Welcome back!  It’s time to sweep up the pine needles or scrape the wax off the mantelpiece and get back to work.  Everybody has a new lease on life in the new year, and nonprofit organizations are no different.  Each one has a fresh budget and fresh bills.  There are fundraising letters to write, fundraising events to plan, and programs to execute.  Here are some things to get you started if it all seems daunting:

Get your ducks in a row. A little extra time planning now will save much hassle later.  When are your major fundraising events and what are the critical lead times and milestones?  Are these items on everybody’s calendars?  Are you ready to remind boards and volunteers to make sure things happen smoothly?

Identify strategic fundraising opportunities, and map out the dependencies to take advantage of them.  What conditions – political, economic, demographic – are favorable to your organization?  What assets – volunteers, technology, marketing – do you need to take advantage of them?  Turbulent economic times will definitely transform your fundraising efforts, but they don’t have to defeat them.

Communicate.  Get your lists in order and use them.  Don’t be shy about emailing your supporters, but make sure that not every message is an ask.  Share what’s happening inside your organization, provide some valuable or at least interesting information, and people will be lots more interested in participating in your organization’s events and programs.

Need more kickoff fundraising ideas?  November’s recorded Webinar, Nine things you can do right now for fundraising success, is still pretty timely, and for some more email fundraising ideas including list-building, check out next week’s session, Advanced NPO email fundraising: building your email list.