It’s that time of year again.

That time when lots of people start making New Year’s resolutions.

Which reminds me – I saw a funny cartoon today where two dogs were talking. One dog said “What’s a new year’s resolution?” The second dog said “It’s a To Do list for the first week of January.”

Sad, but true.

I don’t know about you, but I find it easier to make resolutions that to stick to them. And they wind up being “shoulds” instead of things I really want to change.

So, how about we change it a bit?

How about this: instead of making a resolution that starts today, let’s create a fundraising vision for where we want to be a year from now.

I had a coach a few years back who encouraged me to do this. It seemed a little silly to me at the time, but I did it.

She had me write a letter to myself from the me of one year from now, telling the me of today all the amazing things that happened over the year. It was really a sneaky way of setting an intention, because what it did was let me dream about the things I wished for.

You want to know the strangest part?

Absolutely everything happened that year!

Yep, everything I wrote about to myself in that letter came true.

Doesn’t seem so silly now, does it?

Why don’t you try it? I’ll give you some questions to get you started  creating a fundraising vision for yourself:

  • Where will you be one year from now? What will be different for you?
  • How much money will you have raised?
  • How many new donors will you have brought on?
  • What accolades will you have gotten from your Board? What will they be doing to help a year from now that they aren’t doing now?
  • How many times did you get your organization in the news?
  • Did you get a raise? More time off?
  • What really amazing thing happened that knocked your socks off?

Oh, and I suggest you hand write this one. There’s just something about putting pen to paper that gets the magic flowing.

After you write the letter, stick it in your desk or in your planner, then make a note on your calendar to go read it one year from today.

By the way, this is a great exercise to do with your staff or Board to get them all involved in the creation process for your fundraising vision.