Fundraising Strategies for Nonprofits & How to Get Started

Created By: Ryan Grosso and Piper Hardin, CFRE
Updated February 18, 2025

The world of fundraising is constantly evolving. Nonprofits must navigate economic shifts, adapt to changing donor expectations, and embrace new technologies—all while staying focused on their mission. There’s no pause button when there are goals to meet, impact to deliver, and relationships to nurture.

At Orr Group, we understand how overwhelming it can be to juggle competing priorities while maintaining momentum. Fundraisers often find themselves so focused on day-to-day execution that it’s difficult to see the forest through the trees and much less to know where to focus next. But those of us who have been in the field for a while know the value of pausing—if only for a moment—to reflect, recalibrate, and ensure donors remain at the center of everything we do.

Here’s how we recommend structuring your nonprofit fundraising strategy for long-term success:

• Nonprofit Fundraising Strategies FAQ
• How to Design a Fundraising Strategy
• How to Get Started with a Nonprofit Fundraising Consultant

How to Get Started with a Nonprofit Fundraising Consultant

What is a nonprofit fundraising strategy?

A fundraising strategy is a comprehensive plan designed to identify the best opportunities for growing and diversifying revenue in alignment with an organization’s strategic initiatives. It outlines the specific actions and resources needed to build a sustainable fundraising program, ensuring that efforts are intentional, scalable, and aligned with long-term goals.

A strong fundraising strategy includes an analysis of revenue potential and funding sources, an assessment of the staffing, systems, and processes required for success, and a tactical roadmap for implementation. By defining clear priorities and actionable steps, organizations can optimize their fundraising capacity, strengthen donor relationships, and drive sustainable financial growth.

Why is having a fundraising strategy essential for nonprofits?

When nonprofits don’t reach their milestones, it’s seldom because their goals were unrealistic. More often, it’s because they lacked a strong plan. A fundraising strategy provides the structure, clarity, and direction needed to transform ambitions into reality. Without a diverse revenue pipeline or the right infrastructure, even the most well-intentioned fundraising efforts can fall short.

More importantly, a streamlined and effective fundraising strategy is one that aligns with an organization’s mission and future vision, ensuring that fundraising efforts are not only ambitious but also actionable and achievable. Beyond simply setting goals, a strong strategy provides the tools and framework needed to put plans into motion.

A well-structured fundraising strategy:

• Improves team cohesion – Establishes clear roles and responsibilities, ensuring staff, leadership, and volunteers work toward shared goals.
• Provides infrastructure for monitoring key performance indicators (KPIs) – Tracks progress against fundraising targets and informs data-driven decision-making.
• Empowers organizations to adapt – Enables nonprofits to pivot and refine strategies as donor behaviors, funding trends, and economic conditions evolve.
• Provides accountability – Creates structured timelines, measurable goals, and actionable steps to ensure progress and momentum.

A great fundraising strategy is more than a document—it’s a roadmap designed to be actionable, achievable, and grounded in reality. By investing in a strong plan, nonprofits can maximize revenue potential, effectively engage donors, and build a robust fundraising operation capable of sustaining long-term success.

What are the components of a great nonprofit fundraising strategy?

A well-designed fundraising strategy is built on four essential pillars that work together to ensure long-term sustainability and growth. These pillars—Case, Leadership, Donors, and Systems—create a framework that aligns fundraising efforts with an organization’s mission, vision, and operational capacity.

Case for Support

A compelling case for support is the foundation of any fundraising strategy. It articulates why an organization exists, its impact, and why donors should invest. This pillar ensures fundraising efforts are rooted in a clear, compelling, and data-driven narrative. Key elements include:

• Compelling Need for Funds – Clearly defining the organization’s key programs, priorities, and financial needs, demonstrating how philanthropic support directly advances the mission.
• Key Differentiators – Articulating what makes the organization unique and why it stands out to funders compared to other organizations that it competes—or aspires to compete—with for philanthropic investment.
• Impact – Demonstrating tangible results to inspire donor confidence and motivate giving.

