Non-profit organizations rely on the support of people to operate and achieve their goals. Some of these associations do not receive help from the government of commercial organizations. Thus, their need to develop an effective fundraising strategy increases. Before asking people to assist the non-profit in achieving its plans, the organization’s managers have to establish fundraising objectives that would attract attention and encourage others to become donors. For these goals to work, they need to be SMART (Sargeant & Jay, 2014). This paper aims to create fundraising objectives for the nonprofit organization Doctors Without Borders (MSF) and propose useful fundraising strategies.
Nonprofit Organization Description
Doctors Without Borders (Médecins Sans Frontières or MSF) is an international non-profit association founded in France in the 1970s. It is a medical organization that employs and recruits healthcare professionals and volunteers from all parts of the world. MSF pursues several goals, all of them being related to health care and research. First of all, MSF’s doctors respond to medical emergencies caused by human-made and natural disasters: floods, earthquakes, epidemics, starvation, and military conflicts (“Types of projects,” n.d.). Arriving at the affected locations, MSF volunteers assist people and provide medical care to them. This important activity is the most representative of the organization. Annually, MSF members travel to different countries and help people who survived hurricanes or pandemics (“Types of projects,” n.d.).
However, MSF also contributes to people’s daily care outside of emergencies. For example, the organization provides long-term support to some populations that do not have a functioning health care system in their region. Moreover, MSF advocates for these groups and demands secure access to health care for impoverished and underserved communities (“Types of projects,” n.d.). The specialists of the association work in various locations every day. They set up mobile treatment spaces in isolated areas, existing clinics, and underrepresented regions. Finally, MSF specialists continuously initiate new research projects to improve the organization’s medical programs and the overall state of global health.
Fundraising Goals
The purpose of the organization shows, which financial goals MSF establishes every year. The list of possible expenditures for MSF includes medical supplies, drugs, and nutritional supplements, water and water-processing equipment, vehicles, power supplies, communication devices, tents, and other necessary items. Moreover, the association has to cover traveling expenses and volunteers’ food and living arrangements for their missions. Such areas of work as research and advocacy also have their separate financial requirements. Materials, laboratories, testing equipment, and data gathering are a small portion of all financial needs of MSF. The organization also pays some of its members, thus needing an additional potion of revenue for the staff, managers, and directors. Finally, as MSF has some organizational facilities, it has to pay for its property accommodations and taxes.
After analyzing the information about MSF, one can see that it has a variety of expenses, each of which covers people’s support. The SMART goals of MSF should include unpredictable situations and long-term arrangements. Therefore, the first goal can be to increase the number of regular pledges and multi-year commitments by 5%. While this number seems small, it is reasonable because the organization already has a large number of regular supporters, and such a multi-year pledge requires a high level of commitment.
A second goal would be to increase the revenue from one-time donations through fundraising events in comparison to previous years. This objective does not have a particular mark because it is based on a comparison to prior years, showing how the awareness levels may improve through single donations. Finally, the last goal would be to increase funding for the most recent crisis concerning refugees and immigrants to support an advocacy project for accessible care in 2019 (“Focus issues,” n.d.). This is a continuously evolving issue; thus, a concrete number is difficult to establish, but some of the largest national projects completed by MSF amount to more than $120 million (“2016 US annual report,” 2016).
Fundraising Strategies
MSF can employ several strategies to reach its goals. First of all, it should raise awareness of the problems through various media outlets (Williams, 2013). If people see the outcomes of catastrophes and other communities’ issues, they may understand why MSF requires their financial support and donations (Bray, 2016). In emergencies, social media platforms may prove to be effective for spreading information. Annual pledges should also be marketed because they provide a source for stable revenue for the organization (Najev Čačija, 2016). Finally, as was mentioned above, fundraising events held by supporters of MSF and partner organizations can increase the number of one-time donations and allow people to communicate with each other about the issues that the world and the nonprofit face.
Conclusion
MSF is a nonprofit with a clear purpose and a variety of focus issues. Its SMART fundraising objectives should be based on both single and regular pledges, increasing stability while staying flexible to address crises. Thus, the following goals can be outlined: a 5% increase in annual commitments, more one-time donations at events than last year, and a funded project to address the refugee crisis. MSF has an extensive support network, thus making these objectives reasonable and attainable.
References
Bray, I. (2016). Effective fundraising for nonprofits: Real-world strategies that work (5th ed.). Berkeley, CA: Nolo.
Focus issues. (n.d.). Web.
Najev Čačija, L. (2016). The nonprofit marketing process and fundraising performance of humanitarian organizations: Empirical analysis. Management: Journal of Contemporary Management Issues, 21(2), 1-25.
Sargeant, A., & Jay, E. (2014). Fundraising management: Analysis, planning and practice (3rd ed.). New York, NY: Routledge.
2016 US annual report. (2016). Web.
Types of projects. (n.d.). Web.
Williams, K. A. (2013). Leading the fundraising charge: The role of the nonprofit executive. Somerset, NJ: Wiley.