Directing the Annual Program: Budget, Channels, and Growth Targets
Owning annual giving as a director: channel mix, cost per dollar raised, acquisition against retention spend, growth targets that are honest, and the plan the board approves. The program as an investment, defended in numbers and in relationships.
Through the Healthcare lens
A system finance office tends to see the foundation as a cost center like any other, so the director's channel table has to hold up against people who think in hospital budget logic: cost per dollar raised, retention of grateful-patient donors, and a clear line between HIPAA-compliant acquisition and the stewardship that keeps a donor giving past a single episode of care. The growth-target discipline, built from retained donors plus upgrades rather than a flat percentage, is what survives a CFO's first hard question.
Continuing education
1.00 points
Leadership and Management · Securing the Gift
Learning objectives
- Describe the annual program as a director sees it: a portfolio of channels with different costs, returns, and time horizons, funded by a budget the director must defend.
- Compute and compare cost per dollar raised, retention, and lifetime value by channel and by donor segment, and use them to set the acquisition and retention mix.
- Build an annual program plan and budget with growth targets a board can approve and a team can meet.
- Analyze a decision to move spending from acquisition to retention and identify what it changed.
Designed for CFRE continuing education. Not yet accepted; no CFRE points can be claimed.
Lessons
- 20 min
Video lesson
Owning the annual program as a director
III Discern · Leadership and Management
- 18 min
Field guide· PDF
Channel mix and cost per dollar raised
III Discern · Securing the Gift
- 20 min
Template· DOCX
The annual program plan and budget the board approves
VI Accompany · Leadership and Management
- 16 min
Case study· PDF
Case study: shifting spend from acquisition to retention
VII Multiply · Leadership and Management
This is members-only material.
Members get every lesson, template, and worksheet in all eight tracks, plus the support to put them to work in your shop.
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