Leadership & Staff

Fundraising success is driven by engaged leadership and a strong internal culture of philanthropy. This pillar ensures that board members, executive leadership, and staff are aligned in their roles and responsibilities, creating a unified approach to fundraising. Key elements include:

• Board Engagement – Ensuring board members are actively involved in fundraising activities, from shaping the organization’s fundraising program to assessing stakeholder expectations, commitment, and capacity to participate. Board members also play a critical role in identifying opportunities and providing insights into potential donor prospects.
• Staff Capacity – Aligning team roles to ensure there is adequate expertise, bandwidth, and infrastructure to support fundraising efforts. Additionally, ensuring the right tools and systems are in place to train staff as needed, equipping them to engage effectively in fundraising activities.

Donors

Sustained fundraising success requires a clear strategy for attracting, cultivating, and stewarding donors. This pillar focuses on building and maintaining a strong donor pipeline that fuels both short- and long-term philanthropic growth. Key elements include:

• New Prospect Identification – Assessing the highest-potential opportunities for fundraising ROI and providing recommendations on the types of donors to target (individuals, corporations, foundations). This also includes identifying the most effective fundraising methods to prioritize, such as annual appeals, major gifts, events, and planned giving.
• Current Donor Stewardship – Developing strategies to build and strengthen relationships with existing donors, ensuring continued engagement and increased retention over time.

Systems & Infrastructure

A fundraising strategy is only as strong as the systems and processes that support it. This pillar ensures organizations have the right infrastructure, technology, and accountability measures in place to track progress and drive success. Key elements include:

• Capacity & Infrastructure – Determining the staffing, tools, systems, and processes needed to establish and run a successful fundraising program. This includes research, tracking, and communication tools to support fundraising efforts, a budget overview for implementation, a timeline for execution, and a dashboard to track progress against fundraising targets.
• Culture of Philanthropy – Ensuring fundraising is a shared responsibility across leadership, staff, and volunteers. This includes a volunteer structure, tools for training staff and board members, and processes that embed fundraising into the organization’s culture.

By focusing on these four pillars—and with the right support—nonprofits can develop a comprehensive, actionable strategy that aligns with their mission, maximizes donor engagement, and drives philanthropic growth while ensuring long-term sustainability.

How to Design a Fundraising Strategy

1. Evaluate Current State

To understand the strength of an organization’s fundraising program, nonprofits must take a clear, data-driven look at their current state to assess what’s working, what’s not, and where opportunities for growth exist. 

Start by asking yourself the following questions:

• Were your outreach efforts effective? Did you engage the donors and prospects you aimed to reach? If not, how many attempts were made, and what adjustments could improve engagement?
• Did you provide meaningful opportunities for donor engagement? Were donors invited to events or experiences where they could see the impact of their giving firsthand?
• What messaging and fundraising approaches resonated most? Which appeals or strategies led to stronger engagement, and what should be refined to better connect with supporters?
• What external factors have changed? How have new technologies, evolving donor behaviors, or policy changes affected your fundraising approach? What adjustments need to be made to stay ahead?
• Have you gathered feedback from key stakeholders? Engaging board members, staff, and donors in this reflection process can provide valuable perspectives on fundraising effectiveness and areas for growth.

By reflecting on these insights, organizations can better align their fundraising strategy with donor priorities, ensuring that top supporters feel connected to their philanthropic vision and passion. Meet with your team to evaluate what to stop, start, or continue in your strategy, setting the stage for stronger donor relationships and long-term success.

2. Set Tangible Goals

A well-crafted fundraising strategy is only effective if it is actionable, measurable, and aligned with organizational goals. To ensure success, nonprofits must set clear benchmarks that break down larger revenue goals into smaller, achievable steps.

Using the SMART framework—Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Bound—ensures that goals are both strategic and realistic. Likewise, a SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) can help organizations assess their fundraising landscape, donor pipeline, and potential challenges before launching new initiatives.

