Speaker Blog: The Power of Process in Fundraising Performance Improvement (FPI)
Fundraising Performance Improvement (FPI) builds capacity by leveraging the work of fundraising staff, board members and volunteers in a new approach to major gifts that enables exponential increases in fundraising performance.
Making solicitation a process
The process combines the principles of fundraising relationship management with Lean Six Sigma thinking. It embeds relationship building strategies from initial contact through progressive stages. It is designed for a team-based environment and provides an easily implemented, step-by-step process through which the work of the development team is channeled and accelerated.
It is part of a circular, larger end-to-end development process that includes pipeline development and stewardship. It is named the “Core Process” because it is at the heart or core of the organization’s fundraising effort—responsible for 80 percent or more of the total amount raised annually, if deployed correctly.
Stage-Gates in the Core Process
A key element is the application of stage-gate theory from the world of commercial product development. Stage gates in product development are a way of limiting investment risk by focusing on a progressively smaller number of the most promising new products as they move through development stages.
Each of the four fundraising stage gates is a permission-based, opt-in process. While the formal solicitation occurs in the fourth stage, the intent of the process is to make solicitation a process, not a single event.
Check out the AFP Toronto Blog next Wednesday for Part 5 of Steve Reed’s series on Fundraising Performance Improvement.
Next: The Role of Boards in Fundraising Performance Improvement (FPI)
Previous: Breakthrough Cases in Fundraising Performance Improvement (FPI)
Steve Reed lead the session R-04: Hope is Not a Strategy: New Approaches to Fundraising Based on Performance Improvement Principles at AFP Toronto’s Fundraising Day on June 8. He unpacked FPI based on blend of learnings from five organizations, including two in Canada, with fundraising staffs ranging from one FTE to nearly 50.
About Steve Reed
Steve Reed offers 30 years of experience in business development, executive search, fundraising, marketing, performance improvement and strategic planning. His work creating innovation and ideation processes, coupled with 20 years of experience as a fundraising consultant, led to a pioneering application of six sigma and lean principles in fundraising. Reed has planned and directed well over $100 million in campaigns. He has completed executive search assignments, moderated hundreds of consumer focus groups and facilitated numerous board and staff retreats and workshops. His professional memberships reflect a diversity of interests. He holds accreditation from the Public Relations Society of America, is a member of the Counselors Academy, the Healthcare Financial Management Association, the Association of Fundraising Professionals and its Chicago Chapter, the Association for Healthcare Philanthropy, the Society for Healthcare Strategy and Market Development, and the American Marketing Association. Follow Steve Reed on LinkedIn.