How the Wrong Focus Drives Revenue Down

Do these facts sound familiar?

• Major Gifts Officers (MGOs) do not feel they are efficiently using their time.
• Admin tasks and bad data are prohibiting MGOs from meeting with donors. MGOs are spending time scheduling meetings versus actually meeting with donors.
• MGOs are connecting with only half of their caseload donors each year.
• Half of MGOs are not spending enough time on solicitation.
• 44% of MGOs are not spending enough time managing donor relationships.
• MGOs are measuring activity versus results, which nets down to a wrong focus on what will cause success.

And all of this is causing MGO burnout with the average tenure for a MGO sitting at 16 months with replacement costs sitting at more than $127,650!

Think about what you can do to deal with the very things that, if they continue for you, will literally rip the spirit right out of you and cause your revenue to go down.

All of the items on this list — and many more just like them — are symptomatic of four things that need your attention:

1. Get rid of administrative tasks. Eliminate things like scheduling, creating reports and doing research if you can. You may have to show your boss this blog to make the case.
2. Qualify donors. This way you’ll have the right donors on your caseload. Remember, only one in three donors that meet a major gift metric in your organization actually want to talk to you. You will waste a ton of time trying to talk to them. Talk to the right donors.
3. Create goals and plans for each donor on your caseload. This action alone will make sure you do the right things for every donor on your caseload.
4. Focus on having meaningful connections and working your plan for each donor. Do not rely on metrics that measure volume of activity that are a complete waste of time.

Get this work done and every day of yours will get better as you start to experience more success in your job.