A nonprofit doesn't need a large development department to raise money effectively. But it does need a clear plan, consistent relationships, and people who understand their roles.
For many small nonprofit organizations, fundraising is one responsibility among dozens.
The executive director may also be overseeing programs, managing employees, preparing board materials, meeting with community partners, and ensuring that the organization has sufficient resources to operate.
There may be no development director, no major gifts officer, and no fundraising department. Sometimes there isn't even an administrative assistant.
Yet the organization still needs to raise money.
The challenge is not simply how to raise more revenue. It's how to establish a fundraising approach that is effective, sustainable, and realistic for a small team.
Here are ten practical strategies for small nonprofits working without dedicated development staff.
1. Start With a Fundraising Plan You Can Actually Implement
Many nonprofit fundraising plans are too ambitious for the organizations expected to carry them out.
They include annual appeals, corporate sponsorships, grant applications, fundraising events, major donor cultivation, planned giving programs, and complicated outreach calendars.
Each activity may have merit. Together, they can overwhelm an executive director who is already managing the entire organization.
A more effective approach begins with three questions:
How much money do we need to raise?
Where is that revenue most likely to come from?
What activities can we realistically execute well?
Start by identifying the organization's primary revenue sources and the relationships most important to maintaining them.
Rather than launching six new initiatives, choose two or three fundraising priorities that deserve consistent attention.
For example, an organization might focus on renewing current donors, strengthening relationships with its largest supporters, and submitting a manageable number of well-matched grant applications.
Practical action: Create a one page fundraising plan identifying revenue goals, priority activities, responsible individuals, and key dates.
A simple plan that gets implemented is more valuable than a sophisticated plan that sits in a folder.
2. Understand That Fundraising Is About Relationships
Small nonprofits sometimes assume that successful fundraising requires elaborate campaigns, expensive events, or access to wealthy individuals.
Those things are not prerequisites for building a strong development program.
Fundraising begins with relationships.
People support organizations for many reasons, including personal experience, shared values, community needs, trust in leadership, and confidence in the organization's work.
The nonprofit's responsibility is to nurture those relationships thoughtfully.
This means making time to listen to supporters, share meaningful updates, express appreciation, and understand what motivates their involvement.
Practical action: Identify 10–20 important organizational relationships and establish a simple plan for staying connected with each of them.
The list might include individual donors, foundation representatives, business partners, community leaders, and longstanding volunteers.
Not every contact needs to result in a financial request. Consistent communication is valuable in its own right.
3. Give the Board a Meaningful Role in Fundraising
One of the greatest untapped resources in many small nonprofits is the board of directors.
Board members are frequently committed volunteers who understand the mission and want the organization to succeed.
But they may not know what meaningful fundraising participation looks like.
Simply telling board members that fundraising is part of their responsibility rarely produces consistent action.
And expecting every member to solicit donations overlooks the many ways people can contribute.
Board members can help by:
Thanking donors and volunteers.
Introducing people who might be interested in the mission.
Welcoming guests at events.
Sharing approved organizational stories.
Identifying potential community partners.
Participating in donor stewardship activities.
Offering useful professional expertise.
Helping staff understand community interests and relationships.
These contributions can strengthen the organization's fundraising program without requiring members to act as professional solicitors.
Practical action: Identify two or three useful board engagement opportunities each month and invite members to participate.
Provide clear instructions, appropriate context, and suggested language when helpful.
The objective is not to give the board more work indiscriminately. It's to make participation purposeful and manageable.
4. Divide Responsibilities Between Board and Staff
In small organizations, fundraising responsibilities can become confused.
An executive director may assume board members will make introductions or contact prospective supporters, while board members assume the executive director is handling everything.
Important opportunities fall through the cracks.
A simple division of responsibilities can help.
The executive director typically:
Leads fundraising strategy and manages organizational priorities.
Oversees donor relationships and solicitation planning.
Coordinates grant proposals and institutional partnerships.
Ensures accurate gift records and appropriate acknowledgment.
Reports fundraising progress to the board.
Board members can:
Participate in appropriate donor and community relationships.
Provide introductions and help open doors.
Express gratitude to supporters.
Advocate for the mission.
Support agreed-upon fundraising initiatives.
Fulfill the board's governance and resource stewardship responsibilities.
The exact division will depend on the organization's structure and staff capacity.
Practical action: Agree on a short, written description of fundraising roles and expectations. Revisit it during board orientation and annual planning.
5. Prioritize Donor Retention Before Pursuing Every New Prospect
Finding new donors is important, but overlooking existing supporters can weaken an otherwise successful fundraising effort.
Small nonprofits often devote considerable effort to attracting new contributions while having little time left to maintain relationships with people who already give.
A sustainable program needs both.
Review the organization's current supporters.
Who has given consistently? Who has recently become involved? Who might appreciate a personal update or conversation? Who has stopped giving and may welcome an appropriate reconnection?
Effective stewardship does not require an expensive program.
It might include a thoughtful email, a personal phone call, a program update, or an invitation to see the work firsthand.
Board members can help with some of these activities when coordinated appropriately by staff.
Practical action: Establish a quarterly stewardship schedule that identifies which supporters should receive personal communication.
Focus on the quality and relevance of the contact, not simply the number of messages sent.
