The number at the top of your fundraising plan came from somewhere. Most of the time, nobody can say where.

Two questions come before the number, and both of them are arithmetic.

What did we raise last year? And what are we projected to need this year — to run the programs, pay the people, cover the rent increase the landlord already put in writing?

Then the question: where did that second number come from? Out of the budget, with line items you can point to? Or is it a best guess?

A goal that came out of the budget can carry weight — you can staff it and defend it, and walk back into a board meeting in July to say we're eighty thousand short and here's the program that's exposed.

So the goal sentence in a real plan reads like this: this year we will raise $X by [date] to pay for [the thing the money funds].

Before a single ask gets planned, split the goal by the kind of money it has to be. Unrestricted — spend it on anything, including salaries and rent. Restricted — tied to a program or a project. Recurring — monthly, predictable, arrives without anyone having to write a cheque. Capital — the building, the vehicle, the one-time big thing.

Work out how much of the goal has to be unrestricted before anything else, then let that decide where the asking energy goes.

Different money costs different amounts of time

Annual gifts. Small gifts, usually under $1,000, mostly unrestricted. Roughly 80 percent of that work is asking, 20 percent is relationship-building. AFP's Fundraising Effectiveness Project puts sector-wide retention near 43 percent.

Monthly giving. About 80 percent of monthly donors renew each year. It's the closest thing to predictable revenue a small shop can build, and it usually arrives unrestricted.

Major gifts. Twelve to eighteen months to secure, and about four qualified prospects for every gift you're counting on. Seventy percent of that time is relationship-building. Usually restricted.

Grants. Almost always restricted, rarely pays core salaries, heavily competed for, and criteria fit decides most outcomes before anyone reads your prose. The money also arrives late.

Corporate sponsorship. A contract, not a donation — sponsors are buying visibility, and it isn't receiptable.

Planned gifts. Ninety percent cultivation, ten percent asking.

Events. At many events, once staff hours get counted honestly, it costs 50 cents or more to raise a dollar. Expensive as a revenue strategy.

Three approaches.

Beyond what you already run, choose three new approaches.

The three targets should add up to the gap between last year's total and this year's goal.

The calendar, and whose name is on it

Every ask gets its own line, its own month, its own target, and a person's name beside it. Put the thank-yous on the calendar too, because follow-through that isn't scheduled doesn't happen.

A phone call inside 48 hours on a first gift over $100. A note in the mail at the second gift. By the third, a board member picking up the phone with nothing to sell. That's the cheapest work in the entire plan, and it's the work that moves retention.

The two numbers, then three more

Retention is the first vital sign. Of the donors who gave last year, how many gave again?

The share of revenue that's unrestricted is the second. If it shrinks while the total grows, the plan is winning the wrong money.

Then pick three more that match the approaches you chose — asks made, new monthly donors, days from gift to thank-you, whatever those three approaches actually run on.

If you want the page itself, the free Doable Fundraising Plan template is the one I use with clients — one page for the annual plan, a follow-through page for the donor year, and a campaign math page for the year you set a big goal.

Put last year's total and this year's budget side by side tonight, and answer the two questions before anyone asks you for a goal.