The Extreme Fundraising Blog

For many of us, June marks the end of the fiscal year. This is always an interesting time at nonprofits. Along with the mad scramble to hit fundraising goals is the need to make plans for the coming year. Since nonprofits are often hesitant about hiring new employees, “planning” usually results in adding more tasks to an employees’ already over-flowing task list.

This week at the APC conference in Maine, I’ll be giving a seminar called “Keeping the Plates Spinning: Time Management in the Small Office.” The following are two of the six powerful tools I’ll be sharing. These tools are specifically designed to help you tame your task list.

****YOUR REPORT CARD****
Ask yourself the following question: “What will I be ‘graded on’ at the end of the fiscal year?” Based on your experience, what things will your supervisor or the board hold you accountable for you on at the end of the year? Money goals? Strategy planning? Donor satisfaction? Take some time and jot down the things that come to mind. Be sure to reserve a space to list the things that you’re supposed to be doing but are never really graded on.

Then schedule some time to talk to your boss or board chair. Ask her what she thinks you’ll be graded on at the end of the year. Do your lists match up? If not, exploring what communication breakdowns may be leading to the differences can be incredibly fruitful.

For most of us in North America, the idea of getting graded on our work provides incredible clarity. And it’s a metaphor that your supervisor will “get” without lots of explanation. It cuts through the everything-you-do-is-top-priority muddle. You’ll have a much clearer sense of what is ultimately more important. Do you pick up the phone when it rings or do you finish writing up the next appeal? If you’re graded more on donor relations, you pick up the call. But if reaching the annual fund goal is more important to your organization, you know you can let the caller leave a voice mail as you finish writing the appeal.

****MANAGING UP****
I know you’ll probably have a hard time relating to this story but humor me as I tell it to you. At one job, everything that was put on my plate was presented as the #1 priority, the most important think I could be doing. Whether it was an idea from a book or a conference, pressure from the board, or merely a knee-jerk reaction to a disgruntled donor, there was always a very good rationale that explained why this really was the top priority.

One year, I took out a legal pad and listed all the activities I was currently doing: tasks, obligations, expectations, responsibilities, everything. I filled up an entire sheet! It was both impressive and a little scary to see them all listed out.

Then I listed all the new things that were being put on my plate for the next fiscal year. Finally I set up a time with my supervisor to go over the list. When we got together, I gave her a copy and explained what I’d done. I let her know that I knew that each task was worthwhile in and of itself. But, I went on to explain, I am a finite being with finite amount of time. While I would endeavor to do it all, I needed to know which activities and responsibilities trumped the others.

So I asked, “What should I move from the ‘already doing’ page to make room for the new things?”

She was shocked and a little bemused. She appreciated my frankness and honesty. She even admitted she wished she could do that with her boss. I thanked her and re-asked the question. We spent a lot of our time talking about what we as an office valued and how we wanted that communicated. By the end of our time, we settled on my 5 or 6 top focus items.

****WHAT ABOUT YOU?****
These two tools are extremely powerful. They’re also somewhat time consuming, at least at first. They force a lot of conversation which can end up saving you an incredible amount of time later. I would venture to say that each minute invested in these now will save you hours over the course of the next year. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure!

As a subscriber to Extreme Fundraising you get the inside scoop on my latest offerings. I’m offering three new teleclasses to help you be more successful at the critical skills of fundraising and goal-setting. Teleclasses are workshops by phone—an exciting new way for you to learn at your desk.

The three new classes are:

• Raising Serious Money NOW: The fundamentals of major gift fundraising
• Fundraising 101: The basics of raising money for nonprofits
• GoalMagnets: Advance your career and have a life!

I’m really excited about these! I’ll be offering these on Tuesdays at 3 p.m. Each course meets every other week for two months and costs $195. These are a terrific way to make sure your summer is productive. If you’d like more information, email me at: marc@fundraisingcoach.com (or simply reply to this email). As an Extreme Fundraising subscriber, you’ll get
$50 off!

We’ve finished our overview of the individual components of our “personal style” abilities: Extrovert/Introvert, Generalist/Specialist, and Time Frame Orientation. Before we move on to the “driving abilities” and the “specialized abilities,” let’s take a look at how the introvert/extrovert and generalist/specialist abilities can work together.

****CONGRUENT PROFILES****
Congruent profiles are made up from the pairing of two abilities that are in sync with each other. Both of these abilities work together in the same direction.

PEOPLE INFLUENCER
People that are both generalists and extroverts have the “people influencer” profile. Generalists have the ability to be a part of a team, see the whole picture, and move teams along toward a common goal. When combined with the extroverts’ tendency to get energy from interacting with people and to verbally process, you get a person that is very effective at influencing others.

PROFESSIONAL/RESEARCHER
The other congruent profile type is a combination of specialist and introversion. Specialists like being the experts and adding an individual contribution to the work they do. Introverts get energy from being alone. This “professional/researcher” profile is extremely well suited to devoting long periods of time to becoming an expert in a field or to spending lots of time studying things in a lab.

****PUSH/PULL PROFILES****
Push/Pull profiles are the pairing of two seemingly incongruent abilities. One of the abilities pushes the person in one direction while the other pulls them in a different direction. This isn’t necessarily bad but identifying this type of profile unquestionably helps these people understand themselves.

PERFORMER
The “performer” profile is a pairing of specialist and extrovert. The specialist wants to be an expert and put his unique spin on information. The information gathering often happens in isolation but the extrovert needs to be around other people. As a result, people with the performer profile tend to be terrific teachers. They have the patience to stick with a topic until they are experts. And people genuinely enjoy learning from them both because they get energy from people and because they add their own individual twist to the information being shared.

RENAISSANCE PERSON
The pairing of the generalist and the introvert is called the “renaissance person.” Generalists like to be part of a team and like to know a little about a lot of things. But being with people can be very draining for introverts. While they’ll never ask to be chosen or push their way into leadership, renaissance people are some of the best leaders in your team. When called upon, they are knowledgeable about almost every topic and they can explain how the topic fits with the team’s direction.

****IMPLICATIONS FOR FUNDRAISING****
Remember, while these abilities are your basic hardwiring, they aren’t an indication of what you can and can’t do. You can always learn skills to do things not well suited to your profile, but it will take longer than others better suited and it will be more stressful. Aligning our work and life to our abilities helps us do what we do faster and reduces stress!

Can you see that a person with a professional/researcher profile may be better suited to managing the database than a renaissance person? Or that a performer might be more naturally suited to conducting planned giving seminars than a person with the people influencer profile?

****WHAT ABOUT YOU?****
Take a look at which profiles best describes you and the others on your staff or team. Are you hiring people like yourself or are you developing a team with a mix of abilities? Do the requirements of the various job responsibilities line up with each person’s ability profile? If not, share this series with your team and see if you can shift responsibilities to make for a better fit.