It’s almost time, folks. The ads for planners, exercise equipment, new year new you campaigns, and the whole nine yards are coming soon. However, there are still six weeks remaining in 2021, and that’s plenty of time to make some significant strides in your operations, even if you’re plate is full with year-end fundraising. 

When you get these processes and templates in place now, you’ll be better prepared to start 2022 with a fresh perspective and the systems in place that will streamline your processes and save you and your team time and money. 

Become the boss of your calendar

If there’s one area that most people declare they’ll do better in the new year, it’s calendar management. Everyone is overbooked, overloaded, and over-scheduled, which leads to chaos and ineffective leadership. 

It might also be time to ditch social media for good - finally. Social media was listed as the number one time-waster this year, with some spending over two and half hours each day scrolling through status updates. (Imagine what you could accomplish with an extra two hours a day!)

Decide before the end of the year how you’ll set clear boundaries in the new year to reduce over scheduling. Explore options like time blocking and think about adopting a new mindset around how you manage your time.

Update your automations

If you’re not automating your internal workflows, it’s past time to start. Nearly every project can include some type of automated process, even if it’s partial automation and still requires some manual attention. 

Donor Thank You Notes

Use your donor database to set up a recurring report of new gifts received each week and create an automated system to write, print and mail thank you cards. This process might require some manual work, but the rest of the process will work itself out if the initial reports are automated. 

Automatic Email Responses

If you’re still triaging every email that hits your inbox, you’re likely wasting time that could be better spent cultivating donors or soliciting gifts. Instead, take full advantage of your email client’s features like filters, rules, and auto-responders to address commonly asked questions. 

The emails left in your inbox should be the most important, and those can be addressed three times in each day - morning, afternoon, and before you leave each evening. 

Corporate sponsor relations

Nonprofits are often guilty of working on corporate sponsorships all year long, only to ignore those same companies after the event is over. If this happens to you, it’s time to automate your stewardship efforts. 

Use tools to schedule regular forms of outreach to company executives and automate reminders to check in with your sponsors personally at least once a year. 

By automating some of the stewardship activities, you’ll have more time to engage with the companies in a meaningful way and learn more about what they do, the products they make, or the services they offer. That means the next time your corporate sponsor goes on and on about their fluoropolymer products, you’ll be ready to learn! 

Create new templates

One of the most effective ways to save time on repetitive tasks is to use templates. And, templates don’t have fancy or even shared to be helpful. For example, if you find yourself sending the same types of responses to volunteer inquires, templatize it! Save a draft in your email inbox that you can copy and paste each time, making minor tweaks to personalize the message when needed.

If you’re creating social media graphics regularly, having a set of templates to use as your base is a major time-saving hack! Besides giving you more consistency in your branding, these templates help you quickly create professional graphics and get back to the work that actually brings you donors. If you need some free social media templates, there are several sets in my free template and training bundle. 

Another extremely valuable template to have on hand is a board report template. Every month, you’re creating reports for your board about activities, plans, data, and more, and every month you’re starting from scratch. 

Before the end of 2021, implement an Executive Director Board Report template and start streamlining this part of your board management process. 

Final Thoughts

No one is asking you to change your whole life in 2022 or even swear off gluten! Instead, use the following weeks to make small, incremental changes in these few areas, and you’ll be poised to start 2022 with a whole new perspective. 

Until next time,

Andrea

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