30 Days to a Better Fundraising Professional

This time of year there are all sorts of posts on fitness, health and diet sites touting 30-day plans to weigh less, be more fit, eat healthier, et cetera. So that got me thinking, why not 30-days for improving your fundraising program? So here's the plan for a "healthier" development professional.

Take an inventory
Stop for a moment, even if it's only ten minutes, and evaluate what went well with your fundraising strategies last year. Of the things that went well, can they be duplicated, or were they one-time successes? Then assess what didn't go as planned. What was under your control that you can correct, or should you just not try that again? Write down your observations and plans for replication or correction for this year.

Cultivate "Not-Yet-Donors" every day
Spend at least 10 minutes each day this month working on prospective donor relationships: sharing information with a prospective donor or learning more about them. This can be a personal note, a phone call, an email, a social media touch, or a real in-person, face to face meeting.

Thank a donor, volunteer or staff person every day
Remind people why they are involved with your organization by saying thank you. Take 5-10 minutes every day and reach out to someone who is important to your cause, whether it's a donor, volunteer or fellow staff person.

Research links with one new network
We all have those groups where we scratch our heads and say, "Why doesn't anyone from [fill-in-the-blank] donate to us?" Now's your chance to make the connection! Use tools like LinkedIn or local business directories to research who might be your "degree of separation" to a new donor. Bonus points if you actually make the connection this month!

Schedule Training
Just like you would sign up for an exercise class, sign up for at least one professional development activity to sharpen your fundraising skills. With the availability of webinars and other workshops, you can probably find several training opportunities. And/or, buy a new book on fundraising and commit to reading a little bit every day.

Set your milestones

Get a big calendar--I recommend a large wet-erase wall calendar with the full year visible--and mark major milestones for the year. When are your special events? When does that direct mail need to drop? What are your recurring grant deadlines? What are funding milestones, i.e., how much should you have raised by when? Giving yourself a visual of the year helps you plan where you are going to need to be protective of your time or need more help. Or it prepares you for when you'll be totally stressed out.

Schedule at least one ask
Akin to scheduling a race at the end of a training period, you need to give yourself a deadline! Take a look at your prospective donor list and pick at least one donor that you feel you can realistically ask for a gift by the end of the month. Then pick up the phone and schedule a time to meet. Really. Or, if you're more of a grant writer, select at least one foundation to which you will submit a proposal and block out the time to write it. (Notice, these are both written as "at least one." You are allowed and encouraged to do more than one.)

Results?
After 30 days, you should have established stronger relationships with some of your donors, cultivated a few prospective donors, know where you're going for the rest of the year, have at least one skill improved or new tool revealed, and have completed one ask. And, you may have established new habits for the coming months. But like all 30 day programs, the results are up to you! Good luck!

Inspirations:
Matt Cutts: Try Something New for 30 Days on Ted.com
Sparkpeople January Jumpstart on Sparkpeople.com

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Connect with GoalBusters     

Alice Ferris, ACFRE      alice.ferris
Jim Anderson      GoalBustersJim

When Developing Your Year Long Fund Raising Plan, Conduct a SWOT Analysis

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Excepted from the GoalBusters' Webinar: "Developing a Year Long Fundraising Plan"
Reprinted in The Major Gifts Report, November 2009

In the process of developing a year-long fundraising plan, it’s important to analyze any previously developed fund raising plans, say James Anderson, a partner at Goal Busters Consulting, LLC (Flagstaff, AZ).

One way to do that is to conduct a “SWOT” analysis, he says, in which you look at your organization’s strengths, opportunities, weaknesses and threats.

Anderson outlines what to look for when analyzing each of these areas:

Strengths (internal)
What do you do well or exceptionally? What unique value do you offer? Often this will be your primary strength. What are the things you want to keep doing that you do better than other organizations?

Opportunities (external)
What could you be doing or doing more of? Where are the areas you could extend your offerings, your services, your programs? Where could you potentially tap into donors and donor bases that you may be currently overlooking or not fully capitalizing on?

Weaknesses (internal)
What are the things you know you are not doing well? Are there things you need to change because it feels as though you just keep pounding your head against the wall? or are they things you simply don't do well either because you don't know or don’t have the resources to do properly?

Threats (external)
What things will potentially negatively impact your plan and your organization? When you identify a threat, one way to assess it is to ask yourself what the worst-case scenario is. Some examples of external threats: 1) You are heavily grant-funded and funds are going to dry up and you know that; 2) You are heavily funded by a foundation and investments aren’t returning as strong as they used to and you know that will negatively impact gifts to your organization. “When assessing threats, you'll be facing either ‘conditions’ or ‘problems,’” he say. “Conditions are things you may have to address or handle but you have no real control over. You have to Manage, Accept or Adapt to conditions. However problems are something which you can Solve, Resolve or Fix."

When looking at your SWOT findings, you want to look for intersections, says Anderson:

· Where strengths and opportunities intersect, invest. You want to invest more of your resources, time, and capital on these opportunities.

· Where weaknesses and threats intersect, You may want to consider divesting yourself of that project or program, unless it is something you truly must maintain.

· Where strengths and threats intersect, defend. “If you have an external threat to one of your strengths, don’t let that negatively impact something that you do well, “ he says. “Instead, analyze what that situation is and determine how you can best continue to capitalize on that strength.”

· Where weaknesses and opportunities intersect, you should identify what you can improve on. “It may be a situation in which you can bolster the area of weakness or capitalize on what the opportunity is with the investment of additional resources, but that is a decision where you will have to look at whether your internal resources will allow it, and whether the return on investment (ROI) is worth the commitment of the additional resources,” he says.

Sources: James Anderson, Partner, GoalBusters Consulting, LLC, Flagstaff, AZ. Phone (928) 890-8239. E-mail: jim.anderson@goalbusters.net

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