Writing Your Campaign’s Fundraising Plan - National Democratic Training Committee

Writing Your Campaign’s Fundraising Plan

By Kelly Dietrich
90 min
Fundraising

What You’ll Learn

  • What a fundraising plan is
  • How to set your campaign’s fundraising goals
  • How to write your own fundraising plan
  • How to maintain and update your fundraising plan

Why This is Important

Campaigns cost money, and raising money requires time and planning. In this course, you will examine the revenue streams a your campaign can focus on, complete some research to help you set goals, and utilize a template to create the first draft of a your fundraising plan.

Your fundraising plan will help you effectively raise money, inform you where to spend your time while raising money, and help you reach the goals of your campaign.

You may or may not be the one writing the fundraising plan. But even if you’re not, the experience you’ll get writing a plan during this course will help you better understand and execute your role on a campaign and/or be ready when writing a plan is your responsibility.

Key Resources

  • SMARTIE Goals Worksheet
  • Fundraising Plan Template
  • Sample: Aisha Iqbal’s Q1 Fundraising Plan
  • Fundraising Goals Research Worksheet
  • Sample: Aisha Iqbal’s Fundraising Goals Research Worksheet

Related Trainings

  • Staffing Call Time — Once you practice your role in call time, you’ll start drafting your campaign’s call time plan
  • Throwing a Fundraising Event — Once you know how to throw a fundraising event that meets your campaign’s goals, you’ll start drafting your campaign’s events plan
  • Raising Money from PACs and Labor Unions — After you identify the PACs that might be interested in your race, you’ll start drafting your campaign’s PAC fundraising plan

Kelly Dietrich

Trainer

As founder and CEO of the National Democratic Training Committee (NDTC), Kelly Dietrich brings more than 20 years of experience on dozens of Democratic campaigns across the country.

Kelly started NDTC in 2016, where at the time it was a collection of videos covering an array of campaign topics, available to campaigns and their volunteers for free. Five years later, those videos grew into a fully fledged training program with hundreds of courses, videos, and articles about running effective campaigns. Kelly’s expertise in various areas — fundraising, staff training, sci-fi (maybe not as much) — have shaped NDTC into an industry leader in Democratic politics.

Originally from Missouri, Kelly lives in Chicago, IL with his wife, daughter, and dog, Tulip, who is allegedly part cat. Beyond work, Kelly is a diehard Kansas Jayhawk and an avid poker player. Kelly also serves on the board of directors at his local park, Sheil Park. This is where he “plays” basketball, which according to his wife can only be loosely considered a hobby. Even with all these interests, Kelly remains committed to making sure high quality tools and training are available to any Democrat who steps up to run for office, work on a campaign, or make their community better.