Charity Business Plan
Over the past 20+ years, we have helped over 500 entrepreneurs and business owners create business plans to start and grow their charity companies. We have the experience, resources, and knowledge to help you create a great business plan.
In this article, you will learn some background information on why business planning is important. Then, you will learn how to write a charity business plan step-by-step so you can create your plan today.
What is a Charity Business Plan?
A business plan provides a snapshot of your charity business as it stands today, and lays out your growth plan for the next five years. It explains your business goals and your strategies for reaching them. It also includes market research to support your plans.
Why You Need a Business Plan for a Charity
If you’re looking to start a charity business or grow your existing charity company, you need a business plan. A business plan will help you raise funding, if needed, and plan out the growth of your charity business to improve your chances of success. Your charity business plan is a living document that should be updated annually as your company grows and changes.
Sources of Funding for Charity Businesses
With regards to funding, the main sources of funding for a charity business are personal savings, credit cards, bank loans, and major donors. When it comes to bank loans, banks will want to review your business plan (hand it to them in person or email to them as a PDF file) and gain confidence that you will be able to repay your loan and interest. To acquire this confidence, the loan officer will not only want to ensure that your financials are reasonable, but they will also want to see a professional plan. Such a plan will give them the confidence that you can successfully and professionally operate a business. Donations and bank loans are the most common funding paths for charity companies.
How to Write a Business Plan for a Charity Business
If you want to start a charity business or expand your current one, you need a business plan. The guide and sample below details the necessary information for how to write each essential component of your charity business plan.
Executive Summary
Your executive summary provides an introduction to your business plan, but it is normally the last section you write because it provides a summary of each key section of your plan.
The goal of your executive summary is to quickly engage the reader. Explain to them the kind of charity business you are running and the status. For example, are you a startup, do you have a charity business that you would like to grow, or are you operating more than one charity business?
Next, provide an overview of each of the subsequent sections of your plan.
- Give a brief overview of the charity business industry.
- Discuss the type of charity business you are operating.
- Detail your direct competitors. Give an overview of your target customers.
- Provide a snapshot of your marketing strategy. Identify the key members of your team.
- Offer an overview of your financial plan.
Company Overview
In your company overview, you will detail the type of charity business you are operating.
For example, you might specialize in one of the following types of charity businesses:
- Public charity business: A charity business that is defined by the Internal Revenue Service as a “public service support,” is one that benefits the public at large. This may include chambers of commerce, labor unions, and certain types of insurance companies. If a charity business fits within the specifications set by the IRS, the charity is considered a 501c3 entity, and receives preferential tax treatment.
- Private charity business: By far, the majority of charities fall within the category of “private charities,” which can be identified as serving a specific group of people. This may include philanthropic foundations, churches or synagogues, and other clubs or associations that serve via a privately-funded means. If a private charity business fits within the specifications set by the IRS, the charity is considered a 501c3 entity and receives preferential tax treatment.
In addition to explaining the type of charity business you will operate, the company overview needs to provide background on the business.
Include answers to questions such as:
- When and why did you start the business?
- What milestones have you achieved to date? Milestones could include the number of people served, the number of charitable outcomes, reaching X number of geographic locations, etc.
- Your legal business structure. Are you incorporated as an S-Corp? An LLC? A sole proprietorship? Explain your legal structure here.
Industry Analysis
In your industry or market analysis, you need to provide an overview of the charity business industry.
While this may seem unnecessary, it serves multiple purposes.
First, researching the charity business industry educates you. It helps you understand the market in which you are operating.
Secondly, market research can improve your marketing strategy, particularly if your analysis identifies market trends.
The third reason is to prove to readers that you are an expert in your industry. By conducting the research and presenting it in your plan, you achieve just that.
The following questions should be answered in the industry analysis section of your charity business business plan:
- How big is the charity business industry (in dollars)?
- Is the market declining or increasing?
- Who are the key competitors in the market?
- Who are the key suppliers in the market?
- What trends are affecting the industry?
- What is the industry’s growth forecast over the next 5 – 10 years?
- What is the relevant market size? That is, how big is the potential target market for your charity business? You can extrapolate such a figure by assessing the size of the market in the entire country and then applying that figure to your local population.
Donor Analysis
The donor analysis section of your charity business plan must detail the individuals or business entities who donate or those you expect to donate to your charitable business.
The following are examples of donor segments: individuals, families, foundations and corporations.
As you can imagine, the donor segment(s) you choose will have a great impact on the type of charity business you operate. Clearly, individuals would respond to different marketing promotions than corporations, for example.
Try to break out your target donors in terms of their demographic and psychographic profiles. With regards to demographics, including a discussion of the ages, genders, locations, and income levels of the potential donors you seek.
Psychographic profiles explain the wants and needs of your target donors. The more you can recognize and define these needs, the better you will do in attracting and retaining your donors. Ideally you can speak with a sample of your target donors before writing your plan to better understand their needs.
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Competitive Analysis
Your competitive analysis should identify the indirect and direct competitors your business faces and then focus on the latter.
Direct competitors are other charity businesses.
Indirect competitors are other options that donors may contribute to that aren’t directly competing with your product or service. This includes service-related charitable endeavors, private foundations, and organizations that serve specific communities, etc. You need to mention direct competition, as well.
For each direct competitor, provide an overview of their business and document their strengths and weaknesses. Unless you once worked at your competitors’ businesses, it will be impossible to know everything about them. But you should be able to find out key things about them such as
- What types of donors do they solicit?
- What type of charity business are they?