To move from strategy to execution, consider setting targeted goals such as:

• Expanding your pipeline by introducing a specific number of new donors to your mission.
• Conducting a target number of meaningful meetings per month to strengthen relationships with supporters and uncover new giving opportunities.
• Implementing a consistent donor stewardship strategy that ensures donors receive meaningful touchpoints throughout the year.

Beyond setting revenue goals, nonprofits must also define and prioritize their core fundraising initiatives—whether that means expanding their major gifts program, strengthening corporate partnerships, or refining donor engagement strategies. Establishing why these initiatives matter, how success will be measured, and who is responsible ensures that fundraising efforts are intentional and aligned with long-term sustainability.

With these principles in place, the next step is to translate strategy into action by developing a structured plan that ensures fundraising success.

3. Make a Plan

With clear goals in place, nonprofits must now focus on building an adaptable and strategic fundraising plan. This begins with a discovery and research phase, followed by stakeholder engagement to gather key insights, and concludes with a structured roadmap for execution.

Assess Revenue Streams

Before mapping out your fundraising plan, take a comprehensive look at your revenue streams to understand where funding comes from and where there is latent potential. Nonprofits typically rely on a mix of:

• Individual Giving – Includes major gifts, annual giving, planned giving, and peer-to-peer fundraising.
• Corporate Giving – Encompasses sponsorships, matching gifts, employee giving programs, and direct corporate philanthropy.
• Foundation Support – Grant funding from private, community, and corporate foundations.

Diversifying revenue is critical as it helps mitigate risk, ensuring the organization isn’t overly reliant on a single funding stream. As you develop your plan, identify opportunities to strengthen each revenue source and assess where additional resources could help maximize funding potential. 

Prioritize Prospect Research

Effective prospect research is a crucial component of building a robust fundraising pipeline. Dedicated resources—whether internal or external—are essential for identifying latent potential and ensuring prospects are properly qualified, rated, and prioritized for maximum return on investment.

When conducting prospect research, focus on three key indicators:

1. Affinity – How connected is the prospect to your cause? Have they donated before, attended events, or engaged with your mission?
2. Capacity – What is their financial ability to give? Wealth screenings, public financial data, and giving history provide insights.
3. Propensity – Do they have a demonstrated history of philanthropy? Looking at past donations to your organization or others helps determine likelihood to give.

A well-researched prospecting strategy ensures your team allocates resources effectively, focusing efforts on the right donors while strengthening long-term fundraising success.

Map the Donor Journey

Engaging donors—both new and existing—requires a structured approach to ensure meaningful relationships are cultivated over time. Every donor moves through a giving journey, which typically includes:

1. Identification – Finding new potential donors who align with your mission.
2. Qualification – Assessing their capacity, interest, and ability to give.
3. Cultivation – Building relationships through personalized engagement.
4. Solicitation – Making an informed, well-timed fundraising ask.
5. Stewardship – Retaining and deepening relationships through ongoing engagement.

To maximize funding potential, nonprofits should focus on:

• Strengthening prospect identification and donor management systems.
• Refining messaging and communication strategies tailored to donor interests.
• Engaging board and volunteer leadership in donor cultivation and solicitation.
• Enhancing fundraising infrastructure to track, measure, and improve results.

Implementing strategies across these areas ensures a well-managed, sustainable fundraising pipeline that fosters long-term donor relationships.

Develop Marketing Cadences

Once a donor pipeline is established, the next step is to ensure consistent, intentional engagement through a structured marketing cadence. Donors and prospects should receive relevant, compelling communication at key moments in their journey to strengthen relationships and encourage deeper involvement.

Key steps to consider:

• Develop standardized collateral to engage prospects and donors throughout the donor lifecycle, ensuring consistent messaging across all touchpoints.
• Build stronger relationships through tailored engagement via internal and external opportunities, including events, digital content, and personalized outreach.
• Create a content calendar that outlines messaging by channel (email, social media, direct mail, etc.), sets KPIs to track success, and ensures a steady cadence of engagement.
• Foster collaboration between the development and marketing teams to maintain a consistent brand identity, storytelling approach, and donor engagement strategy. A brand guide helps ensure all external communications align with the organization’s voice and messaging.

