Your 2025 Fundraising Campaign Checklist
Ready to make 2025 your best fundraising year yet? We’re here to help!
A strong fundraising campaign takes planning. And who doesn’t love making a plan with a good checklist?
Post Date: Dec 1 2024
Get a head start on fundraising in 2025 and beyond!
What exactly is a fundraising campaign? A campaign is an effort to raise funds within a certain amount of time, or for a certain cause. The funds you raise might be used for a special purpose — like purchasing jerseys for a sports team or books for elementary students — or applied to day-to-day expenses.
The type of campaign you choose will depend on your resources (volunteers, event space, budget), as well as your fundraising objectives, budget, timeline, and audience.
We’ve worked with thousands of fundraising groups that have successfully met or exceeded their goals with Terri Lynn fundraising programs. We’ve taken their top tips and whittled them down into one essential fundraising checklist.
Let’s walk through the steps to a rewarding fundraising journey!
Choose Your Objective
Set a Goal
Build a Budget
Select Your Dates
Recruit Volunteers
Plan for Promotions
Express Your Appreciation
Measure Your Success
Choose Your Objective
Start by answering these questions: Why do you want to raise money? What are you hoping to accomplish? What is the purpose of your fundraising campaign?
When your objectives are clearly in order, you can plan your fundraising campaign with direction and purpose. Setting clear objectives will help everything else fall into place — from your budget to your volunteer recruitment plan.
Looking for inspiration? Here are some examples from other Terri Lynn fundraising campaigns:
Set a Goal
Once you know your campaign’s objective, it’s time to set a goal. How much do you need to raise to get to your target? Do you want to meet a previous year’s benchmark, or go above and beyond in 2025?
Setting a fundraising goal — such as $1,000, $5,000 or $20,000 — will help you plan your budget and impact, and give your supporters a number to reach for. Tracking your progress with a visual, like a fundraising thermometer or bar chart, will also get your community excited about reaching the finish line!
Every Terri Lynn Online Store has the option of setting a goal — and we highly recommend you do, too. A thermometer tracker will automatically show on your Online Store page for supporters to see. It’s a great way to inspire your supporters to move the thermometer up, up, up!
Choose a Fundraising Program
The next step in the checklist is choosing a fundraising program that works for your organization. Depending on the time of year, your volunteer numbers, or available storage space, you’ll want to opt for a fundraising program that maximizes your time and efforts.
Additionally, you can combine Terri Lynn programs for greater earning potential! Here’s a quick overview of our three program types, and you can visit our Programs page to learn more:
No face-to-face selling
Contactless delivery
No cost to your organization
Open year round, 24/7
Easy to set up
Free shipping for orders $30 or more
No upfront costs
No excess inventory
Saves time
Free shipping
Bigger profits
Sell on-hand
No orders to take
Free shipping for 2 or more cases
Build a Budget
Once your goal is finalized, you’ll want to set a fundraising campaign budget. Make sure your list of expenses is detailed and includes even smaller items, like paper for flyers or postage for mailers.
It’s important to remember that your budget will constantly evolve as your campaign gets closer, and things are added or taken away. However, setting a budget early on will help you stay on track during your fundraising campaign.
Example items to include in your budget:
Event venue costs
Technology/software expenses
Food and drink costs
Decoration purchases
Printing and promotions
Staffing or personnel if needed
Select Your Dates
A fundraising campaign can thrive at any time during the year, depending on your needs. However, many fundraisers choose to plan their campaigns around special occasions like anniversaries, major holidays, end-of-year giving season, or awareness months and days.
Remember to give yourself enough time to reach your goal, while also understanding that a wrap-up date can motivate supporters to take action before your big deadline.
Recruit Volunteers
Volunteers are the heart of most fundraising groups. From sign decoration to participant registration to event clean-up, a well-planned volunteer program is essential for a successful campaign.
Before reaching out to volunteers, create a list of volunteer roles and shifts that you’ll need filled. This way, they can sign up for opportunities that match their talents and availability, and you’ll avoid open holes in your campaign schedule.
Short on volunteers? No problem! Our Online Store program can be set up in a flash and requires practically no volunteer time. Profit checks are sent to you automatically each month, and our entire catalog of delicious products is available to your supporters around the clock.
Plan for Promotions
As much as we love hearing that “Terri Lynn products practically sell themselves”, we also know that a strong and consistent fundraising message is going to help you maximize your profits! Your promotions should include a main message — what you’re hoping to achieve, what you’ll be able to do with funds, and how you’re going to get there.
Your promotional plan should also factor in your audience. How will you reach them? Do you have their email addresses or phone numbers? Do they follow you on social media? Where do they learn about events in your community? Answering these questions will help you define the best ways to share information about your fundraising campaign and the importance of the work you do!
We have lots of articles and resources for promoting your fundraiser. Read on!
Express Your Appreciation
Showing your gratitude is a critical step in wrapping up your fundraising campaign. After all, the money you raised wouldn’t be possible without the support of your community! Supporter and volunteer appreciation helps people feel valued and connected to your impact, and increases the likelihood that they’ll want to give to your fundraiser again and again.
When it comes to appreciation, we have ideas. They’re simple, creative, and don’t cost much. Read our popular 10 Creative Ways to Say “Thank You” article.
Measure Your Success
Once your fundraising campaign is complete, it’s important to reflect on your results. What worked and didn’t work? What can you do better next year? Was your goal too low, too high, or just right? Take time to analyze your results and plan to make adjustments to your future fundraising campaigns, in order to make sure that you’re reaching or exceeding your goals.
Ready to get your 2025 fundraising campaign in motion?
If you’re ready to raise money quickly in the year ahead, give us a call. Our team of dedicated experts are here to help with a FREE fundraising consultation. Tell us about your objective, your goal, and your resources, and we’ll get you set up with the Terri Lynn fundraising program (or programs) that will work best for you.
You can also view our Free Fundraising Guide anytime with pages of tips, checklists, and more — because whatever type of fundraising campaign you choose, we want you to succeed!