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Todd J. Sukol
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Photo by Sharon McCutcheon on Unsplash

Year-end Fundraising: Creating Opportunities

Posted on November 23, 2020November 23, 2020 by Todd J. Sukol

It’s here. Thanksgiving week. For so many nonprofits, this week feels like the unofficial season opener for year-end fundraising. True, this is a good time to run your LYBUNT and SYBUNT lists. Prioritize your calls. Start the push to hit December 31 in the black. Regardless of when fiscal years begin and end, the calendar year seems to be a habitual time for mid-level and rank-and-file donors.  It still remains true that the number one reason people make charitable contributions is that they were asked. So yes, this is the time to make sure everyone gets asked.  

But please… don’t push too hard.

Fundraising, like every other aspect of your leadership role, is easy to overdo. Our job as professionals is to give people the opportunity to make their best contributions to our organizations. This is true in the way we work with staff and lay leaders, and it is true for our relationships with donors too. At our most powerful, we are facilitators of positive action.

This idea applies to year-end fundraising in the form of making sure everyone on our list is presented with several opportunities to give. Repetition beats pressure every time. For those of you who are running multi-channel campaigns, good for you. You are well on your way through your unique blend of direct response, online campaigns, board solicitations, telemarketing, virtual events, etc. If your approach has been scattershot, it’s not too late to get organized. Get your lists sorted and prioritized. Determine which staff members, board members and other volunteers are available to pitch in. Think of yourself as the manager of the year-end campaign, not the fast and furious salesperson in pursuit of making a quota. Decide how each and every person on your list is going to hear from your organization in at least three different ways during the next 30 days.

Remember, you don’t have to sit on the phone around the clock to get this done. I remember this season from my days in the fundraising trenches as a time when many of us would feel surges of exhilaration, and then exhaustion. As a leader in your organization, this doesn’t do anyone any good – and it doesn’t get you better results. So no excuses. Work hard, for sure. Give it all you’ve got. But not more. You have a month left – get organized, get your troops together. Your mantra for this year-end fundraising season: Be clear on your goals, be a facilitator of action and create opportunities for giving. This is a good time to remind yourself that sincere, passionate and rigorous effort can also be gentle, joyous and just plain fun.

Photo by Sharon McCutcheon on Unsplash

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The Inside Job

When is “enough” enough?

May 6, 2022

We work so hard to be the best we can be. To make our organizations the best they can be. When does our obligation reach its limits?  Ours is a field where there is always something more that can be done more, or better. A system can be improved. A problem can be solved. A success can be made greater. Another dollar can be raised. Another beneficiary served. Another staff member assisted. There are so many pulls on you as a nonprofit organization leader – when is “good enough” finally good enough?

In truth, the real question isn’t “how hard” should we work, but “HOW” should we work. Please remember that there is a deep, divine spark inside of you. This same spark lives inside of every person, place, thing or circumstance you encounter. As a nonprofit professional and as a human being, your first obligation is to recognize, reveal and fan the flames of that spark in yourself and in those you work with. When you’re pushing so hard that your efforts no longer support this objective, it’s time to step back. 

No matter how dedicated we are to the missions of our organizations, we cannot turn to our work for all of the meaning in our lives. You are uniquely special because you come from a divine source. We all need to step away from our work and take a break for spiritual and physical refreshment from time to time. We all need to remember and reconnect with the loved ones from whom we derive our identities and our strength.

Ask yourself: “In my work today, is my best self in the driver’s seat? Or, am I burning myself out by chasing “symptoms of success” rather than allowing my inner spark to express itself as I go about my work?”

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