Avoid Fundraising Burnout

1 – Set Clear Goals, Firm Deadlines

Barb Lewis, veteran fundraiser and staunch supporter of her high school in Lilburn, Georgia, has fought and won the battle against fundraising fatigue. She believes one of the best ways to beat burnout is to establish clear fundraising goals and set firm deadlines for reaching those goals. “Identify what you need, how much money is required and how long it will take to get it,” said Lewis. Otherwise, she says, fundraising activity can be never-ending. At her school, Lewis sets beginning and ending dates for all fundraising projects. “That way everybody knows that there will be closure.”

2 – Fundraisers – Do a Few and Do Them Well
Most fundraising companies who work with organizations to raise money agree that, with fundraising, less can be more. Your fundraising company should be consulting its customers to do only a few fundraisers but, importantly, to do them well. Not only should schools and school groups be watchful of their own fundraising efforts, many advise that it is good practice to know what other groups in the area are doing to raise money.

3 – Know What Others Are Doing
Today children and their parents are fundraising for their schools in addition to raising money for other groups. So it’s important to know what, where, when and how others are doing in fundraising. “I wouldn’t dream of selling cookies in January because that’s when the Girl Scouts are at work,” says elementary school principal Nora Gledich “The last thing we want to do is duplicate the efforts of others and over saturate the community. We’d only hurt each other.” At her school, Gledich works with the PTA at least one year in advance so that they can coordinate fundraising efforts with neighboring schools and other groups (youth leagues, scouts, etc.) who may be selling in the community at the same time.

Source – The Fundraising Edge – published by the Association of Fund-Raising Distributors & Suppliers www.afrds.com