Fundraising Goals & The Eisenhower Matrix

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Do You Always Need A Fundraising Goal?

Guest post by Shterna Lazaroff, nonprofit copywriter

Benchmarks are built into fundraising almost naturally. “We need X to cover our budget for the year.” “If we raise X, we can start a new program.” 

If you fundraise, you likely walk around with an idea of the numbers is your head – but do your potential donors know them? And should they? 

The answer you’re probably expecting: “It depends.” 

Overall, your donors appreciate transparency. The nonprofit sector as a whole is moving towards the approach of laying everything on the table – because it works. 

It makes people trust you and that you’ll use their money well. It also fosters that sense of being on the same page. You know what’s happening behind the scenes. We’re in this together. 

But there’s another powerful reason to share your goals – it creates urgency. 

And you need urgency because people are the biggest victims of inertia. We stay as we are, doing as we do, until we have a reason to change. 

When you reach out to a potential donor, you can touch their hearts and inspire them to no end…and then they might just walk away. 

With no clear fundraising goal, it’s possible to feel like your donation is falling into an abyss. Your contribution doesn’t feel concrete or measurable. 

If you want people to give, give them a reason to give…NOW. 

A sense of urgency. 

A goal. 

A reason why they shouldn’t think “I’ll come back to this” and then ex out of the email or move on from the text. 

“Give before the tax year closes” 

“Help us cover the costs of this event” 

“Every donation in the next 24 hours is matched” 

^^ Those are super classic, though, and often already built into the ask. 

How do you harness the power of urgency and get people to take action NOW…if there’s no built-in reason? 

Well, you create some urgency. Honestly, of course. 

Show people that their donation – whether $18 or $18,000 – makes an immediate difference by setting a goal. 

Next time you reach out to donors, try something like this: 

• “We’re trying to get 30 new people in our monthly donor program” 
• “The goal is to raise 50% of our budget in the first quarter so we can focus on programming” 
• ”I’m challenging myself to raise $25,000 this week” 
• “We’re aiming to touch base with 15 donors who haven’t given in the last 3 months” 

These goals aren’t dishonest. You’re not claiming that “if we don’t the world will collapse…” – because if you don’t make this goal, you’ll be fine. 

But these goals ARE giving people something tangible to insert themselves into. 

When they give, it’s not just a donation. They’re moving your needle. 

Which means there’s a reason to take action now. 

Which means they’re more likely to take action. 

Which means you’re more likely to get a (positive) response. 

So next time you push yourself to reach out to donors, either emphasize a goal – or create it. The simple change to the structure of your ask will bezh help you raise, and raise more. 

Shterna Lazaroff is a nonprofit copywriter and fundraising strategist, who’s worked with nonprofits like the OU, Bonei Olam, Colel Chabad, and Keren Hashviis to help raise millions. She also runs the Vault, a library of templates for shluchim, and the Chai Club Bootcamp, an action-based bootcamp to help people create a recurring giving program. 

If you gained something from this email, you might like Shterna’s weekly emails. Sign up at shternalazaroff.com/subscribe. 

The Eisenhower Matrix

The Eisenhower Matrix presents a timeless and efficient method for prioritizing tasks, crucial for enhancing productivity and task management within nonprofit organizations. Nonprofit fundraisers and organizations, often juggling multiple priorities with limited resources, can greatly benefit from applying this strategic framework to their daily operations and long-term planning. Here's how the Eisenhower Matrix can be specifically adapted to improve productivity and task management for nonprofit fundraisers and organizations:

Understanding the Eisenhower Matrix

At its core, the Eisenhower Matrix helps distinguish between tasks based on their urgency and importance, categorizing them into four quadrants: Do, Schedule, Delegate, and Delete. This distinction is pivotal for nonprofit organizations to focus their efforts on what truly matters, ensuring that resources are allocated efficiently to maximize impact.

Application in Nonprofit Fundraising

Quadrant 1 (Do): Immediate and Impactful Actions
Tasks like responding to a significant donor's inquiry, finalizing a grant proposal before its deadline, or addressing a critical issue that could affect a fundraising event fall into this quadrant. These tasks are both urgent and important, requiring immediate attention to prevent missed opportunities or potential crises.

Quadrant 2 (Schedule): Strategic Planning and Development
Activities such as developing long-term fundraising strategies, planning donor engagement initiatives, or scheduling training for fundraising staff. While these tasks are crucial for the organization's growth and sustainability, they do not require immediate action and should be scheduled appropriately.

