Don’t Let Four Months Pass Like It’s Four Days

A Nonprofit Year-End Fundraising Plan for the Next 17 Weeks

I had a boss once who ran at one speed. Max speed.

If a project landed on your desk, she wanted it back the next day, or mid-week at the latest — always before the weekend.

Email worked the same way. She’d send something Friday afternoon, and if you answered Monday morning, that wasn’t a quick turnaround. That was three days late.

In her world, an email was meant to be answered immediately. Anything less than immediate was already behind.

I used to think that pace was exhausting. Now I think she understood something the rest of us keep forgetting: time doesn’t wait for you to feel ready.

Paul understood it too, writing to a church that had every excuse to move slowly.

”See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil.”— Ephesians 5:15-16

Don’t panic today.

Put four names on the calendar.

Call them.

Send a thank you note.

Meet with them.

Put four more names on the calendar.

Call. Send notes and meet.

Here’s what’s in front of you.

It’s August. Blink, and it’s December 15th — the day formal fundraising activity quietly stops for most of us. That gives you roughly four months. Not four days.

Four months is enough time to build something real, if you stop treating it like it’s endless.

The sprint you actually have time for

Picture the next seventeen weeks filled with on-point communications, real donor engagement, and a community that’s partnered with you — financially and from the heart. Volunteers engaged. Direct mail sent. Emails delivered. None of that requires a miracle. It requires you to start this week instead of next month.

As nonprofit leaders, we get to be champions of sharing goodness. Our job is to facilitate compassion, action, empathy, and real impact. We get to recruit donors and volunteers to join a movement of good people doing great things. Small things. Big things. Meaningful things.

Blink, and it will be December. Invite people this week. Put it on your calendar. Don’t wait. Put names on the calendar.

What redeeming the time looks like this week

You don’t need a twelve-point strategy to start.

You need one action.

Take it now.

Start with 20 names. If you don’t know the top 20 donors, do some research. Take a breath and let names drop on the page. You might come up with a few more.

Schedule 2 hours or four if you can.

Clear the deck.

Close the door to your office or find a coffee shop.

Force yourself to focus and hate every distraction, even if it is a joy-filled or priority distraction.

Calls to donors always get dropped to the end of the list.

Be ruthless when you schedule your time. Be courageous.

Send those donors handwritten personal notes. No more complicated than that. Keep it simple. Don’t overthink. Write and get a rhythm.

Pick up the phone and invite two of them to coffee.

Rinse and Repeat.

Do it 15 times before the end of the year. That is 30 names, with great opportunities for people to be thanked and encouraged to help and make an impact.

Saying thank you is more than enough. It doesn’t need to be dressed up. And when you’re ready to go one step further, pause and package one of your services, or one key expense, into a story a partner can actually picture — what $500 buys, what one bed, one meal, one hour of counseling costs and does. Big impact gets remembered when it’s specific. Vague gratitude gets forgotten by Tuesday.

You can make Fundraising Personal this fall.

Here’s your assignment, and I mean this literally, not as a devotional nicety: before this week ends, pull the list of your top 20 donors and send the first note or make the first call.

Put the next call on your calendar for two days from now.

Do that every week between now and December 15th, and you will have personally touched every major donor relationship you have before formal fundraising closes for the year.

That boss of mine was right about one thing, even if her pace nearly wore me out. The days you have are the only days you have.

Don’t wait for December to wish you’d started in August.

Redeem the time. Starting now.

If this series is hitting something real for you — subscribe.

Dave Sena is the founder of Bold Leading and a nonprofit veteran with nearly thirty years of experience leading, coaching, and consulting faith-based organizations. If you’re stuck, burned out, or just need a clearer path forward — reach out. He’d love to offer prayer, honest feedback, and a roadmap through.