I Have Some Good News … and Some Bad News About Fundraising

At a minimum, what are you going to do? When are you going to do it? What will it cost? What will it raise? What is the big message you will be communicating all year, and what are the more focused messages you want (or need) to share throughout the year? (Waiting until the last few months to try to squeeze things in makes a tough job even tougher.)

Secondly, follow your plan. Plans are not written to be filed away in a dark drawer or an electronic version of the dark drawer. They are living, vibrant things that need to be exposed to light on a near-daily basis. The schedule that accompanies your plan should be realistic; if you know it takes longer to get things approved, build more time in. If you want to choose a topic for an e-appeal closer to the drop date so you can capitalize on what's trending, fine — just keep an eye on that so you aren't caught idealess and out of time to get the job done well.

Following your plan does not mean it's inflexible. When a need comes up, when an opportunity arises, when a great creative idea surfaces — run with it! But just like expenses are a daily occurrence, so should be your fundraising efforts. Every mailing or electronic communication won't be the stuff of (good) legends, but consistent communication matters.

Finally, don't give up too soon. Among the saddest words I hear from time to time are, "Well, we tried that once …" Yes, sometimes it's obvious that an idea was a flop and the best thing to do is to cut your losses. (Be sure to have a postmortem afterward so you actually learn from the failure; don't just sweep it under the rug and hope your colleagues have a short memory.)