Meeting your objectives through successful fundraising

Volunteer treasurers are an important part of any committee and if there are insufficient funds to meet the goals of the organisation it can make the job more stressful. This can be overcome by the organisation running successful fundraisers through goal setting.

S.M.A.R.T Goal Setting

Like all successful endeavours, a fundraiser should start by clearly setting its goals. There is nothing like a good goal to help your team focus on the job at hand, and keep the big picture in mind. The most common method for arriving at a goal is to use the SMART technique. That is, a goal should be:

Specific – well defined and clear
Measurable – activity or production should be quantifiable in terms of progress toward the goal
Agreed – all key stakeholders have agreed to the goal, and have some stake in its achievement
Realistic – based on real world estimates and information, and not over-ambitious
Timely – should have a time frame built in.

A well put together goal might read something like:

‘Kindergarten Centre aims to raise $5 000 by 30 June for the construction of new playground equipment’
Or
‘All funds raised from the Club Trivia Night will go toward purchase of new team uniforms’

Without clear goals there could be a lack of understanding among your team as to what you are trying to achieve – which means valuable energy and resources may not be being employed in the most productive way. You will find that your team will also be more cohesive, and experience a greater sense of achievement when your goals are achieved.

This article has been supplied by The Fundraising Directory who provide an A-Z guide to Fundraising Products and Services in Australia.

Budget is not a dirty word

Many of us go about our lives not really having a grip on our finances through drafting a budget and sticking to it. Whilst this isn't the ideal for our personal finances it is not a luxury we can afford when managing the finances of a community organisation. It is not our own money to squander. As a result, it is important to prepare a budget and track the finances of the organisation to it.

We invited Michelle House from Secretbudget to give us the lowdown on the benefits of preparing a budget and how to do it. Here is what she had to say:-

The top 3 benefits for a community organisation to do a budget are...

• You have direction and focus.
• You can apply for grants and other kinds of funding.
• You’re being good stewards of the money from the community in the form of membership fees or hard earned fund raising dollars.

What is a Budget?
A budget is a plan, a goal. It’s a monitoring tool for your finances. Most budgets cover a 12 month period and are broken down into income and expenses. Some software programs have a budget section built in, some use a spreadsheet. When it comes to the end of the first month of operating, have a look at your budget and do a comparison. Determine what was over and what was under or if using a percentage, where the budget is tracking based on when the expenses and income are come in during the year.

Why do a Budget? - My three P’s; Planning – Preparation – Prosperity!!
The idea of doing a budget is so you can see more clearly and plan for the year ahead, it’s a way of thinking ahead, financially. You need to predict your income and expenses for the year to ensure that you are staying above the line and finishing with a profit (or surplus) for your community organisation! It is also a great tool to have on hand for any financial assistance you may need to apply for. It demonstrates that you’re serious and that you have a plan/goal in mind!

When do you do a Budget?
Prepare the budget to present at the first or second meeting you take over as treasurer or the first meeting in the new financial year.

Who prepares the Budget?
I have run businesses since I was 22 and I find that it’s always a great idea to have one person who is accountable for the budget. The treasurer would hold this responsibility but I would base it on discussions with all members of your committee about plans for the year.

How do you do a Budget?

• The first place to start is with your expenses. Gather the previous 12 months bills/invoices.
• Predict income. Use last year’s income and discuss how this will improve.
• Alternatively, use the Statement of Receipts and Exenditure from the previous financial year to give you an idea of how thing ran in the previous year.

With these figures in mind, amend the amounts based on the committee’s plans. Eg. Is there some equipment your club or association needs to purchase? What fund raising are you planning to do?

My best tip – Reduce expenses by 10%, increase income by 10% and you’ll be up 20%!!

