3 essential to-do items before the end of February

The first several weeks of the calendar year are a flurry of activity for fundraisers. You’re wrapping up your year-end appeal while simultaneously launching a whole new year of fundraising efforts. Ensure you’re ending and starting on the right track with a few essential to-do items completed by the end of February.

3 essential fundraising to-do items:

Confirm that all donors have been thanked.

Have all your donors from the prior calendar year been thanked? If not, make thanking them a top priority to accomplish before the end of February. (Tip: if you’re using Little Green Light, the unacknowledged gifts queue is a good place to start your process of confirming that all gifts have been acknowledged.) Otherwise, donors may feel less inclined to respond to your upcoming fundraising appeals in the new year.

Pay attention to your lapsed donors.

Do you know who your lapsed donors are? A lapsed donor is someone who contributed to your organization in the past but hasn’t done so within a defined recent period, such as the last 18 months. Your organization may use a different time period to determine this status; if you use Little Green Light, you can define this time period by customizing your Giving Status definitions as needed. Communication is key to recapturing lapsed donors, so review your lapsed donors and make a plan to connect with them in the first quarter of the new year.

Review your fundraising plan.

Examine your fundraising plan, and get organized for your upcoming work. Set goals and tasks in your donor management system to help you stay on top of grant applications, letters of inquiry, and major gift solicitations in the new fiscal year. If you don’t have a fundraising plan, this article on 6 steps to help you create a fundraising plan can guide you through the process.

Conclusion

It’s not easy to wrap up one year of fundraising just as you’re embarking on a new one. But by completing the three steps above, you’ll be better positioned for success in the months ahead.