Can You Achieve A Vision Based Budget In Your Organization?

It sounds so great, the idea of a budget based solely on your mission. The good news is that this can be a reality. I was talking with a client recently about vision-based budget and how he needed to merge a campaign budget (special campaign fundraising) with his operational budget (typical operating funds) - a key point to figure out.

He needed to raise $1.4 million over the next 5 years for his new complex, but he also needed to continue raising, and even growing, his annual operational budget.

PLAN IT OUT

We talked about the importance of planning. He doesn't need to just "try" and see how much he brings in. The main thing to plan against is ensuring that your donors are aware and clarify whether they're giving extra, or whether their normal giving is going to the campaign needs. A vision based budget means organizations need to have a strategy that accomplishes the total number for each year (operating funds and special campaign funds) and we want to keep donors clear.

BE SPECIFIC

This client created a separate campaign budget for the next five years with subpoints around what each year's dollars would help build. Then he created an operational budget for the next year. We combined these two so we knew exactly what the next 12 months looked like, what it would accomplish, and how to begin planning donor relationships.

Kiley Hawkins, Co-Founder