Michelle House is bringing up a young family and manages the finances of a family business in property maintenance. She has also become well known as a budgeting expert, thanks to the creation of her practical budgeting tool called the ‘Personal Budget Organiser’, or PBO. The PBO works as a portable filing system within a wallet – perfect for organising money, receipts, or anything that will help you budget. Teaming her product with a useful website, http://www.secretbudget.net/, Michelle hopes to inspire Australians to ‘get back to basics’ with their understanding of expenditure and money.

Free grant writing resources

Volunteer treasurers of community organisations are concerned about the financial position of the group. Sometimes this might mean working with others on the committee to apply for grants. At Step by Step Fundraising they have assembled a series of 20 free articles to assist with the process. Although some are specifically for the USA, there are also some very helpful resources regardless of the country you are operating in.

Volunteer Treasurer Survival Guide Topics

Admin Bandit our sponsor is preparing a Volunteer Treasurer Survival Guide. They have a list of potential topics and would like to find out which ones appeal the most. If you have about 1 minute spare, please pop into the survey and have your say on which topics you like best.

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=Hjnhd4QFb1oP5PMVdEwytA_3d_3d

We'll let you know what topics make it in.

Community Treasurers' Awards

Being acknowledged via an award nomination can provide enormous encouragement to keep on going for an individual volunteer treasurer and can be a great morale booster for an organisation. Some awards provide both a morale boost and goodies! Westpac and Our Community launched an award to acknowledge the great job of volunteer treasurers with the opportunity of winning $5,000 for your organisation. It closes on 10 September 2008 so start acting now to nominate an unsung hero in your community.

Westpac Internet Banking

A Westpac Community Solutions Account is accessible via internet banking and is ideal for not for profit organisations with multiple signatories to simply receive and make payments. This tailored solution is FREE to set up with no monthly service or transaction fees for activities such as BPAY, Direct Entry, and cheque and branch transactions. If you’re paying a bill without BPAY using online banking you would use the “Pay Anyone” facility at $0.25 cents per payment. That’s cheaper than a postage stamp and envelope!

To open an account for a community organisation you’ll need to provide either:

• a certificate of registration/certificate of incorporation for community groups; or
• an ATO income tax exemption certificate; or
• a Memorandum and Articles of association stating ‘not for profits’ status, or
• Meeting Minutes.

For internet access you’ll also need to set up Business Online to allow multiple signatories (with various authority levels available) to access accounts and transfer funds online.

To start paying bills using Westpac internet banking just follow these simple steps:-

1. Open a Community Solutions account (remembering to provide one of the items listed above to open the account);
2. Each signatory provides 100 point identification (if they are not already known to Westpac);
3. Complete a Business Online form, outlining the number of signatories;
4. Each signatory is allocated an access level and a userid/password;
5. The treasurer logs in and creates a payment;
6. It sits in a Pending List waiting for authorisation;
7. Another signatory logs in with their userid to authorise the payment (assuming they’ve seen the invoice you’re paying);
8. The payment is then automatically submitted when it is authorised (if only two signatories are required for example).

To set up an account for your community organisation, simply visit any Westpac Branch and talk to a Business Banker.

If you would like to provide comments about this post to help volunteer treasurers, please do.

Internet banking for community groups

In the next few weeks we'll have an article from one of the banks about how internet banking can be done by a community group with multiple signatories on their account.

Volunteer Treasurer Network Introduction

Welcome to Volunteer Treasurer Network (VTN). Our purpose is to provide time-poor volunteer treasurers with tips, tricks resources and training to make your job easier no matter what part of the community sector you're serving in. We'll post articles about resources we've discovered and we invite you to post comments on the articles. By subscribing to the blog you will become a founding member of the VTN.
This network has been established by Nerida Gill of Admin Bandit who after a long involvement with the sector has seen a need for a central place to provide specific support to volunteer treasurers. Without people willing to take on the role in their busy lives, community groups would cease to function. If the role is not done well the organisation can be less effective in fulfilling their mission. If it is done badly it can have far reaching ramifications and in some cases can be catastrophic to the organisation and those involved.
For this reason VTN is setting out to provide a central place for support to make the job easier and more enjoyable.