Goals on Campaigns and Appeals to measure yearly organizational fundraising goal

Alicia Van Straten

We are finally going to use campaigns and appeals to help us track our overall fundraising goal! I have spent lots of time reading Bill Connors book, looking at our fund development plan and looking at what we need to "track or bucket" ourselves on. I have put together a org chart if you will of 6 campaigns (with one "foundation events" campaign to help me exclude event cost non gifts). Then under each campaign I have appeals coming off of them to help our team get a visual of what "actions/events/asks" are going to happen throughout the year to get to each respective campaign goal. All appeal goals will add up to that campaign and all campaign goals will add up to our annual fundraising goal.

All looks great and pretty until I got asked this question... I need to show the team a dollar amount associated with each appeal that will add up to that respective campaign goal. Easy enough for the specific named direct mails and events but how do I do this with the broader appeals that can/will be used across all campaigns. For example: Personal Solicitation and Grant Application. We ask for money through lots of grant applications for all of our campaigns and for all different kinds of reasons. If I apply a goal on the appeal record, that appeal can be used across all campaigns and is not specific to one. Same with Personal Solicitation...

Also, our Annual Campaign can be confusing. The appeals that would get put under it would be: Board Giving, end of year lapsed donor mailing, any other "random" direct mails say to banks for our financial coach program (which is its own fund), Personal Solicitation, 2014SpFriends, Grant Application...

So, with this said - for the appeals that could be across campaigns do I make those specific like Alumni Personal Solicitation, Retiree Personal Solicitation, Scholarship Personal Solicitation or Alumni Grant Application, Scholarship Grant Application... HELP!!! Just when I think I finally get it figured out, boom, all confused again. Thank you in advance!! If anyone feels so inclined or sorry for me, please feel free to call me at (920)498-5426 and I would be mroe than thankful and happy to discuss further! Alicia Van Straten

JoAnn Strommen

Alicia VanStraten:
We are finally going to use campaigns and appeals to help us track our overall fundraising goal! I have spent lots of time reading Bill Connors book, looking at our fund development plan and looking at what we need to "track or bucket" ourselves on. I have put together a org chart if you will of 6 campaigns (with one "foundation events" campaign to help me exclude event cost non gifts). Then under each campaign I have appeals coming off of them to help our team get a visual of what "actions/events/asks" are going to happen throughout the year to get to each respective campaign goal. All appeal goals will add up to that campaign and all campaign goals will add up to our annual fundraising goal.

All looks great and pretty until I got asked this question... I need to show the team a dollar amount associated with each appeal that will add up to that respective campaign goal. Easy enough for the specific named direct mails and events but how do I do this with the broader appeals that can/will be used across all campaigns. For example: Personal Solicitation and Grant Application. We ask for money through lots of grant applications for all of our campaigns and for all different kinds of reasons. If I apply a goal on the appeal record, that appeal can be used across all campaigns and is not specific to one. Same with Personal Solicitation...

Also, our Annual Campaign can be confusing. The appeals that would get put under it would be: Board Giving, end of year lapsed donor mailing, any other "random" direct mails say to banks for our financial coach program (which is its own fund), Personal Solicitation, 2014SpFriends, Grant Application...

So, with this said - for the appeals that could be across campaigns do I make those specific like Alumni Personal Solicitation, Retiree Personal Solicitation, Scholarship Personal Solicitation or Alumni Grant Application, Scholarship Grant Application... HELP!!! Just when I think I finally get it figured out, boom, all confused again. Thank you in advance!! If anyone feels so inclined or sorry for me, please feel free to call me at (920)498-5426 and I would be mroe than thankful and happy to discuss further! Alicia Van Straten

Alicia - will admit my head is spinning a bit. [:O]  Just a few thoughts - not much probably in the way of solving your issues.

I've also read Bill Connors book.  I found some parts very helpful, others were interesting but I don't feel they really applied well to a smaller, community based org.  (Were more applicable to a national fundraising org.)  So, did some minor tweaking only.  If we did a lot of the tracking others require we might need to tweak again but currently have way more ability to track than have been asked for (exec's degree is in Mathematics, dev dir master's in Statisitics).

