Wow, we can’t believe how quickly the last two weeks have passed. The Oneicity team reached maximum capacity–a huge presentation and several major projects all came together at one time. We had to take care of our clients first. But we learned some valuable lessons that apply to ministry as well to as our world.
1. Some times you have to hunker down and get through it. Maybe for you it’s the Thanksgiving rush. Or the December crunch when you have to raise most of your revenue for the year. When those times happen, expected or not, you have to stay focused on your priorities. For us, income solutions for our clients. For you, having enough turkeys for Thanksgiving.
2. Find that calendar and look ahead. Candidly, we should have seen this coming. But it kind of slipped up on us. If we’d looked out farther on our calendars, we’d have been able to anticipate the vortex we got sucked into. How about you? Is there a big event on your horizon? Are anticipating how your already busy life will get busier? This is a great time to be analyizing your Major Donor moves management, before the summer and certainly before the fall.
3. A plan makes a difference. It’s embarrassing to admit that we didn’t have a good enough plan to carry us through the craziness. As a small business it is easy to work without a plan. Maybe you do the same? No strict impact schedule. No solid timeline. Well that will work in calm times, but when it gets crazy, a plan can keep you moving. You’ll know what to do next and know what is the highest priority. We didn’t have our social media plan laid out as completely as we would for one of our clients. And we paid the price for it. (But we do have a really great illustration–starring us–of why a plan can make a difference!)
4. Transparency, transparency, transparency! We believe that there is no substitute for candor and honesty. So if you get covered up and don’t send thank you notes or receipts for a couple weeks, don’t fake it. Just be honest with your donors. They’ll understand and they’ll appreciate knowing what really happened. A caution here: please don’t make your crazy schedule or poor management their problem. Tell your donors that YOU blew it. Don’t act like your busyness is a good excuse or gets you off the hook. What gets you off the hook is the sincere apology and making it right as quickly as possible.
So, we’re back from our hiatus. Same revolutionaries. Same passion for the little guys. Same desire to turn the fundraising world upside down.
Here’s what you can expect from us in the near future:
-The revised webinar schedule
-10 HOT questions to ask your agency or fundraising consultant (oh boy, is this one going to get us in trouble!)
-Examples of Social Media Impact Schedules
-Continuation of the series on “Producing Direct Mail Fundraising that Works!”
So, what about you? Are you sitting around looking for something to do? Or are you paddling as fast as you can to stay ahead?
Hoots and Thomas
(photo credits: Paula The Destroyer)