Quadrant 3 (Delegate): Operational and Supportive Tasks
Tasks that are urgent but not necessarily critical for the core fundraising team to execute, such as preparing fundraising materials, data entry, or managing social media updates. These can be delegated to other staff members or volunteers, freeing up the core team to focus on more strategic tasks.

Quadrant 4 (Delete): Minimizing Inefficiencies
Identifying tasks that consume time without contributing to the organization's goals, such as unnecessary meetings, redundant reporting, or inefficient processes. Eliminating or streamlining these tasks can significantly improve productivity and allow the team to focus on more impactful activities.

Maximizing Productivity with the Eisenhower Matrix

• Prioritize with Precision: By categorizing tasks within the Eisenhower Matrix, nonprofit teams can prioritize their workload more effectively, ensuring that urgent and important tasks are addressed while also planning for strategic initiatives that will drive future success.
• Enhance Team Collaboration: Utilizing the matrix to delegate tasks can lead to better team collaboration and skill development. It allows team members to take ownership of specific tasks, fostering a sense of accountability and contribution towards the organization's goals.
• Streamline Processes: Identifying tasks to eliminate or streamline can lead to more efficient workflows, reducing the time spent on low-value activities. This can be particularly beneficial in a nonprofit setting where resources are limited, and there is a constant need to optimize operational efficiency.
• Adopt Task Management Tools: Incorporating task management software that aligns with the Eisenhower Matrix can automate and simplify the process of prioritizing, scheduling, and delegating tasks. This can significantly reduce the administrative burden on fundraising teams, allowing them to focus more on donor engagement and fundraising activities.

Wrap-Up

For nonprofit fundraisers and organizations, the Eisenhower Matrix is not just a tool for individual productivity; it's a strategic framework for maximizing the impact of their efforts. To learn more about the Eisenhower Matrix we strongly suggest reading Asana's in-depth guide about the Eisenhower Matrix.

Eight different ways you can assign contacts to fundraisers

PhoneRaise is a powerful platform designed to revolutionize donor outreach during giving campaigns and phone-a-thons.

At its core, PhoneRaise offers unparalleled flexibility in how contacts are assigned to fundraisers/ambassadors, streamlining the outreach process and ensuring that every interaction is as impactful as possible.

1. Equal Assign

The Equal Assign option divides all unassigned contacts equally among fundraisers. If an organization has 10 fundraisers and 1,800 unassigned contacts, each volunteer would be assigned approximately 180 contacts. This method is straightforward and ensures that no volunteer is underutilized.

2. Weighted Assign

Weighted Assign is similar to Equal Assign but takes a more nuanced approach by considering the current load of each volunteer. It assigns unassigned contacts factoring in how many contacts have already been assigned to each volunteer, ensuring those with fewer contacts receive more. This dynamic allocation helps maintain volunteer engagement and prevents burnout.

3. Reset Assignments

Reset Assignments redistributes contacts evenly among fundraisers, regardless of previous assignments. If there are 100 fundraisers, and 5000 contacts of which 1,800 are unassigned each would receive approximately 50 contacts after the reset. This feature is useful for starting from scratch and overwriting previous assignments.

4 Designated Fundraiser Assignments

This feature allows for specific fundraisers to be given contacts to engage. This is useful when you have new fundraisers that arrive after assignments were already given out.

5. Self-Assign From Organization Contacts

This option empowers fundraisers to choose the organizational contacts that they know. Self-assign allows them to select contacts from the organization's pool, and assign those contacts to themselves. This autonomy can increase fundraiser motivation and effectiveness.

6. Self Assign From Personal Contacts

Extending the flexibility further, fundraisers can also add and assign their personal contacts from Google Contacts. This not only expands the potential donor base but also leverages personal relationships for the campaign's benefit.

7. Pre-Assign

Pre-Assign allows organizations to designate which fundraisers will contact specific donors ahead of time, using a spreadsheet that pairs each donor with their assigned volunteer and the volunteer's contact information. This preplanning tool ensures that as soon as the data is uploaded to PhoneRaise, volunteers can immediately start engaging with their assigned contacts, streamlining the outreach process.

8. Custom Assign

Custom Assign provides the flexibility to assign contacts to fundraisers based on specific criteria, such as recent donation amounts. This targeted approach enables organizers to filter their contact list and assign these segmented groups to fundraisers, enhancing the effectiveness of donor engagement by ensuring volunteers connect with the most relevant contacts.