Sustainability Plan – Sample Verbiage

 

If you’re a nonprofit leader or fundraiser, at some point donors will ask you about the long-term sustainability of your work.

A common question in grant applications is: How do you intend to sustain this work beyond the grant term?

Let’s be honest. The real answer is usually: By continuing to fundraise. 

But that’s not what most donors want to hear. Instead, donors are looking for assurances that you:

• Have built the systems, expertise, and operating infrastructure to deliver on the project or program you’re proposing.
• Have successfully executed project or programs of similar scope in the past. If your organization hasn’t done this, you’ll need to explain why you think you can succeed now.
• Are thinking about creating impact for the long-term – so that dollars invested today will help build a program that continues to make a difference for years to come.

Unfortunately, a request for a sustainability plan doesn’t convey the full nuance of what donors want to understand. That’s why we’ve created this handy guide with sample language for your sustainability plan.

 

How to Use this Example Sustainability Plan

Funding for Good’s team has a combined 40+ years in nonprofit fundraising. We’ve written more sustainability plans than we could possibly hope to count!

To help more nonprofits write sustainability plans that answer donors’ real questions, we pulled together our sample sustainability plan verbiage. To get started, just download the template and customize it for your own organization!