Welcome back.
Even as hard as I’ve worked my entire career, I’ve always taken Thanksgiving and Christmas off.
There’s something about these holidays with family that allows us to rejuvenate, think, and remember the people we ultimately do this work for.
Now that the food coma from the first one is wearing off, and you have a few weeks before Christmas, you might be asking “What should I focus on now?”
There are, realistically, 21 days this month. Here’s how to make the most of them.
If you’re running a fundraising campaign this month, send out your meeting requests this week.
Add something to your message like “Something exciting I’m working on next year” and get those donor meetings in.
With rare exception, any meetings set up after this week are likely going to be in January or February. Do it now or forever hold your peace.
For the rest of you, and for the campaigners once you’re done with your scheduling, the best thing to do this month is get your numbers.
And I don’t just mean your total revenue – you should already know that one.
I mean the numbers that lead up to your total revenue number.
Specifically, I encourage you to review 7 numbers for the last 3 months.
Hours, Prospects, Outreach, Responses, Meetings, Donations, and Thank Yous.
Hours = The approximate number of hours you and your team spent on fundraising each month.
Prospects = The number of new potential donors you added to your CRM each month
Outreach = The number of outreaches you made to ask potential donors for meetings.
Responses = The number of people who responded to you.
Meetings = Self-explanatory
Donations = $$$
Thank Yous = The number of thank you messages/cards sent to donors.
Review these numbers for November, October, and September, separately so you can see trends month to month.
Once you’ve done that, it’s time to review.
Here are your expected minimum targets for your nonprofit:
Time: 6-10h per person for part time/volunteer, 20 for full time
Prospects: Minimum of 10 new per week
Outreach: Should be 100% of prospects, so at least 10 per week
Responses: At least 50% of outreaches
Meetings: At least 30% of outreaches
Donations: At least 10% of outreaches
If any of your numbers aren’t hitting your percentages, start with the topmost one.
Congratulations, you’ve now identified the exact roadblock holding back your fundraising in 2026.
If your numbers are hitting targets, but you’re still not raising enough funds, the problem is a lack of prospects.
Your system works, you just need to feed more people into it.
These numbers tell you exactly what you need to fix in your fundraising for next year.
I.e. the number one roadblock holding your nonprofit back from fundraising next year.
Identify that, and you can make the right changes for next year.
P.S. Want my Super Simple Fundraising Tracker to make it easy to track your numbers all year round?
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