They say, "failing to plan is planning to fail." The same is true with fundraising, and experienced development professionals understand that successful fundraising demands strategy, organization, and a plan.
It can feel difficult--even overwhelming--to manage the entire fundraising process day in and day out. Things can get even more complicated when you're working with a fundraising team.
Creating a fundraising calendar can be an excellent recipe for year-round fundraising success! The great news is that you can develop and implement a fundraising calendar any day of the year. We've consulted with some fundraising and nonprofit experts to gather the best tips, tricks, and strategies to help you build a great fundraising calendar.
Table of Contents
- Calendar cycle and key dates
- Three big "seasons" of fundraising
- Essential projects and fundraising needs
- Customize your fundraising calendar
- Add communication deadlines
- Bonus: monthly action themes
What Is A Fundraising Calendar?
A fundraising calendar is more than just the dates of key events and fundraising campaigns (though that is an essential element). An excellent fundraising calendar should summarize every action you and your team take throughout the year to raise money, care for your current donors, and attract new donors.
It outlines everything from donor communications and fundraising campaign timelines to benchmark dates and other important events.
Really, a fundraising calendar is an effective way to keep everyone on the same page and ensure the right things get done at the right time, week after week, for year-round organization and overall success.
5 Steps to Creating A Fundraising Calendar
Now that you're (hopefully) convinced that a fundraising calendar will make your life much easier (and even boost your fundraising), it's time to start creating your calendar. It can feel like an overwhelming process the first time around, but if you take the time to do it well, it will get easier as you go.
1. Set your calendar cycle and gather key dates
Like businesses, most nonprofits operate on either a July 1st to June 30th or January 1st to December 31st fiscal year. While you can start working on your fundraising calendar any time, most experts recommend creating your calendar about a month before the start of your fiscal year.
Once you've got your 12-month calendar set, start writing down important dates for events, deadlines, and other things already planned. The goal is to write down fundraising "hard deadlines" that probably won't change. One great way to start this process is to look at your calendar of events from previous years.
For example, if your nonprofit relies on Giving Tuesday as a major fundraising day or hosts an annual 4th of July 5th K, put those in the calendar!
Here are some examples of "hard deadlines" that you and your team can gather and add to your fundraising calendar:
- Fundraising campaign start and end dates (like year-end giving or spring fundraising drives)
- Specific fundraising events
- Donor care events (like banquets, appreciation gatherings, and gratitude campaigns)
- Board meetings
- Milestones and assessment deadlines (like quarterly fundraising goals)
2. Mark out the three big "seasons" of fundraising
Most fundraising experts agree that there are three main "seasons" in a year of fundraising. Mapping them out in your fundraising calendar can help you leverage your fundraising efforts for greater success.
Season 1: January is shockingly the second-best time of the year for fundraising! Even though the tax-deduction deadline is December 31st, data shows the giving trend spilling over into January.
Some donors save their giving decisions until their budgets recover from all that holiday shopping and festivity. Other donors reset their monthly giving at the beginning of the year, so they may be eager to start donating to a new charity (or to one they haven't supported in a while).
Fundraising experts recommend focusing your fundraising efforts around highlighting your New Years' goals and starting fresh to match the tone and mindset of your donors. It might also be a great time to reach out to some of those lapsed donors to see if they're interested in starting the new year with a new giving goal.
Season 2: The "dog days of summer" are generally considered the worst times for fundraising--especially July and August. People are on vacation; kids are out of school; people are usually more difficult to reach for various reasons. So, it probably wouldn't be wise to plan a major appeal campaign during the slowest time of the year for giving (unless you have a history of fantastic success here).
Even though this might not be the best time of year to launch that new fundraising campaign or send an appeal letter, it can be an excellent time for donor care and stewardship! Schedule some time to call your major donors just to say thank you and even schedule a meeting (for after Labor Day, of course). Use the Office 365 group calendar to make meeting schedules more professional and organized for everyone. Send an update letter focused on informing your donors, not on an appeal. Offer some "summer reading" ideas for anyone who wants to learn more about your cause.
