Most nonprofits have annual budgets under $100,000, which means their “development staff” is at best about 75% of the time of their one paid staff member (if they have any paid staff at all). These organizations can probably undertake no more than two fundraising programs – and doing that relies on the board and any other volunteers. If the leadership of a small organization wants to grow their budget over time, they need to pay attention to fundraising effectiveness, which means that any fundraising programs need to be a good fit for the skills and available time of their board members, especially in the early days.

Certainly, the age of your organization is also one of the factors affecting your fundraising mix. Mass appeals, fundraising events, and online asks are [usually] the primary fundraising activities of young, small organizations. These activities are a pretty good fit for a working board – a board with caring members willing and able to volunteer significant amounts of time. Alternatively, your organization may be small, well-established, and not young. This advice also applies to you, although you might consider inviting bequests if your support base has long-term donors.

If your organization does have one or more dedicated, paid development staffers, you may still have to limit the number of fundraising programs you undertake. All fundraising programs require a lot of time, but some also require significant expertise. The “sweet spot” of fundraising effectiveness for nonprofits tends to move up the expertise vector as the size of your development staff increases.

If you can afford only one development professional, that person should probably have skills and experience in building an annual fund, focusing mostly on mass individual giving – building your donor base in terms of numbers and trying to move donors up in their giving. S/he will need to work hand in hand with the organization’s board, in leveraging their connections and increasing their own giving. If you can find someone who also has major gifts experience – in addition to Annual Fund — that can be a terrrific combination.

If you are able to add a second development staffer, look at the possibility of adding either a foundation or corporate relations officer (or combined) – someone who can find grant opportunities and get the grant proposals written. All development professionals need to be well-organized, but they also need to be terrific project managers.

Nonprofits with dedicated planned giving professionals (and hence planned giving programs) tend to be among the largest and most mature organizations. Small, well-established organizations can invite bequests from their donors, however, and accomplish quite a lot over the long term in doing so.