An excellent question I recently received from a small fundraising shop:

 As the Executive Director I, with a now retired Chairman of the Board, have been the major source of fundraising. We now have a “Development Associate” and a Development Committee of the Board. Who should the committee report to? – Sallie

Recommendations & Resources to Answer the Question:

Staff report to the board – to implement the fundraising plan that has been approved by the fundraising committee.

The fundraising plan would be drafted by the staff, ideally you and the development associate.

Here’s a link to the free resources page on my website with a framework for an annual fundraising plan that includes an annual donor communication plan. I do help organizations draft these, but you can certainly draft one yourselves.

Once you’ve drafted your annual fundraising plan, bring it to the fundraising or development committee for discussion and approval. It’s important to identify which tasks the committee and full board can take on.

When drafting an annual fundraising plan make certain to set measurable goals to retain donors and increase gift size.

For measurable strategic goals examples see tab 9a on the annual fundraising plan template.

With a small fundraising staff, it’s ideal to have a volunteer fundraising team leader. This would be someone on your fundraising committee. And can be a current board member or a community volunteer.

This post will help identify tasks for the team leader. Their focus is to help ensure stewardship tasks are being handled and not a burden for any single person.

In my training sessions with board and staff I recommend 7 things board members can do to help raise more money without having to ask for money.

Here’s a link to a post that spells out the seven ways board members can support fund development.

Remember, fundraising is a program. When you’re a tiny but mighty nonprofit organization much of the focus is placed on paying for program staff. Adding a development associate is an excellent step in formalizing the process of creating a successful annual fundraising program.

As I’ve said before, it’s all about relationships. And that means people spending time talking to people.