You and your team can also take this slower season to start planning for the upcoming busy holiday fundraising season!
Season 3: It's no surprise that November through December are the best fundraising months. Your fundraising calendar should have you preparing as early as possible to get the most out of these year-end fundraising campaigns!
This fundraising season includes Thanksgiving, Giving Tuesday, and many other year-end giving opportunities as people take advantage of tax deductions and get into the holiday spirit of generosity.
Many nonprofits do take the time to create a detailed schedule for the year-end giving season. If that's you, simply add those details to your annual fundraising calendar, so everyone stays on the same page.
3. Make a list of essential projects and fundraising needs
How much funding will your organization need to accomplish all the essential goals and projects in the coming year? It's also important to factor in any fundraising gaps from the previous year that will likely impact your financial needs going forward.
Once you have those estimates of how much money you'll need to fundraise, take a look at the fundraising events and campaigns on the calendar. Based on the previous year's performances, will your current plan bring enough money to cover your budget?
4. Start customizing your fundraising calendar and filling it out
Now that you've got the basic structure built (hard deadlines, peak fundraising seasons, and specific fundraising needs), it's time to start filling in the rest of your fundraising calendar.
As you add more events and campaigns to your calendar, consider the data from past experiences to help you choose which events and dates will make the "cut." By analyzing the data from previous years, you can assess the performance of specific events and select the ones that best fit your goals for the year.
Now you can begin to add in those smaller (but potentially lucrative) fundraising events, like Valentine's Day, Mother's Day, and any special "National Day of…" events that pertain to your cause.
For example, suppose your organization serves food, insecure kids. In that case, you might benefit from a special giving day campaign on World Hunger Day. Or, if your nonprofit focuses on an environmental mission, then highlighting Earth Day would probably be a great fundraising strategy.
As you continue to fill in your fundraising calendar, evaluate the time and tasks that each event will require and begin to set preparation timelines and due dates. Some details that are often worth adding to the calendar for projects, campaigns, and events are:
- Promotion deadlines
- Volunteer strategies and deadlines
- Donor thank-you deadlines (after the event)
As you and your team continue to plan, you can add more details to the calendar, like who is responsible for various tasks and other timelines. Really, your fundraising calendar should become more detailed as each week passes and serve as a detailed record of everything you and your nonprofit did by the end of the year.
5. Add communication deadlines
Regular communication is a foundation of fundraising. Of course, you can't plan every single email update or thank-you note. Still, you can map out when you'll send appeal letters, regular email updates, and thank you notes after events.
You can also set a goal for when you'll have met with your major donors. For example, you might have a deadline of meeting with your top 25 major donors by April 15th.
Adding these kinds of communication deadlines creates structure, accountability, and allows you to enjoy a sense of accomplishment and progress throughout the year rather than feeling like you're constantly spinning your wheels.
Bonus tip: create monthly action themes for your fundraising calendar
One strategy for tackling all the fundraising tasks that need to be done throughout the year is to group them and create an action theme each month.
For example, January might be your month of thank-yous! Take the time your team needs to thank each donor for their generosity in the previous year and during your year-end giving campaign. Then February might be the month you decide to focus on gathering potential donors.
While it's not possible (or advisable) to ONLY thank your donors in January, having themes for each month of your fundraising calendar can help you organize things, especially when it comes to donor care. Fundraising expert Gail Perry shared a sample outline of what it might look like to create monthly themes for your fundraising.
The great thing about a fundraising calendar is once you've created one, it gets easier to create the next! All you'll need to do is assess how things went the previous year (by looking at the data you hopefully collected) and making adjustments as needed. As you go, you'll refine your planning, leading to more effective fundraising overall. It's a win-win all around!
Now that you've got a handle on creating your fundraising calendar, here are three more resources to help boost your efforts.
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