6. Build a Simple, Consistent Fundraising Calendar
One of the biggest challenges for a small nonprofit is maintaining momentum.
Fundraising activity often increases when an urgent deadline approaches and decreases when operational demands take precedence.
A basic calendar helps distribute the work throughout the year.
It might include:
Monthly: Donor thank you calls, relationship follow ups, and a small number of board engagement activities.
Quarterly: Review fundraising progress, reconnect with key supporters, and share a meaningful organizational update.
Annually: Conduct the primary fundraising appeal, review grant opportunities, evaluate donor retention, and establish goals for the following year.
The schedule should reflect the organization's actual capacity and fundraising cycle.
Practical action: Set aside a recurring block of time each week for fundraising activity.
Even two focused hours devoted to relationship management can be more useful than an entire day spent reacting to an approaching deadline.
7. Give Board Members the Information They Need
Board members may be willing to help but reluctant to take action when they don't feel adequately informed.
They may worry about explaining a program inaccurately, answering questions they don't understand, or accidentally making commitments on the organization's behalf.
Staff can reduce that uncertainty.
Provide board members with:
A clear description of the mission and major programs.
Current organizational priorities.
A few accurate examples of community impact.
Suggested language for introductions and thank you messages.
Guidance about when to refer questions to staff.
Appropriate information about specific stewardship activities.
This doesn't require a lengthy training manual.
A concise one-page resource can often provide what members need.
Practical action: Create a simple board fundraising reference sheet and update it as the organization's priorities change.
The goal is to help board members feel prepared, not to turn them into development professionals.
8. Use Technology to Save Time, Not Create More Work
Small nonprofits often have limited technology budgets, making it important to choose tools carefully.
Before adopting new software, ask what problem it will solve.
Will it reduce administrative work? Improve relationship management? Help coordinate volunteers or board members? Make important information easier to access?
A useful fundraising system might include a donor database, an email platform, a shared calendar, and a process for tracking board participation.
The organization doesn't necessarily need a large or complicated technology infrastructure.
However, relying entirely on disconnected spreadsheets, individual email accounts, and informal reminders can create problems as the organization grows.
Important donor information may be difficult to find. Follow-up responsibilities may be unclear. Staff transitions can result in lost institutional knowledge.
Practical action: Choose tools that support a few essential functions reliably: recording relationships, coordinating activity, tracking follow-up, and sharing appropriate information.
Technology should simplify the fundraising process rather than add another administrative obligation.
9. Measure Progress Beyond Dollars Raised
Revenue matters. Nonprofits need financial resources to fulfill their missions.
But fundraising revenue is not the only useful indicator of progress.
A small nonprofit can also monitor whether its fundraising practices are becoming stronger.
Consider tracking:
Donor retention and renewal.
Meaningful donor conversations.
New introductions made through board members.
Stewardship activities completed.
Grant proposals submitted and funded.
Growth in recurring support.
Board member participation in development activities.
These measures provide context for financial results.
For example, a new donor relationship might take several months or years to develop before producing a gift. A thank you call may strengthen a relationship without creating immediate revenue.
Not every activity will lead to a contribution, and organizations should avoid treating all relationships as transactions.
Practical action: Select five or six measures that can be reviewed quarterly without creating a burdensome reporting process.
Use the information to make decisions, rather than collecting data simply because it is available.
10. Build a Fundraising Culture That Can Survive Staff Transitions
In small nonprofits, fundraising relationships and institutional knowledge often reside with one person.
When an executive director leaves, important relationships, conversations, and commitments may leave with them.
That creates unnecessary vulnerability.
A sustainable fundraising program needs shared understanding, documented information, and clear processes.
Board members should understand the organization's development priorities. Donor contact records should be maintained appropriately. Follow up commitments should have clear owners.
New staff and board members should be able to understand how the organization manages its fundraising activities.
Practical action: Document the organization's essential fundraising practices, even if the documentation is only a few pages.
Include how donor relationships are recorded, how stewardship is coordinated, how the board participates, and how fundraising progress is reviewed.
A small investment in structure today can prevent significant disruption later.
Small Nonprofits Can Build Strong Fundraising Programs
A small organization may never have the staffing or resources of a large development department.
It doesn't need to imitate one.
Successful fundraising depends on thoughtful relationships, clear priorities, consistent follow-through, and a shared commitment to the mission.
An executive director cannot - and should not - be expected to carry every responsibility alone.
An engaged board can be a powerful partner, particularly when members are given practical opportunities to contribute and staff have a manageable way to coordinate that participation.
The goal is not to ask everyone to do more.
It's to create a system that helps everyone contribute meaningfully.
How BoardSpring Can Help
BoardSpring was designed to make one important part of nonprofit fundraising easier: meaningful board participation.
For small organizations without dedicated development staff, coordinating board involvement can be particularly challenging.
BoardSpring helps translate broad fundraising responsibilities into manageable monthly actions, with guidance and suggested language for activities such as gratitude, introductions, relationship building, and follow-up.
Its administrative tools help nonprofit leaders organize opportunities and understand how board members are participating, while its Learning Hub provides accessible fundraising education.
BoardSpring does not replace a donor database, fundraising strategy, or professional development staff.
Instead, it helps nonprofits make better use of a resource they already have: board members who care about their mission and want practical ways to help.
Learn more about BoardSpring at www.boardspringgroup.com.
