No More Crisis Mode Fundraising

It’s fundraising planning season.

And many smart fundraisers often step back in the summer months (at least in the Northern Hemisphere) when things are slower.

It’s a time when you can (hopefully) move out of the daily grind and take stock. And get organized for the coming year.

Your own organization’s fundraising planning really can transform your fundraising results. It can save your butt too! :)

To help you, we’ve created a new program – our Highly Profitable Fundraising Plan Toolkit.

If you use the Toolkit to create a Smart Fundraising Plan, you’ll enjoy these lovely benefits:

1. You can stay out of crisis mode.

A good fundraising plan lets you work smoothly and coolly.

You – and your team – can keep your heads as you work your plan methodically.

It just makes life flow easier.

It lets you breathe.

• Otherwise, you may end up in crisis after crisis, wallowing and hoping that something will pan out successfully.

2. You know where to focus your time and energy.

How do you know how to deploy your scarce resources of time and money?

You’ve got to have a guide – before you start – of what you are going to do when – and what results you expect to create.

If you have a calendar, a timetable, agreed-upon strategies — then you can “work your plan.”

This takes the guessing game out of fundraising.

• Otherwise – you’ll waste your good resources of time, energy and funding. And you won’t get the results you want.

3. You can control the flow of work in your office.

With a good plan, you can time your major fundraising programs so they don’t overlap each other.

You can make sure that the gala is not happening at the same time as your annual appeal.

Or that your major donor event doesn’t overlap with an important conference.

You have the time to plan ahead so that each fundraising strategy can get done with excellence (and without crisis.)

• Otherwise: havoc may reign in your office.

4. You can shift from reactive to proactive.

Fundraising planning also keeps you from being buffeted around by what’s happening around you.

You don’t have be REACTING all the time.  Instead, you are PROACTIVE.

You have everything in place so that your plan is effective, efficient and will bring in the donors and the money you need.

Whew. I can just feel everybody around you relaxing.

• Otherwise, rush around, lose sleep, create tension, and lose your quality of life.

5.  You can build confidence in your fundraising program.

When people above you have confidence in you and your plan, they will leave you alone and let you do your work.

And they will smile when they see you because you are exuding confidence.

Enough said.

• Otherwise, if they don’t have confidence in you, they will meddle with your plans and your program. They’ll institute weird metrics to measure you by. Don’t let this happen to you.

6. You will raise tons more money.

Clearly, a solid, thoughtful fundraising planning process will help you raise more money.

You have time to do the work required to court major donors.

And you’ll be organized to plan a profitable gala, to develop a sequenced year-end fundraising campaign, and to get your web site working smoothly.

You even have time to take a vacation or two.

BOTTOM LINE: Fundraising Planning Will Create Sanity.

So create that Plan.

It will protect you and it will make your life smoother and happier.

And you’ll raise a lot more money!