Do You See What I See? 2 Steps to Prepare for Year-End Fundraising

Since getting into the holiday spirit in late June can be difficult (unless your office air conditioning is permanently set on "arctic"), here's a two-step plan to get you in the right frame of mind.

Review what you did last year
What worked, and what didn't? What would have benefited from more planning, and what can be "retrofitted" for 2014? (After all, recycling something that works well isn't being lazy; it's actually smart since you already figured out a winning combination.) What did your original plan look like — and how did it actually play out? What direct-response contacts with donors raised the most money?

Remember how frantic the month of November was for you last year? You don't? Well, that either means you planned ahead, or you're still numb from the experience. As the wise philosopher, Barbra Streisand, sang, "What's too painful to remember, we simply choose to forget."