About the authors:

David and Jodi Vigneron are fundraisers with over 25 years of experience between them.  David is currently Director of Development for Annual Giving at Babson College.  Prior to Babson he was Executive Director of Development at Merrimack College.  In addition, David spent 10 years at Boston College working in a number of capacities that included Annual Fund Director, Major Gifts Officer and Associate Director of Development. He began his fund raising career at St. Mary’s High School in Lynn, MA as Director of Development and Public Relations.

Jodi is currently the Development Director of the Marblehead /Swampscott Visiting Nurse Foundation.  Formerly, she specialized in secondary educational development programs serving as Director of Development at Notre Dame Academy in Hingham, MA and Director of Development and Public Relations at St. Mary’s High School in Lynn, MA.  In addition she worked as a fundraising consultant at Ruotolo Associates and  began her fundraising career at MIT where she was responsible for their Direct Mail program.

David and Jodi live in Marblehead with their 4 year old son and 2 year old daughter who recently showed signs of following in the family business as they Trick or Treated for UNICEF.


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Successful Annual Fund - raising

The annual fund (the annual asking of one time gifts to non-restricted funds) is the foundation of an organization’s comprehensive development operation.  The annual fund not only provides important funding for immediate needs, it helps to identify and cultivate donors who might contribute more significantly in the future.  The following are 10 basic (and on-going) steps to a successful annual fund.

 #1 -Your fundraising is only as good as your database!
Creating and maintaining a strong and accurate database of names, addresses and phone numbers is vital to the success of your annual fund.  Your database can be as simple or as complicated as you need it to be, and there are any number of processional vendors who can furnish you with software to get your database started or upgraded.  There are also a number of companies that can assist in the acquiring and updating of addresses and phone numbers.

#2 - Why do you need to raise funds?
The first step in asking someone for money is to know what you are going to use the money for.  When you formulate your needs list, it is important to illustrate the variety of needs that your organization has.  This offers the donor  a clear understanding of why their gift is so important and how their support is going to be used.

#3 - Friend-raising before fund-raising.
It is important that your organization communicate with its donor/prospect constituency at least twice per year in a non- solicitation format, i.e. newsletter/magazine.  This provides the donor/prospect with news, happenings and events that involve your organization.  These publications keep your prospect pool connected and in tune with your organization.  They also go back to step one in helping to maintain your database.  Be sure that you mail all publications with “address correction requested.”  It costs a little bit more to have things returned, but you should see this cost as an investment in your database.  Also consider including a vehicle for donors to respond with their updates both personally and professionally.

#4 - Who will you ask?
Good fundraising is the right person asking for the right thing at the right time.  It stands to reason that there will be different levels of prospects in your database.  It is vital to create a coding system within your database that allows you to segment your database and allow you to solicit as personally as possible.

#5 - Should you visit?
PEOPLE GIVE TO PEOPLE FOR PEOPLE !  It is hard fact that the most effective way to solicit funds for your organization is a personal visit.  For organizations that have hundreds or thousands of names on their database, it is obviously impossible to visit everyone, thus it is at this point you refer to the coding system on your database, as discussed in step #4,  and prioritize your visits to those that you believe have high capability and inclination.  The personal visit is an area where volunteers can help tremendously, either visiting prospects they know, or joining members of your staff to assist in articulating the mission and needs of your cause.

#6 - Should you call?
One step down, after personally solicitation, on the ladder of how to make your program successful is the telemarketing program.  Since you want your ask to be as personal as possible, this enables an organization to reach out to its donor/prospect base and deliver its message and gift ask in a much more personal way.  It also provides an immediate response and income.  It is more effective if the callers with your telemarketing program can be volunteers, students, etc. , who are integral participants with your organization.  However, if this is not possible, there are a wide variety of vendors/services available that will handle your telemarketing program from soup to nuts.

#7 - Should you write?
Direct mail is the easiest way to solicit large numbers of prospects in a short time.  There are a variety of philosophies about direct mail programs and how they should be run.  The first consideration in a direct mail program is budget.  For those organizations with a larger budget, there are a number of professional vendors that can assist with personalized, tailored gift ask letters and brochures, and computer generated coding systems on reply devices that will enable you to track the results of your mailings.  For organizations with limited budgets, a well written letter combined with a creative ask is what you are looking for.  Ideally, you can mail two to four letters during the course of a year with the most important being in late November/early December to allow for tax year-end giving.

#8 - Who should be involved?
Creation of a volunteer fundraising board is a key component to your annual fund’s success.  Volunteers can serve as an extension of your staff and enable you to reach out to greater numbers of prospects.  Asking an individual to volunteer with your organization many times leads to greater gift support from the volunteer.  Volunteers also provide important leads, connections, ideas and resources that you and your organization alone may not be able to obtain.

#9 - Thank them, thank them and then thank them one more time.
Stewardship is a very important step in the annual fund process.  Once a gift is received by your organization, it is crucial that the donor be thanked in a timely and effective manner.  A general rule of thumb is that a donor should receive some form of a thank you within 72 hours from your organization.  The more personal your gift acknowledgment can be toward your donor, the better. The letter should state the date and value of the gift, as your organization has an obligation to provide the donor with documentation of their gift for tax credit purposes.

 #10 - Analyze and start all over again!
It is crucial that you track the results of all your fundraising efforts, i.e. from direct mail, telemarketing and personal visits.  After you complete one annual cycle of your solicitations, a careful review of all your results will assist you in how to better allocate your time and budget resources for the coming year.

 The annual fund can be the most exciting, nerve wracking and ultimately fulfilling aspects of fundraising.  Just remember to plan ahead, be prepared and then be flexible!