For most organisations there may be times when it is difficult for all of the expenses to be covered by fees. The organisation may then need to do some additional fundraising. Depending on how your business is setup will have implications on how you can fundraise and any requirements on you for doing it.

Often fundraising is not planned and is as a result a sudden realisation that there is a shortfall in the income. Although it is recommended that you think about fundraising in advance if you do suddenly find you need to do some it is still important to clearly plan you what will be doing.

Firstly you need to highlight what the funding will be used for. Is it to buy a specific equipment or to offer an activity.

Alternatively you may need the additional funding to cover revenue costs (wages, rent etc).

You then need to make a good assessment of what it will cost. Take into account all of the variables, eg if you are wanting a piece of equipment think about cost of delivery, storage and if there will be any on-going costs such as maintenance or cleaning.

Once you have identified how much funding you want to raise. The next stage is to prepare a plan, this plan should schedule the fundraising activities you have in mind and show who is taking the lead this may be a number of people or you may want to make one person responsible.

You will need to plan when you need the funding and also take into consideration where you are getting the funding from. If you are using grant giving organisations you will need to be aware of any deadlines they have for receiving the applications.

Creating a calendar for the fundraising can help with the planning, this can be compared to your cashflow  to ensure you get the money when you need it.

Also in this Section:

Events

Loans

Bidding/Grants