“if you don’t know where you are going, any road will take you there”
Unfortunately many fundraisers, for whatever reason, don’t set any goals or targets. Which is a real shame because goals don’t have to be hugely complicated – especially not to start with. And if you don’t know what you are trying to achieve, how will you know if you’re doing the right things? What are you using to measure?
To get you started check out these suggestions:
Some Simple Goal examples might be:
- Send a monthly email to all our supporters
- Run an on air appeal in October this year to:
- Raise $3000 in gifts
- get 50 new donors
- Develop new spots and play “thank you to our supporters” / “we are listener supported” spots 2x a day
- Create, record and add 6 new spots every 3 months (I have sample scripts available if you want to ask)
- Get a staff/board/supporter to share in a local church 11 times this year (once a month)
Not sure what you should set as good goals for your ministry?
Well, answer the question “What does success look like?” and set your goals with the answer in mind.
Remember, Goals should be S M A R T
- Specific
- Measurable
- Achievable
- Realistic
- Timely (have a time frame)
If you reread the example Goals I wrote earlier you will see they actually meet these criteria.
Now that you’ve got some goals, make your plan.
Put in place some checks and tools that will help you to regularly measure how you are going for each of the Goals you set.
This could be a repeating electronic calendar appointment or task reminder, a weekly (informal) meeting with a Board member to check on progress, a note on your calendar, a ToDo list or even a sticky note on the fridge. You know what works for you, so use that.
The Goals are useless without a Plan and the plan is useless without follow through.
And Follow Through… well that is up to you!
One last thought – go easy on yourself! If you’ve never done this before don’t set complicated or difficult goals. Remember they are supposed to be Achievable and Realistic – that’s the A R in S M A R T.