by Betsy Steward

In my last blog, I wrote about the importance of reaching out to current donors in your database who have been giving regularly for a long time. They have great potential as estate donors, and many of them could grow into major donors if they were cultivated properly. I recommended running a report to find donors who have given the most often and/or over the longest period of time, and then to start reaching out to them regularly.

 Sounds simple, right?

 Yeah, right. I’m a fundraising consultant now, but I’ve been a Director of Development, so I know how jam-packed the development staff task list is. I thought some pragmatic tips on finding time in your schedule for personal outreach to donors would be a helpful follow-up to my recommendation.

Make Your Fundraising Calendar Pragmatic

• Organize it by income stream. Mark the first column heading — before the month or week headings — in your spreadsheet as “INCOME” and include all of the ways your nonprofit raises funds.

• Re-order the income stream list so that those most likely to fall off your radar are at the top, like this:

1. List Major and Estate Gifts first. Grants, events and appeals all have deadlines, which helps keep them top of mind. The only two income streams with no deadlines — the ones with the largest income potential — are Major Gifts and Estate Gifts. Their lack of deadlines makes it easy for them to fall to the bottom (or even OFF) of your to-do list. So I suggest putting them at the top of your list.

2. Donor Outreach is a better name for “Major Gifts”. Some the current donors you reach out to will become major donors, but not all, and it’s hard to predict who will. So why not rename “Major Gifts” as “Donor Outreach” on your list? Regardless of the size of the potential gift, it’s important to have Donor Outreach built into your calendar as a regular weekly task.

3. Plan on a handful of estate gift conversations every year. Conversations about estate planning may only happen a few times a year with a handful of donors, but it’s easy to forget to bring the subject up. Even if you’ll only be discussing it once a quarter, put it on the calendar so it doesn’t get lost. The biggest transfer of wealth in history is happening right now, as baby boomers make their estate plans, so don’t put this off!

• Add development tasks to the calendar. Just because your event is in May, doesn’t mean May is the only month when you’ll be focused on the event! Including a brief reminder of your tasks right on the calendar will help keep you on track and prevent you — maybe not completely, but somewhat — from taking on more than you can reasonably do.
  
  For instance, if your end-of-year appeal letter needs to hit mailboxes in mid-to-late November, there are some time-sensitive tasks in the months before November. It will help you stay on track if you list the tasks involved in the appropriate months directly onto your calendar, like this:

  • August: start writing the end-of-year appeal letter;

  • September: get your draft approved (which often takes longer than you think it will – the board chair and ED might not get right back to you, and often ask for changes);

  • October: work with your graphic designer on it;

  • Late Oct/early Nov: send it to the printer;

  • Dec/Jan: if your letter is well-received, you’ll need to spend a lot of time in December and January writing thank-you notes.

Having these tasks on the calendar will remind you to be careful scheduling other big projects during those months. Check out this Sample Development Calendar with Abbreviated Tasks:

Make Your Full Task List Pragmatic List, too, by applying the same approach.

I use a Word Table for my task list (Excel also works), and, as with my calendar, I organize the tasks by income stream, too. I have a table heading for each income stream, and I keep that document open on my desk all day, every day, so I can update it and keep my tasks front and center. It helps me guard against any one income stream (especially the ones with no deadlines, like Major and Legacy Gifts) completely slipping my mind.

 Pragmatic Planning supports Strategic Planning

 Strategic Planning is vital to fundraising, but I believe spending some time thinking about Pragmatic Planning — how you get the job done! — will help you execute that Strategic Plan more effectively. Organization is such a critically important component in fundraising, and I hope these tips can help your fundraising efforts thrive.

Betsy Steward is an independent fundraising consultant. She advises clients on major donor solicitation, cultivation, and stewardship, as well as fundraising best practices, back-office organization, board presentations and writing to donors (appeal letters, emails, proposal letters, thank-you notes, etc.). She can be reached at BetsyVSteward@gmail.com.