Main Subject - Business

As a professional grant writer and consultant, I am often amazed at how few nonprofit organizations actually have a fund development plan beyond a vague idea of applying for a few grants and sending out an a

According to USFDA, a combination product is one composed of any combination of a drug and device; biological product and device; drug and biological product

nnual appeal letter.

Recognizing that lack of planning, I am not amazed at how often these same organizations have rounds of emergency budget cuts when they realize that they have no assured streams of inco

; or drug, device, and biological product and fixed dose combination would include two or more combinations of drug.

Examples of combination products may in

me.

Very typical is the agency that has received a large grant to run their programs for one year. Then, in the tenth month of the grant period, comes the realization that they have no idea how they will fu

lude drug-coated devices, drugs packaged with delivery devices in medical kits, and drugs and devices packaged separately but intended to be used together.

nd the next year's programs. With less than two months of money left in the bank they go into emergency fundraising mode.

Their first impulse is to start applying for another large grant. But at most founda

here is enormous increase in the number of combination products entering the market in the recent years. Combination products have proven advantages but fixe

tions, the process - from letter of inquiry to proposal to acceptance - typically takes at least three months, and often six to eight months.

Their next idea is to turn to their individual donors with a pan

d dose combinations are still in the process of convincing regulatory authority on their advantages over the single ingredient formulations.

Combination pro

icked letter that essentially says, "Send us money now or we might go out of business." That, of course, is the least effective fundraising letter you can write. Donors want to invest in your successes, not

ucts have become life saving products for the pharmaceutical companies who doesn’t have many innovative molecules in their product pipeline and have been inc

bail out your failures.

So, how do they avoid these situations? The answer is to plan.

Through the planning process, you will achieve the following:

* Limit crisis fundraising: This, as the example above

easingly used in the product life cycle management. Even the companies having product patents are trying to extend their product life cycle through the combi

llustrates, is our primary reason for creating a fund development plan, but there are others as well...

* Diversity builds in flexibility: Changes in other sectors of the economy can have a major impact on

nation products and maximize the revenues. But the companies involved in this practice are overlooking that they are burdening the patients both economically

nonprofit funding. A cut in the state budget can be passed down as fewer contracts for local service organizations. The dot-com bust of a few years back cut foundation endowments, reducing the funds they had

and physically. They need to rightly judge the benefits of the combination products and they have to even look at the risks involved when combining the produ

available to grant. Agencies that had become comfortable relying on one or two sources of funding found themselves struggling to survive these changes. Those with plans and diversified funding bases had the

ts. Some of the combination products were well accepted by physicians while others suffered. Companies involved in development of combination products are fi

flexibility to adapt and survive.

* Planning for diversity brings in more opportunities: Through the planning process you come to identify funding opportunities you never knew existed. Further, when you st

ding difficulty in defining their combination products and facing various challenges from selecting a combination to marketing it.

Following aspects would a

op having to scramble to pay next month's bills, you will be able to devote more time to developing new sources of income for your agency.

* Setting priorities, strategies, and goals: New opportunities pres

dd to the challenges in developing combination products:

Which markets to tap where the combination products can do fairly well?
Which combination prod

ent themselves all the time, if you are open to receiving them. But which opportunities should you pursue? When you have a clear mission and a plan, the answer becomes clear. By following the plan, you know

cts are meaningful and rational?
Which therapeutic categories to select?
Which Combinations can address unmet needs of the patients?
Do combin

where your efforts are most needed at any given time, and you can turn down distractions that don't further your defined goals.

* Increasing board involvement: I always hear nonprofit staff complaining abou

tions increase the patient compliance?
What would be the developing cost?
How to tackle the risks encountered during combination product developmen

either their un-involved board members or board members who meddle too much without knowing what they're doing, and yet they don't create opportunities for the board to be constructively involved. Asking yo

t?

As combination products don't fit into the traditional categories of drugs, medical devices, or biological products, the USFDA is in the process of devel

ur board to be a part of the development planning process will both motivate them and educate them at the same time.

* Integrating fund development with other program activities & plans: If you're lucky eno

ping new procedures for reviewing their safety, efficacy and quality.

Professional from academic institutions, pharmaceutical industries, health care indust

ugh to have staff who work on fund development full-time, you're also risking a disconnect between program people and fundraisers. The result is an annual event that's held the same week as the busiest part

y and representatives from various regulatory agencies are working out to design the regulatory requirements for manufacture and sale of combination products

of the program staff's season. Written plans that are shared by all staff help to avoid such conflicts and encourage a working team environment.

* Most productive use of team's time: The bottom line is that

.

As there is an increasing trend of the combination products companies manufacturing such products should be able to tackle the problems involved in the de

by being organized, and having clarity as to what is expected of every team member, all your activities will be more efficient.

So what's holding you back? Put your team together and start planning for suc

elopment. They need to be wiser in analyzing the market trends and the regulatory requirements.

Companies that provide selfless information through particip

cess today!

(c) 2006 by Ken Goldstein, all rights reserved. You may re-print or re-post this article only complete and un-edited, and including the author information, active web links, and copyright notice

tion in industry events and feedback to regulatory authorities would be able to face the challenges and will be successful in developing combination products

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People tend to be aware that there are financial benefits to corporations for donating to charities and that corporations want to be good, forward-acting citizens. What people—and many organizations—don’t realize yet is that there are still other motivators and benefits for corporate giving.

Advertising is one of the most powerful and widely used forms of marketing by businesses today. Yet rarely are ads successful. Businesses lose thousands and even millions of dollars every year on ads, because they are not placed properly and don't address the benefits that the prospects are interested in.

The terms fundraising and fund development are bantered about almost interchangeably. But, there is a difference. But, there is a difference. Fundraising is probably the easiest of the two terms to define. Fund development is a bit less straight-forward and a bit more of an abstract concept.

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