Two Simple Questions Guaranteed to Improve Your Fundraising Results

“Too much to do and too little time to do it.” That’s the motto of a fundraiser’s life.

How do we know where to focus? What priorities to choose among the many options? How best to spend our time?

If you are floundering, tracking down too many leads without results, calling on too many donors, holding too many events, running around and around, chasing deadlines, writing grants. . .

Haven’t we all been there? And are you there right now?

Here are two simple questions that will focus you exactly where you need to be. Ask yourself these two questions constantly, and make the correct choice on where to focus. And you’ll automatically achieve greater results when you focus on the right donors in the right way.

Ask yourself this:

Is this . . .   (you name the activity) . . . the best use of my time?

What will be the return on my investment of valuable time, energy and attention?

Do you want to spend your time on planning yet another event, creating yet another report for your board, attending yet another endless staff meeting? Or do you want to spend your time in front of major donors who can change the course of your organization’s future?

Guess what: you get to choose each day what goes on your priority list.

You choose.

If you are wondering where to put your time and energy, check out this chart.  It’s the approximate average cost per dollar raised of various types of fundraising strategies. It’s taken from James Greenfield’s classic book, “Fundraising: Evaluating and Managing the Fund Development Process.“

Fundraising Strategy	Cost per Dollar Raised
Major Gifts/Capital Campaigns	$.05 to $.10 per dollar raised
Grants	$.20 per dollar raised
Annual Giving renewals	$.25 per dollar raised
Special Events	$.50 of gross revenue
Planned Giving	$.25 per dollar raised

Take a look at the return you get from spending your time seeking major gifts, compared to the time you might spend planning a fundraising event.

The return on your effort is far higher! Spending time with your major donors, seeking major gifts is by far the highest and best use of your time.

Major gifts has the greatest return on your investment of time and energy.

Take a look at events: for every dollar you raise, you have to spend $.50.

But for major gifts, for every dollar you raise, it is only costing you five to ten cents.

So it’s easy to figure this out! Spend your time with major donor prospects in face-to-face visits.

But no matter what, no matter how small an organization you have, even if you don’t have any major gift prospects – start now by identifying a handful of wonderful people who love your cause and who can become major donors. My article, “If you want to raise big money, do this  now!” will give you advice on what to do next.

So where do you spend your time? Do you focus too much on the small stuff? What’s keeping you from making those face-to-face calls on your donors and prospects? How can you change your priorities to spend time where it will pay off the most?

Set a goal.

Get out of your office. Set a goal of at least three in-person calls/visits a week. No matter what. These visits can be thank you visits; they can be advice visits, introductory visits, board member visits – any kind of in-person “get-to-know-you-and-listen-to-your-story” visits.

And it’s fun too. I personally love to make face to face visits. I’m interested in people and their passions for a better community. I love listening to their stories. I bet you are interested in people too.

Give it a try and you’ll be amazed. And you’ll have fun too.

What are your challenges making time to see major prospects? Does your boss understand? Does your board understand where you need to focus your time? Leave me a comment below and share them with me.

Tagged as: annual fundraising plan, Capital Campaigns, Cultivating donors, fundraising strategies, Major Gifts