Episode 188: The Six-Month Halfway Uplift - How to Have a Great Holidays by Planning NOW
Congratulations! You made it to July. Now, let’s look at how to maximize our efforts in the next six months, whether you follow a calendar or fiscal year. The key? Plan and focus on building strong relationships with your top prospects. Prioritize your efforts, set detailed plans, and establish good daily habits. Additionally, maintaining a balanced personal life is crucial for professional success. Let's prepare to make the next six months productive and impactful.
Welcome to another edition of Around with Randall, your weekly podcast for making your
nonprofit more effective for your community, and here is your host, the CEO and founder
of Hallett Philanthropy, Randall Hallett.
It's an honor to have you spend your next 20 minutes or so with me Randall, on this edition of Around with Randall.
As we come into the second half of our calendar year, we'll talk about this here in a second
in terms of calendar and fiscal.
We get into what I think of as the opportunity for our six-month uplift.
If you are either calendar year or fiscal year, depending if you in terms of where you
set your year ends at June 30th or December 31st, there's a few others that go in a little
bit, other directions when it comes to their end of the fiscal year.
Most of the giving, particularly for those at the largest end, seems to happen in the
last quarter of the calendar year.
So we are six months away from the end of the of 2024.
So you could be planning for next year or you could try and get to the end of your fiscal
year, which happens to be the same as calendar year.
It doesn't make a difference now is the time to begin to really focus in on what you need
to be doing.
That's what we want to talk about today.
This uplift, how do we take what we know, look at what we're doing and then add to it the
ability for us to be successful in the next six months so that we have a terrific thanks
to giving that we have a great holidays.
My experience is that when we do the work in end of June in July to really dig into who
will talk about these as the tactics, who are the people that we need to be building
more passionate deep relationships with or the people need to be prioritizing.
How do we affect our goals?
What are we where we add in this goal process?
And lastly, what do we do on the personal side in the last six months?
That's what that's what makes a great Thanksgiving and Christmas or Hanukkah or whatever.
The last six weeks of the year.
That's what we want to attack today.
So I'm going to break this into two pieces.
The theoretical or the methodology is, hey, don't wait till the last minute.
Okay, we've covered that.
So a lot of tactical today, but I think applicable if you take a note or two or take note or two
to be able to best be able to get through the next six months.
I'm going to tackle the professional first.
So if you follow what I talk about constantly when it comes to trying to plan your year, trying
to effectuate a positive series of metrics and outcomes that we all hope for, particularly
these gift officers, you could position this if you're in the data management side, the
infrastructure side as what am I doing to help those who are trying to get to their goals?
Is that I believe in the kind of a two step process, which you can go back and listen
to in the podcast on our metrics, probably 125 or 30, maybe even 40 episodes ago, the relationship
building process around starting with a gift chart, just like we do for campaigns, getting
names in there.
So we know who are priorities.
And then the second part is, how does that affect your metrics?
At this point, even if you are in July, you should be building relationships, even if
you're starting your calendar year or your fiscal year, June, ending June 30 beginning July
first, is you should be in the process of developing relationships.
If you want to look at year end as a really strong positive, you need to ask the question,
who are my top three to maybe six, seven, eight prospects that are going to make the biggest
difference?
The data is clear from the last episode we talked about when we reviewed the giving
USA numbers to any number of episodes that I have talked about the same concept to what
I write about is we have fewer people making a bigger difference.
We live in a 95 five world, 5% of our people make up 95% of our gifts.
That's in large S in an organization.
That is large S in terms of the industry and for your portfolios, your metrics, it's
true there too.
The first step is to realize who are your top three to eight, maybe prospects that you can
prioritize for the next six months.
You want more than you think because we're going to people saying no, we have some uncertain
economic certainly with the election coming up, anticipating the massive economic demise.
I think there's going to be some consternation in the next six months to a year as we look
at spending particularly in the country.
