“Espresso, Calendars, and Sticky Notes: These are just a few of my favourite issues!”
by Amy Lazoff, Director of Philanthropy & Group Relations, Fort Wayne Kids’s Zoo
There may be one factor I really like about this time of 12 months that not everybody fairly understands – and that’s the sheer pleasure I expertise when choosing out a planner for subsequent 12 months. Sure, regardless that my each day schedule is digital, I nonetheless LOVE a great paper planner!
Once I open the duvet of my new planner every year and see the empty pages, my mind fills with concepts of all I’d like to perform. I really like the concept of planning the work and dealing the plan. Because the chief of a small however mighty workforce of fundraising professionals, who find yourself carrying a number of hats all year long, my paper planner can also be used as a management software.
Everyone will get to select a brand new planner
One of many duties I give to my complete workforce is to select a planner that works for them. Some like month-to-month solely, some need month-to-month/weekly or each day, and I simply need them to make use of no matter would be the most useful to how they work. Then we decide a day close to the top of the 12 months to fill them out. We name it our “Calendar Planning Day” and the primary 12 months I took my workforce by means of the train it was slightly overwhelming. Now, they sit up for it and are available ready with all their notes! Today is stuffed with a number of espresso, our calendars, and sticky notes of each shade.
Mapping out the 12 months
As soon as we’re performed, we’ve mapped out our complete 12 months. It helps my complete workforce know what is going on with who and when. It helps spot any conflicts early on and ensure nothing massive is lacking. That is invaluable data to have when generally your job, as a frontrunner, is to maneuver on to plan b or pivot when surprising occasions threaten to derail your plans. Additionally it is a useful software to have as a co-worker, to know when somebody has a giant deadline arising so you may lend a serving to hand. It additionally prevents us from making an attempt to do too many massive or new issues all on the similar time. In any case, there are solely so many hours in a day!
For my workforce it’s also a option to take our annual fundraising and stewardship plans and lay them out another way, specializing in the duties that have to be performed to realize our objectives. We additionally layer in board conferences, conferences, deliberate holidays, main grant deadlines, deliberate donor engagement actions, junk mail, particular occasions, and so on. in addition to all the larger duties related to protecting these issues on monitor. These duties vary from donor experiences, to attraction drafts, to print deadlines, linen and meals orders, volunteer coaching nights, when letters want up to date, and extra. It isn’t each activity we do – removed from it, but it surely lays out the construction for our 12 months. Our planners assist us simply discuss our upcoming tasks, wants, and recap of the hits and misses as a workforce every week, and it additionally helps me put together for one-on-one conferences with every of my workforce members.
This tactic could not work for each workforce, however for those who’re on the lookout for a greater option to plan your work, and work your plan (or coordinate the chaos), give it a strive – what do it’s important to lose?
Amy Lazoff is Director of Philanthropy & Group Relations at Fort Wayne Kids’s Zoo and a licensed Quadrant 3 Management Coach. She leads a Nonprofit Academy coaching on planning referred to as “Plan the Work; Work the Plan.”
