Part One: Our modern electronic world is chock full of time management tips and nowhere is such advice more valuable than in the not-for-profit sector, where running a lean organization is an almost obsessive mindset (whether that’s a good thing or not – a topic for another day).
Over my 27 years as a fundraising professional the most important single advice I ever received was to focus on what’s important, to distinguish the urgent, the crisis du jour, from what I’m paid to do. For the frontline fundraiser this is simple — it’s the donor! It’s cultivating contributions for your organization. It’s building relationships one-by-one.
My daily habit is to start with prospects and donors, to pay attention to those relationships, to make those calls and schedule those appointments first. With the exception of an obvious emergency, the rest can wait – it really can. I promise you that, if you explain to your supervisor that the report isn’t done because you just spoke with someone who wants to discuss a $100,000 gift that supervisor will give you an extension on the report.
For the fundraising manager this is exacerbated the moment you accept responsibility for several others who must deal with this daily challenge. Your responsibility to each of them is to clear distractions from their work and provide meaningful support in every way you can. After all, your success depends on theirs. Time management is your greatest challenge, identifying what’s important, what will return the greatest value. This means that it’s critical to separate the important from the urgent.