January is here and and that means we made it through another Year End fundraising cycle. If you’re like myself and most other fundraisers I know all you want to do now is curl up somewhere warm and binge watch all the shows you’ve missed the last few months. While you should definitely take a break this month to recharge and catch up on anything that may have fallen through the cracks in November and December don’t let it go too long.
Now is the time to pick the phone up and make all those Thank You calls that you’ve been putting off and saying you’ll get to when you have more time. Now is the time to focus on thanking and stewarding all those great donors who gave to your year end appeals and proposals. This is the time to engage your senior leadership and board members into writing thank you notes and making thank you calls. Break it down for them, give them samples and a script and a list of 5-10 names and ask them to call, leave a message and write a note.
Make the call, you never know, they might pick up!