How Should I Spend My Time This Summer? Part 1 (Slow Summer Season Regions)
If you live in a seasonal place, you either feel like it's your chance to play catch-up on work that can't get done during busy season, or your opportunity has finally arrived to see supporters in person. We're breaking down priorities in each of those regions for philanthropy professionals in a two-part series!
For my friends in South Florida, and those regions who experience a serious lull in in-person activity over the summer months (I'm looking at you, too, NYC!), what a wonderful opportunity to prepare for the fall. This one's for you. Focus time and resources on:
1. Ensuring that you've kept your database up-to-date with contact reports and assignments (in other words, is all of the activity you did throughout the season documented, and are the relationships assigned to each frontline fundraiser tracking in the system?)
Why? You can be significantly more efficient as an organization when your systems are as clean and sophisticated as your activity is. You should be able to easily pull a list of the visits you've had over your busy season in any category relative to cultivation, solicitation, and stewardship. It should feel seamless to pull, too, each fundraisers portfolio in your office because of having assigned constituents as relationships and caseloads were built.
2. Build out your portfolio to weed out the constituents that have declined engagement or whose circumstances have changed, and add in new-to-you relationships so you can do proper research before the fall. Is the number of people listed appropriated? Looking to 8 to 10 visits per month if major & principal gifts is your full-time responsibility, you might start with about 85 people in a portfolio (always less for the CEO!).
Why? There's nothing more stressful than getting to November and feeling like you're not sure who to meet with first with the calendar year end looking you square in the eye! If you can do some due diligence with your portfolio to ensure that everyone listed is an actual prospect of yours (someone who is likely to take your meeting or well-aligned to do so), you'll feel like the opportunities are endless come September when meetings pick back up. I like to make a list in the summer who gives regularly in the fall and year-end so I can prioritize my time before it even comes.
3. Ask all of the questions of your organization: take this time to pose questions to leadership that you heard throughout the year or anticipate hearing. If you've been to one of my major gifts workshops, you have my list of "questions prospects ask us" to help you wrap your head around those.
Why? Philanthropists are investors: we need to articulate our strategic plans and vision, outcomes we intend to generate and how we'll have the greatest impact as an organization. Not only does investing time in these hard, productive conversations lend itself to collective brainstorming, more ideas, and one shared voice around talking points -- it also presents a great opportunity to steward people over the summer. Send a quick email or text to update them on how these planning conversations are going. Being in touch on updates outside of money and support topics are an excellent way to build trust and rapport, elevating your role and relationship to be deliberate and genuine.
In summary:
Take the time to assess data and organize portfolios with proper assignments; be ready to act on your list once the fall hits and not be overwhelmed by who to pursue first.
Know your organization's strategic plan and feel equipped with solid talking points which you can proactively communicate to donors and prospects as a way to keep them informed (steward!) over the slow months.