If you're not prioritizing, if you need three great gifts, read one ratio nine, if you need
two, that six, who are your top prospects?
And if you're just counting on one or two, you're not widening the pipeline, figure out how
to build more of those opportunities.
The first is who are your top three to eight?
Let's say the second piece of that or part of that is what are the plans?
I get frustrated to be candid when I'm working with gift officers and I say great, you've identified
Randall as a key prospect that you want to figure out how to build a better relationship
with.
I think that's great.
What's your plan and they look at me and go, what do you mean?
Well, what are they interested in?
What is their passion?
So if you go back a few episodes, you can listen to the one about cultivation and maybe
a little bit of the qualification on the great questions of relationship building, what we
should be asking.
And you'll hear me say that passion needs to be the most important piece.
What are they passionate about?
Because if we can figure that out, we then can build steps.
So the first question is, what's their passion?
Number two, what are the steps to figure out where that connection lies with their passion
and what we do?
How do we be creative?
The plan should be detailed.
When you planning to see them, goals.
It's not meant to be put in concrete.
But if you're not able to say, I need to meet with them here and here to get to an ask.
We'll talk about that in a moment when that should happen.
Then you are guessing and we don't want to guess in this process.
So a detailed plan.
I need to, if I want to ask them at this date to go backwards, I need to make sure I
soft-assume at this date and then I need to figure out exactly the key cultivation.
Remember cultivation, I break it apart into two.
There's the general in the specific.
How do I get back to the specific?
I know it's exactly what I'm asking them for that meets with their expectations.
The other part of this is when to ask.
And too often we get into mid-November and I start asking questions like, okay, you're
trying to think about closing either your fiscal year out or the calendar year, even though
your fiscal year may be longer.
Most of the time, a lot of bigger gifts are made at the end of the calendar year.
And they say it's November 25th or 7th or just maybe after Thanksgiving and they say, yeah,
I need to go ask them like, well, you haven't asked them?
They haven't soft-ass them.
As I've changed my philanthropy and it's not anywhere close to large, put just in terms
of process because of the company and the way in which my wife and I choose to make
our gifts, that if you haven't asked us by about November 1st, I'm beginning that mental
process with my wife to figure out what it is we want to do.
And so if you come in on December 1st, I'm kind of like, I've got a lot of savings I've
already made just to give you a little bit of insight and a lot of other people do this.
I'm actually asking my accountant sometime around October 15th, where's our break even about
how much we should give versus how much we pay into access?
And that has more of a corporate issue than a personal issue because of the larger standard
deductions.
Like, it's process.
I'm estimating the last 75 days of the year in terms of revenue, here's where at, what should
we do?
Those things are done to protect myself, to protect my family, but they incorporate philanthropy.
So you need to be thinking about asking for that gift somewhere between October 1st and
November 10th, which means you need to go backwards, which is why we're doing the six-month uplift
now because if you plan this correctly, you may have two or three moves between now and then
to put that soft ask or that gift proposal in front of them October 20th, 24th November
1st, rather than December 1st.
I know it may not seem like much, but those 30 days, those 40 days can be the difference between
a gift at the level you think it should be versus a gift level that's okay with the donor
because they've made a prospect because they made other decisions.
So this detailed planning effect is real.
It is critically important you are planning what the stages are, the dates are, and the
goals are.
And at the end, don't forget, it's most important to ask the donor the prospect.
When is the best time to ask you?
When is the best time?
When do you make these decisions?
When would it be most opportunity to get you something so you can consider this?
So number one, that gift process or that gift chart, metrics, things of that nature in terms
of how do you build out those detailed plans?
Now we're building into detailed, using the CRM, put it on paper for the CRM, but if you
need paper, that's fine.
What are my plans, my dates, my goals for those three and eight?
That's number one.
Number two, when it comes to professional uplift, the six months review, getting ready for
the last six months is there are probably other goals that you're trying to meet.
No metrics, meetings, number of asks.
First of all, where are you at?
