By Betsy Steward

As a fundraising consultant, I see a wide variety of development offices. Some are one-person departments, some have a handful of dedicated fundraising staff, and still others have a dozen or more full-time active fundraising team members. Development offices come in all sizes!

No matter the size of your development office, the essentials remain the same. Ignore them at your peril! Below is a list of fundraising fundamentals that will help you determine how effective your development office is, and how you could make some improvements to grow support for your mission. 

How would your organization do? Would you pass a development audit?

I hope you will conclude that your development office would pass. But if not, don’t despair. Every nonprofit needs to recognize where they are, and work to grow from there. If you are feeling panicked that some elements listed below are missing at your shop, now’s a good time to change that! There are so many resources available just by googling, and of course you can always email me if you have questions or want to discuss how the Heller Fundraising Group can move your development office forward. Good luck!

Please Note: hyperlinks are listed immediately below table.

Links from the checklist above:

Element 1: A Consumer’s Guide to Low-Cost Donor Management Systems

Element 5: Joan Garry’s blog

Element 9: GivingUSA

Betsy Steward previously served as a Senior Consultant at the Heller Fundraising Group. Betsy is an expert in capital campaigns, board training, nonprofit organization, major donor cultivation, solicitation and stewardship.