Whether you track your steps, hours of sleep, gifts to your annual fundraising campaign, or donor retention, “keeping track” is a hot topic these days.
Over the years I’ve trained waitresses, restaurant owners, marketing and fundraising staff, corporate speakers, and, of course, nonprofit board members. I’ve been a trainer for more than 40 years. What I’ve found is status updates help keep people on track and achieving or exceeding goals.
My Fundraising Success Matrix™ (download it here) is a tool I created to keep teams focused to increase their individual donor fundraising. This simple, powerful tool assists in managing details that are critical for success.
Conversations and updates about the topics listed on this worksheet will help you keep actions and next steps visible for up to 20 key areas of focus.
Want to download the Fundraising Success Matrix? Just click it above!
The matrix can and should look slightly different from organization to organization depending on your maturity, staffing, and time commitment. The format for tracking can be a Word doc, Excel, Trello (a free online project management tool), or simply a white board.
Key outcomes to expect when using the matrix:
1. Provides a built-in agenda for check-in meetings;
2. Helps team remember what they promised;
3. Keeps team focused on their goal and steps to reaching it;
4. Ensures team members agree to a “by when” for each next action.
Go ahead and download the worksheet or create your own. My recommendation though: don’t spend too much time ON CREATING or updating the matrix.
Spend your precious commodity of time on tasks listed as next actions. That’s when you’ll see results.
An excellent companion to the Fundraising Success Matrix ™ is the Sample Meeting Note Template. When used regularly, it’s guaranteed to keep your staff and board on track and active.
