.webp)
One of the biggest mistakes nonprofits make is not having clearly defined goals or — worse — not having any goals at all.
Setting realistic and tangible goals is key to making progress.
We encourage nonprofits to set big, measurable goals (i.e., get 120 monthly donors this year). Once you do that, you can break those down into manageable bite-sized monthly goals, such as find 10 donors per month.
This helps you track your progress and assess how things are going each month.
A word of warning
It's important for nonprofits to understand their current fundraising numbers, and strategy, before trying to implement a new strategy. For example, if you've never asked donors for monthly gifts and currently have no individual giving strategy, plan, or monthly donors, it's unrealistic to expect 50+ monthly donors in your first 3-6 months.
However, if you have a robust monthly giving program with 100+ monthly donors each year, or you expect recurring revenue to make up ~15% of your annual fundraising budget, it IS realistic to assume that you could add another 50-100 annually — especially if these are smaller monthly asks.
To help you get started, watch our webinar on demand:
OR you can check out our post on how to compare giving campaigns.