By now you should have finished our 21 days of suggestions for fundraising activities and hopefully you have established some new habits. If you haven’t, it is not too late. And as a bonus, here is our entire list of 21 fundraising challenges:

  1. Call your best donor.
  2. Thank a volunteer.
  3. Read the newspaper-identify 3 new “suspects.”
  4. Google 10 suspects for future solicitation. Seek additional data in a wealth-screening product like DonorSearch.
  5. Read a fundraising book.
  6. Sign up for and attend a webinar.
  7. Call a colleague, mentor, mentee or all 3.
  8. Contact your grumpiest donor or your latest person who made a complaint.
  9. Make a gift, then ASK for a gift.
  10. Ask for an increased gift.
  11. Revise your website and/or your resume.
  12. Practice your elevator speech using your updated case for support.
  13. Update your acknowledgement letters reflecting your updated case for support.
  14. Clean off your desk.
  15. Call a LYBUNT, a donor who gave last year, but not this year.
  16. Listen to a podcast.
  17. Conduct a mini-development assessment.
  18. Join an association for future professional development, volunteer for a task.
  19. Identify and recommend to your nominating committee 3 new board prospects.
  20. Revisit your current fundraising plan-how are you doing year to date?
  21. Plan specific actions for your year-end giving.

And, if you have done all of these things this month, then it is time to REPEAT. Happy fundraising!

Author

  • Linda McNay

    Linda Wise McNay is the founder, owner and fundraising consultant with Our Fundraising Search in Atlanta. She has completed more than 18 years of consulting and has served more than 200 clients. Linda’s nonprofit background includes work with both higher and secondary education, the arts, human services and faith-based organizations; and has included work in capital campaigns, annual fund, planned giving, membership, and development and executive search.