Despite a nonprofit team’s best efforts, sometimes fundraising goals are not met. At times, this sort of setback can be mitigated with simple changes to the fundraising strategy, but on occasion, it’s necessary to take a deep and thorough look into what went wrong.
Below, 13 Forbes Nonprofit Council members share additional important next steps for a nonprofit leader to take when falling short in a fundraising campaign.
1. Evaluate The Campaign
According to Giving USA, there was a 6.4% decline in individual giving in 2022. Leaders need to create a culture of innovation by evaluating all aspects of their fundraising campaigns. Identifying new approaches by rethinking your messaging, readjusting tactics, expanding platforms or asking your best supporters how you could do better are important steps in generating bold strategies to win. – Jean Accius, CHC: Creating Healthier Communities
2. Be Aware Of Donor Trends
Understand the trends of your donor base. Sometimes, it’s just not a good year to raise money for your particular cause because of what’s going on in the economy or there’s a global crisis that’s drawing attention and money. This is the time to stay in touch with donors to remind them of how important your mission is and how your organization is continuing to serve the causes they care about. – Kimberly Lewis, Goodwill Industries of East Texas, Inc.
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3. Learn From The Experience
Learn from it! There is nothing more important to a leader than learning from failure. Was it a messaging issue? Was it an engagement problem or did you just think it would resonate more than it did? We never get it 100% correct all of the time, but we can use these setbacks to build a stronger organization and ensure we don’t make the same mistakes twice. – Patrick Riccards, Driving Force Institute
4. Remain Transparent
Transparency is most important. Tell your supporters that the fundraising goal wasn’t met and ask for their help in making up the difference. Explain again why these funds are being asked for and give them realistic, tangible implications for missing that goal. Opening yourself up and being vulnerable with your community creates empathy and understanding for your needs. Supporters will often step up. – Abraham George, Shanti Bhavan
5. Find The Silver Lining
Determine where you fell short and what changes need to be made while also identifying the residual benefits that you did achieve. For instance, maybe revenue goals fell short, but you doubled the number of donors in your base. Perhaps you identified major gift or legacy prospects for cultivation or gained subscribers that will expand the audience for the next campaign. – Victoria Burkhart, The More Than Giving Company
6. Remember To Celebrate The Success
Try new ideas while also celebrating the successes of the campaign. For example, midway through our campaign, we created the Fiat Lux Society to honor donors of $1 million or more. By celebrating the generosity of these benefactors and highlighting the opportunities they provided for our students, we were able to get new donors. Ultimately, switching our message from the dollar goal to impact made a difference. – Daniel A Wubah, Millersville University
7. Communicate Openly
An important step is to communicate transparently and openly with your community. Being honest about the challenges faced and the impact of their contributions helps build trust and credibility. Furthermore, through generous listening, leaders can collectively address challenges and identify innovative solutions, reinforcing their commitment to the cause and sustaining passion and support. – Vuslat Doğan Sabancı, Vuslat Foundation
8. Reassure Your Team
When income goals are missed, your fundraising staff may worry about job stability. First, be honest. If the long-term goal remains solid, then this is a moment to provide reassurance. Part of the journey is navigating choppy waters and you want to make sure the crew is still with you! If people are afraid of a tumble, they will be hesitant to take on ambitious goals next time. – Luciana Bonifacio, Save the Children
9. Use It To Reenergize The Team
Use it as an opportunity to infuse fresh energy into the final stretch and bring your team together. At GENYOUth, fundraising is a function of everyone’s role. Take a focused look at your potential donor list to narrow it down to your top prospects. Be smart, creative and flexible in your approach. Also, leverage timely data and statistics on the issue to create a sense of urgency. – Ann Marie Krautheim, GENYOUth
10. Ensure The Responsibility Of Fundraising Is Shared
Leaders must ensure that fundraising is integral to everyone’s role. When development activities are siloed or perceived as solely in service to programs, it diminishes engagement, limits mission-driven storytelling and creates unreasonable expectations. Whether targets are being met or not, leaders should reinforce a sense of shared responsibility and create opportunities for greater collaboration. – Patricia McIlreavy, Center for Disaster Philanthropy
11. Reiterate The Organization’s Resiliency
Remind everyone that while we are currently falling short on fundraising, we’ve weathered such difficulties in the past and prevailed. We are resilient, and if we need to extend the timeline for our goals, we will. The people we serve come first. The money will follow. – Laura MacDonald, Benefactor Group
12. Determine Why Things Went Wrong
Figure out why the goal fell short and then clearly communicate it. Look at if it was an issue of new donors not arriving or current donors not participating. Did we send it to a large enough audience? Right now, it is important to remember the broader context as well the fact that fundraising is down nationally. Once the reason is identified, share the problem and lessons learned plainly with the board and staff to improve for next time. – Matthew Gayer, Spur Local
13. Do An Assessment Of What Changes Can Be Made
Do not panic. Instead, regroup and determine what you can do differently. Can you accomplish the goal, even if finances are below the projection? How can you still make an impact? Then analyze the situation. Are there things that can be done differently the next time? Have external circumstances simply made the goal impossible to attain or was the goal too ambitious? There are no failures if there is learning. – Magdalena Nowicka Mook, ICF (International Coaching Federation)
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