- What is their donation model (cash, assets, estate-wealth)?
- What are they good at?
- What are their weaknesses?
With regards to the last two questions, think about your answers from the donors’ perspective. And don’t be afraid to ask your competitors’ donors what they like most and least about them.
The final part of your competitive analysis section is to document your areas of competitive advantage. For example:
- Will you provide recognition for all your donors?
- Will you offer premium products or services for your top-tier donors?
- Will you provide consistent communication with your donors?
- Will you offer directorships or preferential placement for your donors?
Think about ways you will outperform your competition and document them in this section of your plan.
Marketing Plan
Traditionally, a marketing plan includes the four P’s: Product, Price, Place, and Promotion. For a charity business plan, your marketing strategy should include the following:
Product: In the product section, you should reiterate the type of charity company that you documented in your company overview. Then, detail the specific products or services you will be offering. For example, will you provide food for the homeless population? Will you improve the neighborhood park? Will you invest in artwork on behalf of your charity to support the art world?
Value: Document the specific value your charity provides and how that compares to your competitors. Essentially in the product and price sub-sections of your plan, you are presenting the products and/or services you offer and their respective values.
Place: Place refers to the site of your charity company. Document where your company is situated and mention how the site will impact your success. For example, is your charity business located in an affluent neighborhood, a warehouse, a standalone office, or is it purely online? Discuss how your site might be the ideal location for the donors who contribute and the services you provide.
Promotions: The final part of your charity business marketing plan is where you will document how you will drive potential donors and charitable recipients to your location(s). The following are some promotional methods you might consider:
- Advertise in local papers, radio stations and/or magazines
- Reach out to websites
- Distribute flyers
- Engage in email marketing
- Advertise on social media platforms
- Improve the SEO (search engine optimization) on your website for targeted keywords
Operations Plan
While the earlier sections of your business plan explained your goals, your operations plan describes how you will meet them. Your operations plan should have two distinct sections as follows.
Everyday short-term processes include all of the tasks involved in running your charity business, including answering calls, planning and providing fund-raising events or campaigns, correspondence with donors and charitable recipients, and maintaining records of acts of service.
Long-term goals are the milestones you hope to achieve. These could include the dates when you expect to serve your Xth charity recipient, or when you hope to reach $X in donations. It could also be when you expect to expand your charity business to a new city.
Management Team
To demonstrate your charity business’ potential to succeed, a strong management team is essential. Highlight your key players’ backgrounds, emphasizing those skills and experiences that prove their ability to grow a company.
Ideally, you and/or your team members have direct experience in managing charity businesses. If so, highlight this experience and expertise. But also highlight any experience that you think will help your business succeed.
If your team is lacking, consider assembling an advisory board. An advisory board would include 2 to 8 individuals who would act as mentors to your business. They would help answer questions and provide strategic guidance. If needed, look for advisory board members with experience in managing a charity business or top-tier donors who are regularly involved in your charity business.
Financial Plan
Your financial plan should include your 5-year financial statement broken out both monthly or quarterly for the first year and then annually. Your financial statements include your donation and gift income statement, balance sheet, and cash flow statements.
Income Statement
An income statement is more commonly called a Profit and Loss statement or P&L. In a charity business, profits can be made through sales; however, the majority of income is received from donor gifts and activity. Your income statement will show several avenues of income as a result. It will demonstrate your receipts and then subtract your costs to show the IRS the activity of your 501c3 organization.
In developing your income statement, you need to devise assumptions. For example, will you hold 5 donor events each year, and/or offer acts of service weekly? And will your charity business grow by 2% or 10% per year? As you can imagine, your choice of assumptions will greatly impact the financial forecasts for your business. As much as possible, conduct research to try to root your assumptions in reality.
Balance Sheets
Balance sheets show your assets and liabilities. While balance sheets can include much information, try to simplify them to the key items you need to know about. For instance, if you spend $50,000 on building out your charity business, this will not give you an immediate return on the investment. Rather it is an asset that will hopefully help you maintain your charity business for years to come. Likewise, if a lender writes you a check for $50,000, you don’t need to pay it back immediately. Rather, that is a liability you will pay back over time.
Cash Flow Statement
Your cash flow statement will help determine how much money you need to start or grow your business, and ensure you never run out of money. What most entrepreneurs and business owners don’t realize is that you can generate gifts or assets, but run out of money and go bankrupt.
When creating your Income Statement and Balance Sheets be sure to include several of the key costs needed in starting or growing a charity business business:
- Cost of equipment and office supplies
- Payroll or salaries paid to staff
- Business insurance
- Taxes
- Other start-up expenses (if you’re a new business) like legal expenses, permits, computer software, and equipment
Appendix
Attach your full financial projections in the appendix of your plan along with any supporting documents that make your plan more compelling. For example, you might include your list of top-tier donors, or examples of how your charity has changed lives or communities for the better.
Summary
Writing a business plan for your charity business is a worthwhile endeavor. If you follow the template above, by the time you are done, you will truly be an expert. You will understand the charity business industry, your competition, and your donors. You will develop a marketing strategy and will understand what it takes to launch and grow a successful charity business.
Finish Your Charity Business Plan in 1 Day!
Don’t you wish there was a faster, easier way to finish your Charity business plan?
With Growthink’s Ultimate Business Plan Template you can finish your plan in just 8 hours or less!
OR, Let Us Develop Your Plan For You
Since 1999, Growthink has developed business plans for thousands of companies who have gone on to achieve tremendous success.
See how a Growthink business plan consultant can create your business plan for you.
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