If you don’t know where you are going, you might wind up someplace else.
Yogi Berra
Do you have a plan for fundraising? It’s amazing how many organizations don’t.
If I had a dollar for every organization I’ve met with who told me that they wanted to ‘try’ grants, or asked me to help them develop a ‘signature’ 
event, or hadn’t altered their website in months because they’d lost contact with their ‘webmaster’ … well, I’d be a very wealthy woman.
What about you? What are your plans for 2011?
While you may think that you have unlimited choices about how to proceed in 2011, they fall into just three categories or options:
1.) Do nothing (or more accurately, change nothing)
This might sound like a viable course of action (especially if last year was at least decent) but with the continuing decline in donations, it’s your worst option. Also, a reminder – doing the same thing over and over again while expecting different results is the very definition of insanity.
2.) Spray and pray
This is all too common in the nonprofit world and involves taking a bunch of different ‘random’ actions and hoping or praying that some of them will payoff. While it’s certainly better than doing nothing, it’s still very far from ideal. Even if you are methodical you’ll absorb expenses (in terms of both time and money) in order to discover something that works…and there is no guarantee that you will.
3.) Be strategic and take “proven” actions (Your best option!)
By being strategic, all the parts of your development will work together synergistically to produce better results (magnifying your funding and cost savings). By setting up documented systems that have proven to produce the desired results you eliminate the time, effort and expense to figure “it” out.
If you’re leaning towards option #3, you’ll be excited to know that Simple Development Systems is scheduled to officially launch as a six-month one-on-one personal coaching program in February.
You’ve been asking: what is Simple Development Systems anyway?
Simple Development Systems isn’t an ebook, it isn’t a one-time webinar, and its not a course. Designed specifically for the small organization with limited staff, resources and time, Simple Development Systems is a fun, challenging, personalized six-month internet-based coaching program created to guide you, step-by-step, through the daily habits and systems that every nonprofit organization needs to have in place to create “multiple streams of income.”
Each monthly module will feature actual ‘homework’ assignments such as:
- developing your monthly giving program
- writing a grant proposal for unrestricted funding
- creating donor-centered web copy
- developing a social media plan that engages without being a time drain
- learn how to use email effectively … and more
that will be reviewed and critiqued personally by myself and special guest experts in the industry.
And I’ll be there beside you with one-on-one coaching as you create the foundational building blocks of your donor-centered fundraising systems.
Let’s face it. Now is not the time for emulating the majority of your peers when it comes to your organization’s fundraising. Now is the time for creativity, boldness, a sense of joy and genuine love of your donors.
Set your organization on the path to sustainable funding with Simple Development Systems.
Interested? Download an application and return it by the deadline of January 25 to participate in this groundbreaking program.
View Pamela Grow's profile
I can’t wait to meet with you personally.
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