Featured Course: Nonprofit Fundraising Planning

Non-Profit Fundraising Planning

Many in the nonprofit field take it as fact of life that their organizations will always be struggling to find the money needed to perform their missions. Others constantly find themselves at the end of a grant cycle, panicking to find the money for next month’s operations. Contrary to the experience of these organizations, I can assure you that it doesn’t have to be that way!

No Crisis Fundraising

Through the use of basic planning, strategizing, and tracking techniques, nonprofit staff and boards of directors can ensure that they will have the diverse stream of funds that they need to be able to support their organizations for years to come.

Once you have successfully adopted a plan, and learned to refer to it often, you will no longer find yourself in crisis fundraising mode. Once a plan is set into action, all members of the team - staff, board, and volunteers - will know what their responsibilities are, and when results will be expected.

Surveys have shown that those agencies that initiate a development plan always do better financially than those agencies that fail to plan. It's a simple, but important, lesson: A forward-looking organization is never caught off-guard with only a few weeks worth of expenses in the bank.

Does your agency dream of building an endowment to fund your future projects? Long term planning is easy, once you stop struggling to meet current needs.

About the Course

This SuiteU course is an introduction to the fund development planning process for nonprofit community organizations. The course is designed to help organizations that are officially recognized by the IRS as a nonprofit under section 501(c)(3) of the US tax code. Much of the information, however, will still be of assistance to less formal, neighborhood-based groups and associations.

Through these eight lessons you will learn why it is essential to approach planning as a team, how to identify gaps in your funding base, and how to set realistic goals. Through this process, your organization will grow stronger, your team members will be far more motivated, and your accountant will be far less stressed out.

This online course is based on a workshop that I developed and have taught many times in the Bay Area and around Northern California. The online course includes all the same materials as the in-person workshop.

Please click the "Lessons" tab above for a full syllabus.

Course Participation

SuiteU offers two options for taking courses: "Quick Course" or Interactive. While the Quick Course gives you full access to all the materials, the added benefit of the Interactive version is well worth the extra few dollars.

Students who choose the Interactive course will have access to discussion threads on each lesson topic. In addition to being able to ask any questions of the instructor, I find that students often have excellent ideas for each other. We have all had unique experiences, and I highly encourage you to share them with the full class.

Students in the Interactive course will also be able to follow-up with the instructor by email after the course has run.