By Marie LeBlanc, Community Partnerships Coordinator
Creating a comprehensive development plan is perhaps not the first item of business for a new Executive Director or Development Director when starting out in the nonprofit world. But this month’s BAH Nonprofit Conference on Fundraising Development stressed the importance of having a thought-out, written-down development plan as a priority for successful, supportive and effective development programming. Keynote speaker Barbara Ciconte outlined many of the key steps to creating an “effective” (and perhaps more importantly, realistic) development plan, as well as the bigger picture items to consider from an organizational standpoint. Ultimately, “development” is about more than just raising money — it involves creating authentic connections with others who believe in and commit to your organization’s mission.
Ciconte discussed many important features of a development plan, including these key elements:
- Detailed goals for each development activity
- Specific strategies for achieving those goals
- An action plan, with a timetable for each strategy and benchmarks along the way
- Clear assignments for staff and other involved individuals
- Marketing and communications needs for development strategies
- Budget for fundraising (it’s true; you usually have to spend money to make money!)
The keynote presentation provided a helpful framework for thinking about development planning and was expanded upon in the second half of the session through the “Real-World Approach and Integration” panel featuring four nonprofit speakers. The nonprofits, all Catalogue-featured organizations, shared their own experiences, successes, and lessons learned in creating a development plan. While each offered important take-aways, a few main messages resonated through each panelist’s presentation: Developing a robust development infrastructure and planning process takes time; it’s not something one can create or expect overnight. Many nonprofits start with a more unstructured, reactive development process, and realize over time that increased structure and planning is necessary to support organizational growth and development.
Jennifer Roccanti, Assistant Director of Development at Miriam’s Kitchen, shared how her organization has recently re-thought its development planning process and transitioned to a data- and strategy-driven, metric-focused approach. She emphasized that this type of approach takes an ample amount of planning time to be successful, but that the creation of a strong development plan decreases stress for development staff throughout the year.
Mary Brown, Executive Director of Life Pieces to Masterpieces (LPTM), talked about LPTM’s journey over the past 16 years in terms of a cycle of “start up, stabilize, sustain and scale.” Mary focused on how LTPM’s development plan is nestled within the strengths of the organization overall and how closely it interacts with governance, financial management and communications.
Joan Woods, Director of Development and Communications at Bright Beginnings, spoke to the importance of development staffing for success, and how the stories and strengths of your organization can be a primary tool to connect with donors. She also discussed how a development plan can move nonprofits towards a culture of philanthropy that influences nonprofit operations outside of the development context.
Finally, Brigitte Moore, Acting Executive Director of Young Playwrights’ Theater, shared key tips for successful development efforts within a small staff — the importance of building a fundraising culture, collecting and using data for planning and course corrections, and being creative, innovative, and taking calculated risks in development.
A huge thanks to Catalogue partner Booz Allen Hamilton for sponsoring the quarterly Nonprofit Conference Speaker Series, and to all Catalogue nonprofits that attended this month’s event. We look forward to seeing you again at the next session in October!