STRATEGIC FUNDRAISING MODULE 2:

THE Organisational profile

Introduction organisational profile

Any fundraising effort requires that you have well-founded answers to the following questions:

  • Which social challenge do you want to contribute to solving?
  • What impact do you want to achieve with your target group and in society?
  • How do you want to achieve this effect? And what’s so special about it?
  • What are the particular strengths and future opportunities of your organization?

A clear organizational profile makes it easy for potential supporters to understand why you and your projects exist and why they are important, which changes you want to achieve in which way and which resources are required. At the same time, it enables you to set priorities in your project work, to act based on needs and effects and to make strategic decisions.

Your team, key players and your target group should be involved in the processes of developing your organizational profile. As a team, you stand together behind your vision and goals and you have put the needs and characteristics of your target group at the center from the start.

 

Start by answering the key questions. Which questions do you already have clear answers to? Where are there still gaps?

Needs analysis & problem analysis

What social problem is the needs of your target group and thus your organization or your project based on?

It is worth taking the time to analyze the problem in its entirety. That is, clearly defining the problem, its causes and effects. What do you get out of it? First of all, it becomes clear where there are still gaps in knowledge that you e.g. close with statistics or surveys of your target group. You will also see which factors can have a direct and indirect influence on your project and in which environment you move. Have you included all the key players in your project planning?

Social problems are complex, so you will likely only influence part of the problem with your project. But if you know the connections between the causes and effects of the problem, you can easily illustrate how your activities contribute to positive change.

Do you want to put the problem analysis into practice right away? These key questions will accompany you step by step.

With one click you can open and download the templates for the problem analysis methods

Important actors and the environment

With your problem analysis, direct and indirect factors have become visible that can have an influence on your project. All actors (so-called stakeholders) who are involved in the project in any way or influenced by the project can be derived from this.

  • Which actors could have direct and indirect influence on the successful implementation of the project?
  • Who could hinder implementation?
  • Who should you work with?
  • What solutions are there for the social problem that you are campaigning for?
  • Can you build on that?

Offers from your organization are influenced by what goals you set yourself and for whom you design the offers, but also in which environment you are active. What is the situation like at the place where you operate? For example, what is the living situation of the people in the neighborhood? What are special features? What are resources?

Information about the environment in which you operate as an organization is often essential for the success of a project. Important actors should be considered in your project planning and implementation. In this way you can also strengthen the support for your project.

Do you want to systematically analyze the environment of your project and the most important actors? But where do you start? These key questions give orientation.

With one click you can download a template for the stakeholder analysis here.

Our Impact Logic

In the previous section you developed a problem tree in order to keep an eye on the causes and effects of your core problem. Now it is a matter of designing the positive counter-image. In other words: What positive change do you want to achieve in the long term for your target group and in society? And what must change in the life situation, skills, knowledge or awareness of your target group? What are your impact goals? Based on your goals, what would be the right offers for your target group?

An impact logic consists of the determination of input (investments that are made available to the project), output (results, services or products of activities), outcome (effects of services on behavior, the attitude or the target group’s skills) and impact ( Long-term impact on target group and / or society in general). Only when you have set goals can you align your actions accordingly. Goals can give direction. With the impact logic as a basis, you can keep an eye on your goals and reflect on your work. What could give you an indication of whether you are on the right track and achieved your goals? What knowledge did you gain? What can you learn from it?

Develop an impact logic for your project or your entire organization. Take your time - or work on it step by step. You can quickly get started with these key questions.

Here you can download the scheme of the impact logic as a template.

Organisational goals

What exactly does your organization do? You should not only have a short and concise answer to this question in conversations. On your website or flyers, the reader should immediately be able to see what you are doing, what you want to achieve, what you are doing for your target group.

The impact logic of your organization is the basis from which your organizational goals are derived. What do you want to have achieved for your target group in 10 years?

How should your organization develop then?

What resources will you need in the future? What knowledge, networks, financial resources? So: How do we get to where we want to be and what do we need for it?

The answers to these questions in turn result in clear tasks for fundraising.

Develop your organizational goals based on the key questions.

Another method to work out your organizational profile is the Business Model Canvas. Usually used for business model development, it can also be a useful method for nonprofits. How to do it is explained here step by step:

Here you can download the Business Canvas Model as a template.

Done! You have worked on all topics from Module 2.

Quiz

All right? Test your knowledge and your progress