Know where your fundraising is heading
Forward is fundraising planning software that shows where today’s performance and investment choices could take you over the next five years — and helps you explore what needs to change to build sustainable net income for your mission.
The gap is where the real conversation starts
Compare your current outlook with your five-year ambition. The gap gives your team a concrete starting point for deciding what needs to change.
Built for ambitious fundraising teams
Turn the gap into choices
Explore different ways to reach your ambition. For example:
1. Acquire more or better donors
See how acquisition volume and donor quality affect future results.
2. Improve retention
Explore what happens when more donors stay for longer.
3. Increase donor value
See what higher gifts, upgrades and additional donations could deliver over time.
4. Change your fundraising mix
Explore how diversification could strengthen your programme.
5. Invest differently
Compare what additional or redirected investment could deliver for your mission.
Test individual changes or combine them into scenarios. See the effect on donor numbers, income, investment and net income over five years.
Explore Long Term Planning →
See what your fundraising choices deliver
Two scenarios can generate similar income and leave very different amounts available for your mission.
Forward brings fundraising income and investment together, so you can compare scenarios and donor groups on net income, investment, return on investment, donor lifetime value and payback periods.
Understand what different fundraising choices could deliver over time — and build a clearer case for where to invest.
Explore Profitability →
Stay on track as reality changes
As the year unfolds, acquisition, retention, gift value and investment may differ from your plan.
Forward helps you compare actual performance with your monthly plan. Combine results to date with your forecast for the remaining months to create a Latest Estimate of your expected year-end results.
See which drivers are changing, update your expectations and decide where to adjust activities and investment. Use what you learn to revisit the assumptions behind your five-year plan.
Explore Monitoring →
“Forward forces you to ask the tough questions every fundraiser needs to ask about their programmes and their profitability.”
Eva van der Zee, Fundraising & Engagement Director - Greenpeace Netherlands
How Leprastichting uses Forward
Leprastichting already used Salesforce and Power BI to understand its fundraising results. Building its multi-year budget in Excel took considerable work and did not include all the relevant KPIs.
Working with Forward helped the team uncover retention patterns across donor segments, explore the long-term effects of different assumptions and discuss where its fundraising programme could improve.
The team also began producing a realistic monthly Latest Estimate of its year-end results — something the finance department valued and which helped identify opportunities to adjust.
Build the fundraising programme you want to have five years from now
Forward helps you look beyond next year, understand the long-term consequences of today’s choices and make better decisions about growth, investment and profitability.
Bring ambition, planning and performance together, and keep adjusting as reality changes.