Working With Limited Resources: Ideas From Users

During the 2008 Sage Summit, the Fundraising 50 team led in several roundtable participant discussion forums whose central topic was “Working with Limited Resources: Saving Time and Money.”

During these panels, the team explored a wide array of ideas through which development offices can save energy and resources on their never-ending quest for excellence in accountability. From the slew of ideas that came into view, at least 5 primary categories of topics arose: Professional Training, Automation Tools, Checklists, Fundraising Calendars, and Multi-Tasking.

Professional Training: Save time and money and boost efficiency by:

• Planning for professional training as a line item in your annual budget
• Considering customized one-on-one web conference sessions as a very cost effective solution for keeping staff up to speed with FR50 product tools

Automation Tools: Save time and money and boost efficiency by:

• Utilizing Default Sets for streamlining data entry of both constituents and gifts.
• Immediately drafting a Policy/Procedure Guide; especially consider constituent entry, gift entry, and (weekly, monthly, audit) reports.
• Establishing a Recurring Gift Program.
• Staying in touch with your constituency with a systematic eCommunications cycle; use regular email merge blasts to help keep names and addresses up to date.
• Utilizing the FR50 Tickler Reminder tool for automating date-specific, constituent-based deadlines such as meetings, phone calls, reports to be run, pledge reminders to be sent, etc.

Checklists: Save time and money and boost efficiency by:

• Designing and maintaining brief checklists for your periodic special events, mailings, and solicitations.

Watch next month's eNews for the rest of the tips on "Fundraising Calendars" and "Multi-tasking."

For more information or assistance with MIP Fund Accounting, contact Blytheco by email or give us a call at 800.455.1368, extension 2500.