Reality Test: How Much Time Do You Spend Fundraising?
How much time do you spend developing income? Fundraising? Earning revenue?
We often think we do a lot, but we find that we do less than we thought if we measure our efforts. Your doctor, like mine, probably encourages you to eat well and make sure you get adequate vitamins and minerals. Since I eat healthily, I assumed I had the vitamins and minerals under control. As part of a Yale University course, I recently logged my food intake for one week using the My Fitness Pal.
Lo and behold, I learned I was low in iron and calcium. Sure enough, when I increased my intake of these minerals, I felt better.
Likewise, you might feel that you invest lots of time in helping your nonprofit obtain income. Write down the best guess of your monthly time investment.
Log the time you invest in fundraising or earning income to measure reality. After a month, add up the time. My clients, who try this are surprised. Even though they spend time thinking and talking about income, they spend less time generating it than estimated.
For one month, log the time you spend generating income for your nonprofit. Does it match your expectations? If not, perhaps the first step in developing more is to increase it. Awareness is the first step to change
For more answers, check out this Nonprofit CEO Library.
For solutions delivered to your inbox, sign up for Karen’s CEO Solutions.
