Fundraising for Social Change, 8th Edition

chapter THIRTY‐THREEInfrastructure for Fundraising

Effective time management often marks the difference between a good fundraiser and one who is not going to live up to their potential. Because a fundraising job is never done, you are never caught up on your work, so you have to be very clear about your priorities. And partly as a corollary to Parkinson's Law (“work expands to fill the time available”), expenses rise to meet income. The more successful the fundraising plans are, the more plans the organization will make to spend that money. Consequently, no amount of money raised is ever enough. No matter how supportive the organizational culture is of its staff and volunteers, the ongoing need for money can translate into significant pressure on those raising it. For this reason, fundraising staff (paid and unpaid) must set their own limits on how much time they will spend working.

The main reason good time management will separate otherwise quite talented people from those who actually do well in fundraising is that the purpose of time management is to help make you happy. Excellent fundraisers are, by nature, optimistic. For example, we believe the next person we ask might respond with an enthusiastic “YES!!” Our enthusiasm can wane, however, under the pressures of a job that has huge responsibility without a whole lot of authority. If you are not able to set your own boundaries around your work, and you don't feel that the priorities you have are taking maximum advantage ...