Summer Development Planning Tips

[Tip Sheet]

First, evaluate your success over the past year. Did any area of fundraising increase, if so, to what can you attribute the increase? And likewise, for areas that may have decreased, before blaming it on a poor economy, take time to analyze what other factors may have influenced the bottom line.
Use this time to assess how well your board and volunteers have performed over the past year and list some areas you might work on to improve their participation in the year ahead.
Do a time study on our own personal time and encourage the rest of your staff to do the same.

Review your budget and see where you might cut expenses in the following year.
Conduct a staff meeting to discuss what areas can be improved on next year.
Sit down with your CEO (or board) and ask them what areas they would like to see the development office improve on during the coming year.
Look at your development software and see if there are ways your data can be monitored better, i.e. do you track all contacts with donors, all gifts including matching gifts and gifts-in-kind, as well as donor preferences?
Plan a moves management system to track your contacts with major donor prospects and plan approaches to them.
List three to five goals for the development office to focus on in the year ahead.
Develop strategies that can help implement your goals.