A fundraising calendar is an important fundraising tool for any nonprofit, as it helps your fundraising plan and executes your fundraising campaigns throughout the year. It’s also a great way to track your progress toward long-term goals.
Your fundraising calendar should align with your major fundraising priorities and overarching strategy. This will ensure that all of your daily and weekly tasks are working toward achieving those goals.
What Is A Fundraising Calendar?
A fundraising calendar is a type of calendar that is specifically designed to support fundraising efforts for a nonprofit or charitable organization. Fundraising calendars are typically produced and sold by the organization or through a third-party vendor, with the proceeds going towards supporting the organization's fundraising activities and programs.
1. Feature photographs
Fundraising calendars often feature photographs or artwork that are related to the organization's mission or cause. For example, a wildlife conservation organization might create a nonprofit fundraising calendar featuring photos of endangered animals, while a community food bank might create a nonprofit fundraising calendar featuring photos of local farmers and food donors.
2. Include key dates and events
In addition to featuring images, fundraising calendars may also include important key dates or event dates related to the organization's mission or cause. For example, a fundraising calendar produced by an environmental organization might include dates for Earth Day, World Oceans Day, and other important environmental events.
Fundraising calendars are typically sold at a premium price, with the proceeds going towards supporting the organization's fundraising activities. Supporters and major donors of the organization are often willing to pay a higher price for a fundraising calendar because they know that their purchase will directly support the organization's cause.
Fundraising calendars can be a highly effective way for nonprofit and charitable organizations to engage with their supporters, raise awareness of their cause, and generate revenue. By creating a visually appealing and meaningful calendar, organizations can inspire their supporters to take action and make a difference in the world.
Why Is A Fundraising Calendar Important?
Creating a fundraising calendar is one of the most useful fundraising tips for nonprofit and charitable organizations.
1. Organize Your Campaigns and Events
A fundraising calendar is an important tool for nonprofits to help them plan and execute their fundraising campaigns and fundraising activities according to the campaign timelines. It outlines dates, budgets, and expected outcomes for events and campaigns that raise money for the organization. It is a great way to keep track of fundraising priorities and make sure that everyone is working together on these goals.
Developing a fundraising calendar is a vital part of any development team’s strategy. A good fundraising calendar can help you avoid overlap, keep you focused on a clear goal, and ensure that every fundraising task is completed on time.
2. Plan Your Communications
Developing a plan for your communications is an important step in the process of planning your nonprofit fundraising calendars. It will ensure that your messaging is clear and consistent, and it will help you make sure that everyone involved with delivering messages on behalf of the organization is following guidelines.
3. Create a Year-Round Schedule
Creating a detailed fundraising calendar is one of the best ways to keep your nonprofit on track. This is particularly true if you’re in the thick of fundraising, as it makes it easier to plan and prioritize your work.
Once you have your major fundraising goals and strategies laid out, start mapping them out on your fundraising calendar. This will give you a clear, consistent plan of attack for the year ahead.
How To Create Fundraising Calendars
1. Brainstorm all the fundraising initiatives
The first step to creating a fundraising calendar for your fundraising campaigns is to brainstorm all the different fundraising initiatives that you want to implement throughout the year. This includes planning and tracking fundraising marketing strategies, as well as fundraising letters, annual walkathons, newsletters, thank-yous, and more.
2. Divide fundraising efforts into monthly action themes
Next, divide these efforts into monthly action themes and assign each one a specific task. For example, January might be the month of thank-yous while February might be the month for major donor outreach.
When you put these themes on your fundraising calendar, it will be easier to make a comprehensive plan for each event or campaign. It will also help you stay on track, especially if you have to make changes or adjustments along the way.
3. Add a communication plan
When developing your communications plan, start by identifying the key goals of your campaign or event and what kind of messaging you’ll need to deliver to reach them. You should also consider whether you’ll be using paid advertising or other media to support your efforts, and if so, how it will be delivered.
Once you have your list of communications, determine the dates and deadlines for them to be sent out. This will help you set deadlines for all of the team members who need to work on them and will ensure that all of them have a chance to make changes as needed, such as addressing an issue with a particular piece of content or making an adjustment to the tone of a certain communication.
4. Add a budget meeting planning
It is also a good idea to include dates that relate directly to your nonprofit’s budget, as this will give you an accurate estimate of when the money you need to fund your projects will arrive. This will help you avoid wasting time on projects that you don’t need to spend on, and it can also be a reminder for you to call in extra help when necessary writer, graphic artist, marketing consultant, printer, and more!
5. Point out the hard deadlines
As you begin to fill in the details of your fundraising calendar, include hard deadlines and peak fundraising seasons. This will help your team know what needs to be done each month and when to keep you on track toward your annual fundraising goals.
6. Note board and budget meetings
Lastly, note any meetings that are scheduled to take place throughout the year. Whether it’s a board meeting or budget committee meeting, marking these events down on your calendar will help your team be prepared for them.
7. Share the fundraising calendar with your fundraising team
Your final step is to document your fundraising plan and share it with relevant team members and stakeholders. This will help them know when to expect emails, and it will keep them on track with the goals they set for each campaign or event. Also, this will ensure that you’re following your strategy consistently and will make it easy to keep updated and review the progress of your campaigns or events.
Utilize Online Platform To Raise Money For Your Organization
In addition to traditional methods of creating and selling fundraising calendars, organizations can also create a fundraising calendar online to streamline the process and reach a wider audience. Online platforms such as Canva, Shutterfly, or Adobe Spark offer templates and tools that allow you to easily create a professional-looking calendar with your own photos and branding.
Moreover, online fundraising platforms such as *spotfund can be used to raise funds for your organization by creating a fundraising campaign. It is a free fundraising site that enables you to create a fundraising campaign and share it with your social network directly. You can easily withdraw donations through the platform once you meet your fundraising goal. By using online tools like *spotfund, you can reach a wider audience and make it easier for people to support your cause.
Incorporating online tools and platforms into your fundraising calendar strategy can help you increase efficiency, engage more supporters, and ultimately raise more funds to support your organization's mission and cause.
Create your fundraising calendar and campaign to attract new donors now!
You also can learn more about how other nonprofits successfully raise money through*spotfund!