One of the key challenges facing any not for profit organisation is obtaining regular and ongoing donations.  While a strong and effective fundraising strategy should be developed and implemented, a key component of this is a targeted fundraising strategy.

Developing a targeted fundraising strategy can be a very effective method for your organisation to obtain funds and donations for specific purposes or for special projects.  Another important benefit of this type of strategy is that it can address the issue of donor fatigue.

Donor fatigue occurs when donors lose interest or motivation to make donations and as a result they will donate less or stop donating completely.  Refer to the post in February on Donor Fatigue that goes into more detail on this issue.  As a not for profit organisation this issue can have a significant impact especially when donors have a large number of other charities or other not for profit organisations they could donate to and support.

One of the attributes of donor fatigue is that donors don’t see any value for their donations as they can’t link it to a specific outcome.  With a targeted fundraising this issue is addressed as donors can directly see how their actual donation is achieving a specific outcome.

The benefits for the organisation are also significant as often a targeted fundraising strategy results in funds being raised for a project that under normal circumstances may not occur or even be justified.  Another benefit of this type of strategy is that funds can be raised and accumulated over time.  For example, this may relate to the implementation of a major project that requires a large amount of funds that may take several months to receive.

The next post looks at ways to develop a targeted fundraising strategy.