And then secondly, if it's not part of the three to eight, so you're kind of do that one
first and then you're going to do the second is I break it out and divide it by five.
And there's a reason not six because December can and work, but a lot of times people,
particularly the last two weeks, you're not, don't have as much access.
It's holidays.
So when this drops right at the beginning of July, evocation, it's really a five month
window that we have for really a lot of action or engagement with philanthropy conversations
with our prospects and donors.
And so at the end of the day, we need to break that metrics, whatever's left and maybe
it's for your fiscal year overlaps with the calendar year.
So it goes into December, December 31.
How many of these meetings do you need that may have been placed on there as a leading indicator
that indicates the work that you're doing?
Number one, number two is the opportunity, the option breaking this down then divided by
five.
So it gives you a realistic number.
Is it possible that we can do what we need to do?
How do I make that possible?
How do I make sure I'm not waiting to try to do as many of these things in October, November
to December, rather than look at August and September as really unbelievable kids are back at school,
people's lives settle down that I'm using that time frame to get in front of people.
So whether it's meetings, the number of asks.
So if you're an annual giving officer, this all still applies.
You top three to eight.
You got a goal of 150,000.
I got those three to eight and then I got a lot of asks at 1500, 2000.
If you're a special events person, this also
fits because we have a events back in the fall.
Maybe you want to use your target date instead of December 31.
Use it for the event on November 14th.
Flag day.
That you are looking at the opportunity of really lining up a series of moves that it's
appropriate.
So find your back end deadline.
A lot of times, December 31, but maybe special events, a little bit different.
What are my meetings, my asks, my other goals, and how do I divide that by five to figure
out what's appropriate each month?
So I have a plan.
The third.
So the first was your top three to eight.
Your number two is the rest of your metrics.
You rest your goals.
How do I break that up in maybe five bite size, chewable parts?
And then the last piece is in the professional is habits.
What are you doing every day?
What are you doing?
When it comes to showing up on time, having a fire in the belly, isolating yourself to make
phone calls, setting meetings, creating habits.
We tend too often to think of new years as a chance for new for resolution.
I think it's great, but why not use July as a reset as well to self-percephal improvement?
So my council is to think about this in a little bit different fashion.
Use July right now.
What habits are you setting for yourself?
Are you dialed in?
Are you setting time each day on your calendar or three times a week to make some phone calls
to get appointments?
Are you robustly pushing into that pipeline for opportunities not for this six months for
the next six months and the year after with board members and faculty and clinicians,
wherever you get your four points, elevations.
Are you spending time with your database team or looking at the data saying, this person
made a $1500 first time gift?
I probably should reach out and find out why they gave to us habits calendar, creating an
environment where every day there's tangible proof of the great work that you do to develop
these relationships.
So that's the professional.
Look at your top three to eight.
Look at the rest of your goals.
Make them apart divided by five kind of for December 31 ending point, either that first six
months coming off the fiscal year or it's the end of your fiscal year.
And finally, it's habits.
What are you doing every day to make sure you're productive and efficient?
And I always talk about that fire in the belly, I'm making phone calls, I'm going to see
people.
I want to spend just a minute on the personal as well that what happens in our personal
life affects what happens in our professional life.
And so it's also a good opportunity to look at to think about the personal side of our
life and how and what we're doing just as a maybe it's an affirmation, maybe it's an
in a series of improvements.
Maybe it's a reset.
There's a lot of different people in a lot of different places, but things like values
matter, who am I?
Do I like myself?
How do I improve?
You can go back and listen to episode.
I can't even tell you when about a Google you can search for it in the YouTube or Apple
or just online with around with Randall.
I look for Maslow hierarchy of needs, self-actualization.
Self-actualization doesn't mean perfection, self-actualization for my context is the ability
to look in the mirror like who you are, but no, there's ways and manners in which you can
improve.
And so I would recommend that a value check in is a good thing.
Are you doing things you want to do?
