As someone who is part of the advancement process for your institution, you are in the relationship-building business. To be successful you must work effectively and efficiently with and through others. At its core, the work is about people.
And you probably employ a task-filled “to-do” list in an effort to organize yourself and your work.
Notice anything odd about the nature of advancement work and how you organize yourself? The work is all about people, and yet, many of us organize our work around tasks.
Instead of a “to-do” list, advancement professionals should create “to-who” lists to organize ourselves and our work. Who are the donors you need to bring into a closer relationship with your institution? Who are the key staff members with whom you need to coordinate to get that email blast sent? Who are the prospects with whom you need to conduct discovery visits? Who are the Board members you need to profile?
When we replace our “to-do” lists with “to-who” lists, we not only align our efforts with the nature of advancement work, we also remind ourselves daily that we are at our best when we seek to engage the important people around us.
I LOVE THIS!!!
Total agreement: ‘It’s all about the who’ [never about the money]!