Organizational Structure and Readiness.

Equally important to an organization’s ability to reach increased fundraising goals is operational readiness. After all, even if an organization has an excellent relationship with a potential donor, a misspelled name in the database, a delay in processing a gift, ill-timed outreach, or multiple touchpoints to the same donor can all lead to embarrassing and potentially damaging incidents.

However, these issues can be addressed and solved with well-defined internal procedures.

It’s important to view the organizational structure with a critical eye to the role it will play in a campaign. If the operations department isn’t prepared to support the campaign productively and efficiently, then changes need to be made intentionally and quickly before the campaign is launched.

The operations team should be staffed in proportion to the frontline fundraisers. Staff members should have clearly defined functional roles and job descriptions, the requisite skill sets, and adequate training. The budget must be sufficient to meet current needs while ensuring success in meeting campaign goals. And key areas of the advancement or development program must be able to communicate and work together cohesively and effectively.

Additionally, it’s important that from the onset of planning, the systems and operations team is at the table to think through and then support the fundraising efforts in such matters as how quickly gifts can be processed and distributed, how receipts can be utilized to communicate additional information regarding the campaign, and how much they can help the donor understand what their donation contributes to the overall success
of the effort.

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