Global Genes Guide to Comprehensive Fundraising Strategic Documents

This Global Genes Quick Guide is a resource for advocates focused on pressing topics causing challenges in their lives and communities. 

Creating a comprehensive fundraising strategic document.

For leaders of rare disease nonprofit organizations, securing sustainable funding is essential to driving research, supporting patients, and advocating for meaningful change. A well-structured fundraising strategy provides a roadmap for financial growth, ensuring that your organization can continue making an impact. The following framework can serve as a template. It outlines the key components of a fundraising strategic document, helping you define goals, engage donors, and implement effective initiatives. By developing a clear and focused strategic document for your fundraising, your nonprofit can strengthen its mission and expand its reach in the rare disease community.

Be sure to include:

1. Executive Summary
Provide a brief overview of the fundraising strategy, its objectives, and its importance in achieving the organization’s mission.

2. Organizational Overview
Describe the mission, vision, and values of the non-profit organization.
Explain its history, key achievements, and current programs or initiatives.

3. Fundraising Goals and Objectives
Outline specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) fundraising goals. Break down these goals into short-term and long-term objectives.

4. Target Audience Analysis
Identify and profile the primary donor segments, including individual donors, corporations, foundations, and government agencies. Understand their motivations, preferences, and giving capacity.

5. Fundraising Strategies

• Individual Giving: Detail strategies for acquiring, retaining, and updating individual donors. This may include direct mail campaigns,
  online fundraising, peer-to-peer fundraising, and major donor cultivation.
• Corporate Partnerships: Outline approaches for engaging corporate sponsors, securing sponsorships, and building mutually beneficial partnerships.
• Foundation Grants: Describe plans for researching, applying for, and managing grants from private and public foundations.
• Events and Campaigns: Specify strategies for organizing fundraising events, crowdfunding campaigns, and awareness-raising initiatives.
• Legacy Giving: Include strategies for encouraging planned giving through bequests, charitable trusts, and other estate planning
  vehicles.
• Digital Fundraising: Discuss tactics for leveraging digital platforms, such as social media, email newsletters, and crowdfunding websites, to expand the donor base and increase online donations.

6. Fundraising Budget and Financial Projections
Estimate the costs associated with implementing the fundraising strategies outlined. Develop a detailed budget that includes expenses related to staff, technology, marketing materials, events, and other resources. Project anticipated revenue streams from each fundraising channel.

7. Implementation Plan

• Timeline: Create a timeline with key milestones and deadlines for executing fundraising activities throughout the year.
• Roles and Responsibilities: Assign responsibilities to staff members or volunteers involved in fundraising efforts.
• Monitoring and Evaluation: Establish metrics to track progress towards fundraising goals. Determine how performance will be assessed and how adjustments will be made based on results.

8. Risk Management
Identify potential risks and challenges that may impact the success of the fundraising strategy. Develop contingency plans to mitigate these risks and ensure continuity of fundraising efforts.

9. Communication and Stakeholder Engagement
Outline strategies for communicating with donors, volunteers, board members, and other stakeholders. Emphasize transparency, gratitude, and regular updates on the organization’s impact and financial stewardship.

10. Conclusion
Summarize the key points of the fundraising strategic document and reiterate the organization’s commitment to achieving its mission through effective fundraising efforts.

Additional Tips:

• Keep the document concise and easy to understand.
• Involve key stakeholders, including board members, staff, and volunteers, in the development of the fundraising strategy.
• Review and update the document regularly to reflect changing circumstances and priorities.

Related Resources:

• Innovative Fundraising – 2025 RARE Advocacy Exchange panel
  
• Global Genes Quick Guide to Fundraising
• Fundraising Do’s And Don’ts – 2022 Global Genes RARE Patient Advocacy Summit panel
  
• Global Genes Toolkit Finding your Fundraising Strategy
• Fundraising Ideas Anyone Can Try – 2019 Global Genes RARE Patient Advocacy panel
• 3 Important Tips For Rare Disease Fundraising 
• How to Fundraise – A Guide for New Fundraisers

Do you have a story of your fundraising success or a lesson learned?  Submit your story for us to consider publishing it here.

Global Genes 2025 Quick Guide Series is our way to respond to a common need we have heard for more information in the rare community. Think of them as the answer to one frequently asked question or pain point we have heard from our Rare Concierge, our online and in person communities and our Global Advocacy Alliance.  Each one is complete with links to additional related resources across various media types, both those that are authored by Global Genes and from outside sources as well.

This series is supported in part by: Amgen, Amicus, Beam Therapeutics, Biocryst,  BridgeBio, Chiesi, Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals, Merck, and Parexel