6 To-Do's For Fundraisers in January

It's January. Time for personal resolutions, goal setting, and...fundraising stress! So how will you cope?

Why is January so tough? Most say it's because...

1. People don't historically donate much in January because they gave in December or they're dealing with post-holiday financial stress.

2. You were so focused on your year end campaigns, that now you have to deal with the follow up--thank yous, data entry, customer service issues, fulfillment of any benefits.

3. Even if you're not on a calendar year budget, there's something about a change in year that has people thinking about resetting goals. So what have you raised lately? Since January 1?

4. If you took time off during the holidays, now you have to catch up. If you didn't take time off during the holidays, you're now dealing with a deluge of emails and tasks from others who did. Either way, everyone is trying to make up for a slower work time at the end of the year.

Don't panic. (Yet.) Try this short check list to get the year off to a good start.

1. Set deadlines.
Get a wall calendar that has the entire year on it. Yes, it's low tech, but it's amazing how seeing the "year at a glance" can help you get projects done.

Calendar mailing dates, event dates, monthly ask goals, grant deadlines, cultivation plans, etc. After the major deadlines are on the calendar, put other "mini" deadlines on the calendar if you need to. Color code it, if that's the way you roll. Display in a prominent place where you and others can see it.

2. Tune up your lists. 
When's the last time you looked at your priority donor lists? Prospect lists? Look at them and reorder them if needed. Also, look at your goals, which are lists in a way. Do they need updating?

3. Stop doing one thing.
We have a tendency to add things to do in January. Resolutions almost always require starting something new. Why not stop something to make room for something new? Identify one thing that you're either not good at, don't enjoy, or can easily and cheaply delegate.

4. Ask for something.
Just because we typically do a lot of asking in November and December doesn't mean we can't ask in January. Talk to someone and ask for something. Maybe it's a gift that you've been developing for a while, or volunteer help, or a donation of services, or simply advice. Ask.

5. Change one thing, but only one.
Okay, it IS resolution month. Pick one thing, and only one thing, that didn't go as well as you would have liked last year. How can you change it, and how does it fit into your existing deadlines and lists? Is it connected to your "stop" item? How can someone help you with this change?

6. Celebrate success.
During the holiday season, fundraisers are often too busy to celebrate the successes of the year. So take a breath and recap what you accomplished last year. Thank your team in ways that are meaningful to them.

Celebrate all you have accomplished so far, so that you can have the motivation to move forward again.

Happy New Year!

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

How to Work for a Nonprofit and Not Be Totally Stressed Out

When you ask someone who works for a nonprofit organization, "How are you?" what answers do you hear nowadays?

• Working on a fundraising campaign right now, since our (fill in the blank) funding got cut...
• Well, we're short-staffed for (fill in the blank) right now...
• (Heavy sigh) I'm stressed out.

It's not easy being in the nonprofit field in general, and today's economic conditions make it even more challenging. Nonprofit organizations are serving more people with fewer resources and facing increasing threats to their core funding. So how do you continue to work in the nonprofit field and save your sanity?

What's the problem? Take time to determine what the real issue is. Is it a problem that you can solve, or a condition that you need to work around? Is it an immediate threat, or something that you think might happen in the future? What's the true impact on your organization? Can you document it, or is it "worst case scenario" imagining?

Spring Flowers and Campaign Readiness

It’s Spring, a time of transition and surprises! Spring in northern Arizona usually means that my crocuses are just peeking out of the ground when they get squashed by snow.

Sometimes fundraising campaigns and development teams can be like my crocuses. They have early success but then don’t really gain the momentum to reach their goals.

But there’s another spring flower in my front yard—King Alfred daffodils. Every year they come back bigger and stronger than the year before, regardless of a Spring snowstorm. Some fundraising campaigns and teams are like my daffodils—resilient, persistent and successful.

Since you would like to have a successful and resilient campaign and development team, here’s what you can learn from your garden:

Well established roots and a good base. Flowers in their first year don’t always bloom. If your organization’s development function has been stable for a few years and has a good base of supporters, financial or otherwise, you have a better chance of a successful special gifts or capital campaign.
Proper care and feeding. Well-fed plants develop strong root growth. Take the time to invest in education and training for your development team before launching the campaign.
Good stock to begin with. Bad bulbs just don’t bloom. Make sure you have the right personnel on the team, or to mix metaphors and paraphrase Jim Collins, “the right people on the bus in the right seats.”
Plant in the right place. Most flowers have recommendations on what type of soil, light conditions, water levels, etc. will encourage the best growth. If your organization has at least the seeds of a “culture of philanthropy,” your development function has a better chance to thrive. (More on culture of philanthropy in a later tip.)
Plan ahead. Daffodils need to be planted in the Fall. Successful development teams and campaigns don’t happen overnight. Plant, be patient, and then enjoy the end result.

So in spite of unexpected storms, my daffodils are thriving. With proper planning and awareness, your development program and your campaigns can weather the storms as well.


GoalBusters’ note: Thank you to Ken Lain of Watters Garden Center in Prescott, Arizona, for inspiring this tip. Visit their website at www.wattersonline.com to sign up for “The Garden Guy’s” e-newsletter.

For more on this topic, contact GoalBusters about campaign readiness assessment and feasibility studies.
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Connect with GoalBusters: LinkedIn - Alice Ferris / LinkedIn - Jim Anderson / Facebook / Twitter / YouTube / Myspace

Keeping Your Goals on Target

It’s February. Are your New Year’s resolutions long gone by now?

It’s easy to lose sight of your goals, personally or as an organization, when you’re not keeping track of them on a regular basis.

This is particularly true when it comes to strategic planning. How many times have you written lots of ideas on flipcharts at an annual retreat, and then went back to your daily routine without giving those ideas another thought?

A more effective approach is to breathe life into your plan. Make it something you can use every day.

Here’s the start of a process to develop a tactical plan from your strategic plan:

List all the strategic goals that impact this year. Some of these should be “stretch” goals that may not be achievable this year, because reaching too far and making it half way is better than reaching too low.

Put your goals on a master timeline. Some goals will require multiple steps, like starting a new program. List the steps you will need to take and the estimated time for each. Add those to the timeline, starting with the end and working backwards.

Next to each item on the timeline, put ONE person’s name. This is the person who is ultimately responsible for the goal. Don’t put more than one name—that means no one will do it!

For the goals under your responsibility:
Pick a focus area for every month. That doesn’t mean you ignore everything else, but it gives you one goal area to emphasize.

Each week, pick specific goals to concentrate your efforts and list the tasks required to move toward your goal.

As you plan your week, ask, “How can I make progress toward one of our strategic goals this week?”

Keep your goals in sight, and your organization will achieve great things!

GoalBusters’ note: Thank you to Alice’s personal coach, Kristin Taliaferro, for inspiring this Tip. To find out more about personal coaching, go to KristinCoach.com.

For more on this topic, contact GoalBusters about “Choose Your Own Adventure” or about custom retreat facilitation.
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Connect with GoalBusters: LinkedIn - Alice Ferris / LinkedIn - Jim Anderson / Facebook / Twitter / YouTube / Myspace