“Too often nonprofit organizations succeed on the delivery side, but constantly living hand-to-mouth on the resource side of the organization. The most effective and sustainable nonprofit organizations are ones where they have developed a “culture of philanthropy” within its ranks.”      -Mike Dimengo, President If a nonprofit organization is going to achieve any degree of effectiveness as a fundraising organization, it’s imperative that the organization develop a “culture of philanthropy” across its organizational constituency that’s the “right fit” with its mission. Every stakeholder and participant within the organization needs to be keenly aware of the organizational mission and, as a result, needs to be focused on the organization’s needs to achieve that mission. What happens far too often in nonprofit organizations is that focus is made on organizational mission and service delivery. And less focus is given to raise support. Board members and service professionals champion the mission side of an organization while the resource side cannot keep pace. The primary goal of our Development Audit services is to help nonprofit organizations maximize their effectiveness by creating synergy between mission, goals, required resources and daily activities. A Development Audit is an objective assessment of your fundraising program, made by a Sage consultant or a group of Sage consultants to determine your effectiveness to raise funds as well as your readiness to embark on new development ventures. The Development Audit looks at involvement of board, staff and volunteers in the fundraising process and offers recommendations on how to best use the human resources available to the organization. It further evaluates the strengths and weaknesses of your development systems including fundraising software. The Audit also offers suggestions to help improve donor communications and stewardship. An Audit will look at: The organization’s readiness for fundraising The Board’s role in fundraising The Staff’s role in fundraising An organization’s systems and procedures An organization’s research, cultivation and stewardship processes The integrated development program Through our extensive experience and ongoing research efforts, Sage has developed a development audit process that has shown to be both highly efficient and remarkably effective. Our auditing process is a mix of detailed data analysis and extensive interviewing. While we rely heavily on the information we receive while analyzing internal records, we also gain critical information by conducting pointed interviews with executives, staff, volunteers, donors, and other key persons. The result is a detailed and comprehensive analytical “report card” on an organization’s effectiveness in its efforts to achieve short and long term fundraising objectives. It highlights the strengths of an organization’s mission and how that mission is being supported through fundraising while it also points out areas of weakness and recommended courses of corrective action to address those weaknesses. A Sage Development Audit not only assists the organization by analyzing its entire fundraising infrastructure, but it provides an action-oriented plan. What future actions should be considered and scheduled to maximize fundraising potential? Sage can equip you with the right solutions.