It’s fundraising season!  And I bet you’re busy thinking about all kinds of things from fundraising letters to end-of-year activities.

If you really want to set yourself up for success for fundraising in the last quarter of 2010, take some time to plan your activities.  This will move you from being reactive to being proactive, and you’ll be much more likely to hit your goals.

Since most nonprofits send a fundraising letter during this time of year, I thought I’d share a tool I use and recommend to make it easier. (We’re all interested in easier, right?).

Create a production schedule for getting your letter ready and in the mail.  Start with the date you want the letters to arrive in your readers’ mailboxes, then work backward.  Allow time for stuffing the envelopes, time for printing, time for proofing, time for editing, and time for writing.  You’ll find that you need to start anywhere from several days to several weeks ahead depending on the number of letters you plan to send.  Here’s a more graphical way to create a production schedule:

(This particular schedule works for a nonprofit with a small list and they plan to print and mail the letters themselves)