5 Strategies to Make Your Fundraising Calendar Work For You
Ask a fundraising professional how their fundraising year is going - if you meet one who is having an incredible year - they either received a large surprise gift or their fundraising calendar is going as planned. Fundraising calendars are an important part of any fundraiser’s toolkit. Ensuring a successful year begins with careful planning to make sure that fundraising events, donor stewardship and meetings, administrative and data management functions, and communications are laid out strategically. Below are five ways to make your fundraising calendar more manageable and goal-focused.
1: Plan your Calendar Year around Key Events
Most nonprofit organizations hold key events throughout the year. These can be galas, donor receptions, keynote speech events, etc. In any of these events, the amount of time spent in preparation for and in debriefing is enormous, requiring hundreds of hours of staff and lay leader time.
Instead of letting your fundraising calendar be dictated by needs that arise in meetings and emails, start planning six months before your calendar year begins and cement dates for key events. Then add in the prep and post-event time that will be needed for each. Consider creating “quiet periods” on your calendar when your work is solely focused on event-driven tasks.
2: Make time for Data Management and Administrative Duties
A fundraiser is only as good as their database and when databases are neglected, mistakes happen, donors fall out of touch with the organization, and fundraising goals suffer. Intentionally planning for the time required to manage your fundraising database and take care of your administrative duties is often no one’s favorite task - but is often one of the key practices of highly successful fundraising offices. Most importantly, create consistent blocks of time for you or your team to update the database, plan for future events, and share information.
3: Find Ways to Make Execution More Efficient
A fundraiser or their team will almost always have their focus directed towards solicitation and completion of their fundraising goals. In order to better balance all of the needs that pull at fundraisers’ time, forward thinking organizations find ways to outsource items that require less of their attention. Donor profile updates, event planning, database management, and reporting, are all outsourceable functions that can allow fundraisers’ to focus on meeting their goals and free up a calendar for more impactful tasks.
4: Plan Donor Stewardship Strategically
Plan Donor Stewardship calls and meetings strategically leading up to key events. Donors volunteering for an event will need less stewardship in other times of the year, donors who are not involved may need to be engaged right before or after the “quiet period” you have added around the event.
5: Plan Your Year Like You’re Running a Marathon
Marathon runners will tell you that a key component to successfully finishing a marathon is strategically balancing pace. Most marathoners don’t sprint the entire 26.2 miles, instead they employ a technique that creates balance between three speeds: sprinting, average, and rest. As they run, they consciously shift between each of the 3 paces based on the terrain, their stage in the race, and their body’s condition. This is such an important lesson for everyone managing a fundraising calendar to learn. No one can run at full capacity throughout the year. However, a fundraiser who knows when they need to sprint, when to run at an average pace, and can plan for time to have a lighter workload to recuperate from a sprint - is building a plan that prevents burnout and ensures their ability to meet their goals.
While there are numerous other strategies to optimize your calendar, the above have proven useful in nonprofit organizations across the country and the nonprofit sector. As you walk into your next calendar year, consider the above strategies and set you and your team up for success.
Executive Arm is a full-service management outsourcing firm for nonprofit organizations. Our mission is to help non-profit organizations achieve greater heights through internal capacity development, executive coaching, and strategic program design. Looking to level-up your nonprofit organization? Contact Executive Arm for a free consultation at https://www.executivearm.org/.
