Prospect Planning

August in the office means long, uninterrupted stretches of time. This time is a gift. Put it to good use by engaging in in-depth prospect planning. Create a strategy for every single prospect in your portfolio. Identify not only a broad strategy (“solicit for a major gift”, “ask to join the board of directors”) but all the tactics and steps required in order to achieve the broad goals of the strategy. Breaking down a big plan into small parts creates a roadmap by which you can achieve the bigger goal. Once you’ve created the plan, assign dates and timelines to hold yourself accountable.

Create a Development Calendar

Take some time to create a shared google calendar or make a whiteboard calendar to track high level development activity. Include key dates, upcoming mailings, events, and important meetings. Seeing information at a high level allows you to take a step back and assess what else needs to take place in order to reach your goal and ensures that the sequencing of steps is correct.

Get Comfortable with Goals

If your campaign closed on June 30th, then you’re in the early stages of the new fiscal year. Review your goals- your personal fundraising goal, your team’s goal, your institution’s goal. Create a plan to achieve your goals. Pull in information from your prospect planning process (noted above), identify where you may fall short, and think about ways you can close the gap. If you are in the middle of the fiscal year, assess your progress to date and identify the things that you need to keep doing and the things that you need to change in order to achieve your goal. Having time to consider what works and what doesn’t means that you can change course and implement better strategies that will help you achieve your goals.

What else are you doing this August to set yourself up for success?