Nonprofit Fundraising Strategy That Helps You Raise More Money and Build Stronger Donor Relationships
Fundraising is harder than ever, and it has never been more necessary. Smart fundraising begins with a smart plan, one that helps your team focus its energy, communicate clearly and build stronger relationships with donors and funders.
Prosper Strategies helps nonprofits create fundraising and development strategies that are ambitious, achievable and clearly tied to mission impact.
Fundraising strategy should be effective, measurable and deeply respectful of the people your nonprofit serves.
Too often, fundraising plans focus only on revenue targets and tactics. But effective fundraising also depends on a strong case for support, clear donor communications, realistic team capacity, thoughtful stewardship and a commitment to telling stories in a way that feels true and empowering.
Our fundraising strategy engagements are grounded in the Nonprofit Strategy System™ and guided by Shared Power Strategy™ and strength-based communication practices. That means we help you build plans that center your stakeholders, respect the people and communities you serve and give your development team the systems it needs to make measurable progress.
Our fundraising and development strategy projects typically fall into four categories.
Each engagement is customized to your organization’s goals, capacity and fundraising context. We help you determine which kind of plan will create the greatest value.
Organization-Wide Fundraising Strategy
Create a comprehensive plan for your fundraising and development function, including objectives, tactics, donor audiences, calendars, budgets, responsibilities and a measurable OKR dashboard.
Campaign-Specific Fundraising Strategy
Build a focused plan for a specific fundraising priority, such as an end-of-year campaign, capital campaign, program launch, public-facing initiative or major donor push.
Donor Identification and Acquisition Strategy
Identify prospective donors and funders, understand what will motivate them to support your work, and create strategies to acquire, engage and nurture them toward giving.
Stewardship Strategy
Keep donors engaged in your work, thank them meaningfully, strengthen relationships and build the trust needed for long-term fundraising sustainability.
Our fundraising strategy process follows the Nonprofit Strategy System™: People, Strategy and Progress.
Every fundraising engagement is different, but our method is consistent. We start with the people who matter most, turn what we learn into a clear fundraising strategy and build the systems your team needs to bring that strategy to life.
People
We assess your stakeholders to understand how current and prospective donors, funders, staff, beneficiaries and other audiences perceive your fundraising and development work.
This helps ensure your fundraising strategy resonates with supporters while honoring the lived experiences of the people and communities you serve.
Strategy
We audit your current development approach, assess the landscape and facilitate strategy workshops to develop the key elements of your fundraising, campaign, acquisition or stewardship plan.
Plans often include goals, objectives, tactics, messaging, calendars, budgets, target audiences and decision-making guidance.
Progress
We help your team develop measurable key results, clarify who owns what and create dashboards or tracking tools that make fundraising progress visible.
The goal is not just to finish a plan. It is to give your team the systems to implement, learn and adjust over time.
You may need fundraising strategy support if:
Fundraising challenges often look like revenue shortfalls, donor fatigue or inconsistent campaigns. But underneath those issues are usually questions of strategy, messaging, capacity, measurement and relationships.
- ✓Your fundraising goals have grown, but your strategy has not caught up.
- ✓Your donor communications are not clearly connected to mission impact.
- ✓You need to launch or strengthen a campaign and want a focused plan.
- ✓You need to identify and acquire new donors or funders.
- ✓Your team needs clearer ownership, priorities, calendars and dashboards.
- ✓You want fundraising to become more strength-based, stakeholder-informed and sustainable.
A clear, actionable, stakeholder-informed fundraising plan your team can actually implement.
At the conclusion of a successful fundraising planning engagement, your organization will have a strategy that helps your team focus its efforts, communicate more clearly and track progress toward meaningful fundraising goals.
- ✓Fundraising objectives, key results and strategic priorities.
- ✓Campaign, donor acquisition or stewardship strategies tailored to your needs.
- ✓Messaging and case for support guidance rooted in strength-based communications.
- ✓Fundraising tactics, calendars, budgets and channel recommendations.
- ✓Clear owners, roles and responsibilities for implementation.
- ✓Dashboards or measurement tools to track progress.
- ✓Stakeholder-informed donor and funder insights.
- ✓A plan your team can revisit, update and use over time.
Fundraising strategy is strongest when it is stakeholder-informed and built for measurable progress.
Our approach brings together Shared Power Strategy™, the Nonprofit Strategy System™ and strength-based communication practices so your fundraising strategy can raise revenue without compromising the dignity, agency or priorities of the people you serve.
The core idea
Fundraising should help donors understand the change they can help make, while keeping the people and communities closest to your mission at the center.
Ready to build a stronger nonprofit fundraising strategy?
Tell us what you’re trying to fund, who you need to engage and what is getting in the way. We’ll help you determine the right fundraising strategy approach for your organization.
Case Study
Learn how Prosper Strategies partnered with Feeding America to develop a plan for building fundraising capacity among their food banks.
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Case Study
Find out how VOA Illinois (Volunteers of America – Illinois) collaborated with Prosper Strategies to create transformative messaging and an updated brand identity.
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Case Study
Find out Comer Education Campus partnered with Prosper Strategies to rebrand and develop the accompanying marketing and communications plan — leading to a 13.8% increase in fundraising from the previous year.
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Case Study
Let us show you how the Robert R. McCormick Foundation Communities Program partnered with Prosper to transform their messaging, grow their donor base and exceed their fundraising goals.
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Case Study
Learn how iMentor Chicago partnered with Prosper Strategies to develop their messaging, identify new donors and build their case for support.
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Contact Us | Start Your Nonprofit Fundraising Strategy Project
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