Fundraising Audits

How effective is your fundraising?

Are you making the most of your opportunities?

A fundraising audit (also known as a fundraising health check or review) takes an impartial look at your fundraising activities and helps to identify new areas of opportunity for your charity, as well as any areas of weakness to address.

A fundraising audit can examine your whole fundraising operation or look at specific areas, such as trusts or corporate fundraising. It can help you make decisions, such as whether to develop a new aspect of fundraising or change the way you currently work.

Fundraising audits cover a lot of ground, in order to give you a rounded view of your operation, including:

• Your overall fundraising strategy (is it fit for purpose?)
• Your case for support (is it effective and how can it be strengthened?)
• Your prospect research (how productive is it and how could it be improved?)
• Your recent results (how are you faring compared to sector norms?)
• Donor acquisition and development (how cost-effective is it?)
• Your fundraising materials (are they effective and how could they be improved?)
• Your web and social media presence (are you maximising their potential for fundraising?)
• The costs of your fundraising operations (and how do they compare to your results?)
• The skills and experience in your team (where are the gaps and what training may be needed?)
• What is the future income potential for your charity and how do you know?

The findings and recommendations of the audit are provided in an action orientated report, which gives you the confidence to invest effectively in the right areas to maximise your future income.

This service is especially useful if you need to revise your fundraising strategy and require objective external input before doing so. Clients also benefit from our wide experience of what other organisations are achieving. This service is particularly relevant where your team has been in post for a long time and you need an independent view of activities, or where there is a need to take a fresh look and bring in some new ideas.

We recommend that a full fundraising audit be conducted every five years, to make sure your charity is still focussing effectively on its best opportunities.

Some clients have specific issues that they wish us to investigate and these can usually be accommodated.

If you think a fundraising audit could help you to move forward, please call us on 01903 723519 for a free initial discussion. It might just be the investment you need.