Are you doing things you should do?
Number two is relationships.
While I love the work, I love doing the podcast, I love working with clients.
The older I get the more I realize, my legacy is not this company is not these podcasts,
although there's a lot of things good lessons.
Maybe someday my kids will actually listen to my legacy is my children and my wife and
our relationships and now with my mom and my sisters.
So what are you doing to solidify that work life balance, that those priorities that should
be hopefully at home in some way, shape or form homes to find a lot of different ways?
There is no right or wrong to who that home encompasses, but we all have a home, whether
it's a dog, a family, a significant other.
What's going on there?
And how do I make sure that I'm doing the things that should be there so that I can worry about
the things I need to be doing here, office wise, business wise, professionally so I can
really focus on that.
The third is your own health.
Are you getting a chance to take care of yourself with what you eat, walk, exercise?
I would even say mental health is critically important.
One of the things you can do at home or on the way to work or maybe even at work that
allow you to be both mentally and physically healthy.
Taking time each day for those is critical.
Some come to it more naturally than others, but we all have a way in which we can be better
with taking care of ourselves.
Fourth, real quickly is financially.
Are you doing things that will allow you to be successful in the short and long term financially?
Short term, taking care of yourself, your family, your significant other, whatever responsibility
you have, long term in terms of retirement, making sure that you're in a place where you feel
really good about where you're going financially.
It's a good chance to ask questions.
Am I doing the right things?
You can always email me at podcastalflancopy.com.
I have a lot of personal conversations with because I love retirement conversations, discussions
or read a lot, not to give individuals a stock advice, but sometimes like, look, the time
value money is important.
Saving early is better than trying to save late.
You're out where you're at.
And lastly, at least for me, spiritually, religiously, more religiously, are you who you want
to be?
Are you doing things that you should be?
Do does what you do every day match whatever spirituality, religious belief system you have?
Are you living what you want to be?
There's an old saying by Zig Ziegler that I think is important as to why the personal in
these five areas, the values, the relationships, the health, mental and physical, the financial
and the spiritual or religious are all important and why they affect what's going on professionally
where I spent most of my time today.
He said, you can't truly be considered successful in your business life if your home life is
in shambles.
Zig Ziegler, I believe that.
If you don't take time to make sure you're personal, not perfect, nobody is.
But isn't well aligned, isn't taken care of, then it will affect your personal or your professional
life.
It bleeds over.
So finding balance to be able to improve and do this as I call it the six month uplift,
now both personally and professionally will come together, synergy in creating a better
six months through now, through December 31.
The hope is today gives you a chance to kind of think about that, maybe take a note or two,
contemplate, look at these things I've mentioned, how do I get myself ready so I can kill it
the next six month both personally and professionally so that I have a great Thanksgiving, a great
holidays.
And I could look in the mirror in December 31 and say, that was really good, 180 days.
Don't forget, check out the logs at Hallettphilanthropy.com, 90 second reads, two a week.
And if you'd like to reach out to me, as mentioned a few minutes ago, podcast at Halifelenthubi.com.
Well, Philanthropy, non-profit work charity, however you want to put it is going to become more
important.
I think we're in for some interesting moments to come in the next six months to a year,
maybe two.
And philanthropy fills the gaps.
You're going to be who blue ask questions, we're wondering what happened to them.
Oh, geez, it's my reminder of my favorite saying some people make things happen, some people
watch things happen, then there are those who wondered what happened.
Philanthropy, what you do, what we do.
Board member gift officer CDO, you're an executive and an nonprofit.
Volunteer, you are someone who makes things happen for people and things that are wondering
what happened.
Filling the hole between free enterprise and government.
Pretty cool because that means you're making a difference and that's what life should
be.
For you, for others, where can we help make the world a better place?
Love of mankind, definitely philanthropy.
That's what we should be in.
Thanks again for joining me today, Randall, on this edition of Around With Randall.
We'll see you next time and don't forget, make it a great day.