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New
Year’s resolutions are a time-honored tradition. Unfortunately,
it is also a time-honored tradition to abandon resolutions soon
after the new year begins!
But
why are some people able to keep their resolutions when most of us
are not? As a general rule, those who are successful have not only
a goal but also a plan for achieving it.
As
the new year begins, now may be the ideal time to make a fresh
start. Take the time now to review your program goals and adjust
your plans in ways that may help you to achieve them.
Where
to start
The
first step is to honestly appraise where your program is today in
relation to where it has been in the past and where you and others
expect it to be in the future. Are you on track or ahead of
schedule? Or are you running behind expectations?
 The
next step is to evaluate your primary program activities. Rethink
the strategies you have been using to achieve your goals. Examine
areas that you may be responsible for, including annual, special,
major, planned, and capital giving. Are there ways they could be
better integrated to achieve greater results while perhaps
reducing costs?
Tactics
that were successful during the boom period of the late 1990s may
have lost some of their luster. For example, campaign strategies
involving major gifts of appreciated securities, founders’
stock, or similar plans that benefited greatly from the wealth
effect of the 1990s may not be as viable today as they once were.
However, gifts of valuable tangible personal property or real
estate may provide motivated donors with attractive options. And
in today’s economy, a bequest or other planned gift commitment
may be more feasible for many than an outright pledge.
Your
goal should be to determine what is working in today’s
environment so that you can focus your time and resources on areas
that will yield the best return for your organization.
Once
you have both a goal and a plan for achieving that goal, adjust
your plans in writing, share them with your staff, and provide the
guidance and leadership necessary to carry them out.
12
Tips for Starting the New Year Off Right
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Call
your top individual donors to wish them a happy new year and
personally thank them for their support.
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Send
a written message to as many additional donors as is
practical.
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Send
a special acknowledgement letter early in the year outlining
IRS substantiation requirements for gifts to all 2002 donors
of $250 or more. You may want to include Sharpe’s booklet
“Your Guide to Effective Giving in 2003” to assist with
their planning for this year.
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Contact
all life income gift donors to report on planned gifts that
they may have in place and encourage repeat gifts.
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Consider
what action, if any, should be taken on all pending proposals
and proceed accordingly.
-
Monitor
all open estates and trusts and establish a tickler system to
ensure that funds due from these sources are received in a
timely fashion (typically 9-24 months). Consider other
appropriate steps for distributions that are beyond acceptable
time
-
Review
your regular planned giving marketing plan and consider
additions or deletions to it. For example, in addition to
broad-based marketing, it may prove productive to send a small
number of very targeted mailings on subjects such as
charitable lead trusts to wealthier constituents who in the
past have only made outright gifts. You may also want to
consider providing information on gifts of appreciated
securities to executives of companies that are outperforming
the markets. Sending a broad bequest mailing may serve to
round out your other efforts by discovering those among your
constituency who may have the greatest, and perhaps
unfulfilled, donative intent.
-
Establish
or reinvigorate a recognition group to honor donors who have
established planned gifts.
-
Set
a goal to make a reasonable number of additional telephone and
personal contacts over the course of the year.
-
Review
your current and deferred gift acceptance policies (see page
3).
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Update
your list of commemoratives or memorial naming opportunities.
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Improve
your fundraising skills through professional advancement
activities, training, and/or mentoring.
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