Marketing and development should not operate in silos—a strong collaboration between teams ensures a cohesive donor experience and maximizes fundraising impact.

Leverage New Opportunities

As donor engagement strategies take shape, organizations must also actively seek new funding opportunities to diversify and grow their revenue streams. Expanding the donor pipeline requires an ongoing, structured approach to prospect identification and research.

• Implement a regular prospect identification process to assess potential funders based on their affinity, capacity, and propensity to give.
• Diversify revenue streams strategically by identifying the best individual, corporate, or foundation funding opportunities that align with the organization’s goals.
• Recognize that there is no one-size-fits-all approach—opportunities will look different for every organization, depending on their mission, donor base, and funding landscape.
• Engage experts when needed—consultants can provide critical insights into prospecting, funding trends, and donor strategy, helping organizations identify and source new funding opportunities more effectively.

By proactively identifying and cultivating new opportunities, organizations ensure sustainable revenue growth and mitigate risk by diversifying their philanthropic funding sources.

Align Leadership

With a clear fundraising strategy, donor engagement plan, marketing cadence, and prospecting approach in place, the final step is securing leadership buy-in. While key stakeholders and board members should be engaged throughout the planning process, it’s important to present a fully developed strategy that aligns with the organization’s goals and funding priorities before moving into execution.

To ensure strong leadership alignment and support:

• Hold strategy sessions to identify how leadership can better connect donors to your mission.
• Define board members’ roles in fundraising and provide specific recommendations on how to engage them effectively to maximize fundraising activities.
• Develop a cultivation and stewardship calendar to plan meaningful donor engagement opportunities and ensure leadership plays an active role in relationship-building.

Strong leadership engagement fosters a culture of philanthropy where fundraising is a shared responsibility across the organization—not just a function of the development team.

As Dwight D. Eisenhower said, “Plans are nothing; planning is everything.” The best fundraising strategies are adaptable, so start early and refine as needed.

How to Get Started with a Nonprofit Fundraising Consultant

Developing a fundraising strategy is a challenge for any organization, requiring both strategic foresight and operational execution. Throughout this guide, we have outlined a structured approach to assessing your current state, setting measurable goals, developing a plan, and leveraging new opportunities to drive sustainable growth.

While nonprofits can take these steps independently, consultants offer a unique combination of expertise, experience, and strategic insight that can accelerate progress and elevate impact. However, outsourcing is not a magic solution. Success depends on establishing clear internal priorities, securing leadership buy-in, and fostering the right conditions for collaboration. When approached strategically, bringing in external expertise is an investment that can yield significant long-term returns.

At Orr Group, we don’t just consult—we collaborate. By embedding our team with yours, we provide the people, resources, and expertise needed to move your organization forward with confidence and agility. As organizational strategists and fundraisers, we partner with nonprofits to build creative strategies and data-driven approaches to philanthropy. Our inclination toward action means you will never receive cookie-cutter recommendations – we design custom fundraising strategies tailored to your mission.

Wrapping Up

For a successful engagement with a consultant, nonprofits must secure internal buy-in about the purpose of the project before bringing in external partners. Conversations with the consulting firm before signing a contract can help establish realistic goals, clear expectations, and a strong foundation for collaboration. In most cases, consultants work hand-in-hand with in-house staff, so dedicating internal resources to the project is essential for success.

If your organization is ready to take the next step, Orr Group is here to help. Connect with us today to explore how our tailored, embedded approach can support your nonprofit in developing a customized fundraising strategy that advances your mission forward and achieves your philanthropic goals.

Ryan Grosso is a Director and Co-Head of Fundraising at Orr Group. Ryan focuses on developing innovative and actionable strategies and taking a data-driven approach to fundraising.

Piper Hardin, CFRE is a Senior Director and Co-Head of Fundraising at Orr Group. She brings 20+ years of fundraising experience to drive investment-based solutions for our partners.