How to set evidence-based targets
- Mar 31
- 2 min read
I have to say, I’m a huge fan of a new years’ moment. I’ve been known to celebrate academic new year with school friends, financial new year with colleagues and the ‘real’ new year with family all in the same 12 month period. Something about that opportunity to breathe out and reflect on how far you’ve come, as well as set an intention for the year ahead, is so welcome. So… Happy new financial year to everyone who celebrates!
Whether you’re taking the time to set an intention for the year or commiserating being at 0% of your fundraising target, I hope you take a moment to breathe out today. Fundraising is a hard game, and I hope you commend yourself for playing.
Anyone who joined us at the 2026 Corporate Partnerships Conference will know that we’ve been developing a way to help charities set a more evidence based target… more evidence based than the trustee classic of ’20% more than last year with no additional spend’, anyway. We thought we’d share that core formula with you in this email.
You need to know:
- Your existing income
- The amount of time you TRULY have available for new business
- The AVERAGE value of a new partnership you can secure
...then you can use the formula of…
Existing income + (1x availability in days x average value of new partnerships) for the first year of a new business programme
and then a formula of
Projected income from first year + (3x availability in days x average value of new partnerships) for the second and third year.
If you don’t know how to work out how much time you truly have available, or to know what the average value of a new partnership you might secure is, Fireside can help.
Our first ever training programme, Ignite, is due to launch in just two weeks. There’s a few places left and we’ll be covering all of this in those sessions. As well as learning how to set a target, you’ll work out how to identify warm prospects, how to price partnership proposals and (possibly most importantly) build a squad of likeminded fundraisers.
There’s still space by the Fireside, and we’d love to have you join us.