It's that time again. As 2024 draws to a close, people and businesses alike are looking toward the New Year, thinking about what they can do better as they wonder what 2025 has in store. If you're here, it means your nonprofit's likely in the same boat.
Not to worry. In this blog post, we'll walk you through everything you need to know to prepare your nonprofit organization for 2025 and beyond.
First thing's first, this isn't the sort of thing you should be doing solo. You're basically charting your organization's course for the next year. We recommend involving key stakeholders at the outside to ensure your strategic plan is fully aligned with your mission and their needs.
Generally, the people involved at this stage should include:
Make sure everyone's role is clearly defined at the outset. Board members, for instance, will help establish the high-level goals and strategic direction of your nonprofit. Your planning committee will develop your strategy with help from third-party consultants and input from employees and constituents.
Finally, your employees will help implement everything once you're done.
There was a great deal of disruption in the nonprofit sector this year, and 2025 has the potential to be even more disruptive. Before you start building out your strategy, take a moment to look at what's coming and prepare accordingly.
As with virtually every other industry, AI has had a massive impact on the nonprofit sector. The technology enables considerably more effective donor engagement by delivering dynamic, hyper-personalized experiences. It's also helping nonprofits streamline virtually every organizational arm, including donor segmentation, grant management, and data entry.
The real strength of the technology lies in relationship-building. Rather than having to spend an inordinate amount of time searching for and managing donor information, nonprofits can focus their attention on engaging with donors on a more personal level while also maintaining consistent ongoing communication. Not only that, AI technology can help nonprofits unlock new and powerful insights about both donors and themselves.
Simple: Explore and embrace the potential of AI.
The nonprofit sector's gone digital. Hybrid and online events have increasingly become the norm. As offline-only fundraising increasingly falls to the wayside in favor of hyperconnectivity, Nonprofits need to transition to digital- and mobile-first fundraising and engagement.
The days when a nonprofit could rely solely on donation drives are behind us. Expect savvy nonprofits to diversify their fundraising efforts in 2025 to generate more attention, attract more donors, and ultimately drive greater positive change. Some of the most prominent changes include:
One word: Diversification.
For the uninitiated, the Generosity Crisis refers to the ongoing decline in philanthropic activity seen in the United States over the past several decades. The coming year promises to be a perfect storm that makes the Crisis all but impossible to ignore, especially for US-based nonprofits. There are several factors at play here:
Ramp up donor outreach, streamline and modernize operations, and put more focus on younger individual donors.
Now that you're prepared for changes 2025 will likely bring to the nonprofit landscape, it's time to start planning.
Evaluate the way everything currently looks. Examine your people, processes, and systems. Think about how things have changed over the past year, and if you have a strategic roadmap from 2024, include it in your assessment. Consider also any budgetary changes or organizational shifts that might impact you in the coming year.
Lastly, take the time to think about your successes and failures. How can you improve upon the latter and avoid the former this year? The answers to these questions will help you build a strong foundation for your 2025 roadmap, one that iterates and improves on what you did in 2024.
Define your goals for 2025. What do you want to achieve this year? How do you want your nonprofit to look by 2026?
Make sure you follow the SMART framework for goal-setting:
For example, rather than saying you want to raise a certain amount of money by 2026, set a concrete deadline and establish where you'll direct that funding — which of your initiatives are you attempting to support?
From there, break down your goals into actionable steps and milestones. As you do, think about the role each stakeholder and team member will play in fulfilling your objectives. Pay attention as well to the resources you'll need — not just in terms of budget, but also people and equipment.
Strategic planning is a process. Just as you (hopefully) built your 2025 roadmap atop your roadmap from 2024, you'll be building your 2026 roadmap based on what you achieved in 2025. To that end, review your roadmap throughout the year — conduct regular audits and assessments to ensure everything's running as it should, and adjust as-needed to keep things on track.
Last but not least, if you've not already done so, it's time to start planning your cloud migration. Legacy tools are holding you back. With a platform like Sparkrock 365, your organization can accelerate its mission outcomes while also improving productivity, efficiency, and fiscal responsibility.
That's because, unlike most enterprise resource planning (ERP) vendors, we've designed Sparkrock 365 to address the unique finance, HRP, and accounting needs of the nonprofit sector. Powered by Microsoft Dynamics Business Central, Sparkrock 365 is an all-in-one platform with everything your organization needs to prepare not just for the coming year, but also the coming decade.
Its features include project and grant accounting, inventory management, payroll administration, employee scheduling, donor management, and cash flow forecasting — all available in a single platform.
Book a demo to learn more about how Sparkrock can transform the way your nonprofit operates.
Related: 5 Ways ERP Software for Nonprofits Can Boost Your Mission and Impact