Do these 5 things for a great year

Now what?

You made it through 2020, and now it’s 2021. Amy Eisenstein’s blog has some ideas, at Top 5 Fundraising No-Brainers for Nonprofit Professionals in 2021:

• Raising major gifts. Major donors are critical to your overall success as a fundraiser. Their donations can transform your financial picture. And it can happen pretty quickly if you get going on it now. They aren’t better people than the rest of your donors, but common sense and the Pareto Principle (80/20 Rule) tell us you need to be thinking about them.
  
• Thanking donors. Thanking donors is the right thing to do. And if that’s not enough reason, it improves retention — the likelihood that they’ll keep on giving. Have a system that makes it possible to thank them quickly, appropriately, and with a human touch.
  
• Asking for gifts remotely. We’ve learned that the phone and programs like Zoom really do work to connect with donors. Use these tools! (I have a feeling we’ll continue to use them even when it’s no longer the only way.)
  
• Soliciting planned gifts. The payoff takes a long time, but the time to start talking to donors about including you in their wills is now.
  
• Investing in a good donor CRM. A solid database that allows you to track donors and their giving make the difference between being blind and knowing exactly what’s going on with your fundraising.