Front Page

23. Annual Report

24. National Center for Charitable Statistics

27. Get an outside perspective
People to interview
 Donors
 Prospects
 Peer organizations
 Trendsetters
 Institutional funders
 Clients
 Board members
 Program staff
 _________________

28. Know your market
 Giving universe
 Wealth/scarcity of institutional
funders
 “Competition”
 _____________________

29. For example

30. RI households
by income for
zips 02818 and
02906

31. Know thyself
Trend data
 Donor longevity
 Long term value of a donor (by
solicitation source)
 Donor profile
 Donor acquisition and attrition
– New and returning donors
– Donors who have dropped out and not
returned
– New donors
 Increases or decreases in giving
 Income by solicitation sources
 Giver counts by gift range
 Donation totals by gift range
 Average gift trends
 Geography or other demographics
 Other ______________________

33. What else to analyze
 Mission & Program
 Case for Support
 Culture of Philanthropy & Leadership
 Constituents
 Fundraising Program
 Stewardship Program
 Brand Identity & Communications
 Fund Development Capacity & Infrastructure
 Legal & Regulatory

35. Pull it all together into an analysis
 Executive Summary
 Mission
 Profile of Fund Development
 Summary giving Profile
 Comparison with Peers
 Assets- Opportunities- Missing Pieces- Work
Arounds/Concerns by SWOT element
 Detailed data
 Findings from external research

36. The audit only matters if it guides
your fundraising plan
 Develop opportunities
 Strengthen weaknesses
 Mothball or abandon
unpromising directions
 Do more research
 Lobby for needed
investments

37. Questions?

38. Thank you
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 Call me at 401-331-
2272
 Gayle@ceffect.com