After reading your post, I was wondering how funds fit into your organization chart.  We associate our goals with funds and some appeals have goals, while located in appropriate fund.  As most of our annual fund gifts are by personal solicitation, the gifts are entered in the fund but we do not require an appeal for every gift.  Appeal is only used for the mailings, etc.  We've worked hard to keep constituent codes accurate so from that code on the gift record we're able to pull data also. 

Do you utilize solicitor assignments for your personal solicitations?  Know ahead of time that RE does not allow one to import solicitor assignments to an appeal.  I learned that when I tried to do it using appeals to divide out the phases of our annual campaign.  Had all the assignments made for appeals and could not import them in, can only import assignments to a fund/campaign.  I didn't try that again.  One doesn't have the appeal option either when adding a solicitor assignment to a gift while in batch.  Field is just not there on the pop-up. 

If goals are linked to appeal, will you be requiring an appeal for each gift?  How will your data entry person know the correct appeal to choose?  Sounds like they also need to choose campaign to assoicate with gift. Just crossed my mind.

It's definitely a challenge to set up your structure and anticipate what RE can/cannot do and what your org needs will be.  Looks like you're giving it lots of thought.  Wish you the best....

Alicia Van Straten

JoAnn Strommen:

Alicia - will admit my head is spinning a bit. [:O]  Just a few thoughts - not much probably in the way of solving your issues.

I've also read Bill Connors book.  I found some parts very helpful, others were interesting but I don't feel they really applied well to a smaller, community based org.  (Were more applicable to a national fundraising org.)  So, did some minor tweaking only.  If we did a lot of the tracking others require we might need to tweak again but currently have way more ability to track than have been asked for (exec's degree is in Mathematics, dev dir master's in Statisitics).

After reading your post, I was wondering how funds fit into your organization chart.  We associate our goals with funds and some appeals have goals, while located in appropriate fund.  As most of our annual fund gifts are by personal solicitation, the gifts are entered in the fund but we do not require an appeal for every gift.  Appeal is only used for the mailings, etc.  We've worked hard to keep constituent codes accurate so from that code on the gift record we're able to pull data also. 

Do you utilize solicitor assignments for your personal solicitations?  Know ahead of time that RE does not allow one to import solicitor assignments to an appeal.  I learned that when I tried to do it using appeals to divide out the phases of our annual campaign.  Had all the assignments made for appeals and could not import them in, can only import assignments to a fund/campaign.  I didn't try that again.  One doesn't have the appeal option either when adding a solicitor assignment to a gift while in batch.  Field is just not there on the pop-up. 

If goals are linked to appeal, will you be requiring an appeal for each gift?  How will your data entry person know the correct appeal to choose?  Sounds like they also need to choose campaign to assoicate with gift. Just crossed my mind.

It's definitely a challenge to set up your structure and anticipate what RE can/cannot do and what your org needs will be.  Looks like you're giving it lots of thought.  Wish you the best....

JoAnn, Thank you and yes, my head is spinning and feels like it has been spinning for some time. We use funds to track "how the money is to be spent or designations". So, as an educational foundation, we have A LOT of funds, like over 400 (lot's of named scholarships for students, and college wide projects)! Also, we never restrict donors gifts to a fund, all of our fundraising is donor designated. However, that is not to say that we don't try to steer our donors into certain funds based on the campaign or particular need we are pushing for at that time.

We do not utilize soliciter codes as there are only 4 of us on staff and really only 2-3 of us that actively fundraise. Obviously we use board relationships and such but it is small enough that we don't use this function currently. Yes, we do require a campaign and appeal for each gift so we know where we are on our goals and how each appeal is doing.

So, in essence, I need to make sure that I have all of our campaigns with a goal, that when added together equal our annual fundraising goal. Then, each appeal under the goal needs to add up to the campaign goal so we can see where our gaps are or where we need up to "up the anty". Soooooo.... that is where my conundrum lies.