Opportunity Cost

Where are you putting your time and energy? There is an opportunity cost there. When you sail a boat, you have big sails and little sails. Where is the wind already blowing in the big sails? You don’t want to look at the little sail and say that you’re going to put all your energy into this tiny sail to move your big sailboat forward. But I do this all the time.

Please list your largest donors from largest to smallest. Even if these are donors to regain (meaning they have given, but it was years ago). Now consider how much bandwidth you have. Consider the amount of time you can allocate to donor development and everything else you need to do. It will be much easier to reach your giving goal by regaining and multiplying your largest donors because it is just a truth that it is much easier to make a big thing more significant than a small thing big.

I know what you’re thinking. There are only so many big donors. I have learned that when I’ve had this mindset, I focused on the wrong thing. It is about streamlining my time and resources, putting them into the Big Sails, and how to grow the wind in that sail. It’s a choice of doubling down on what’s working or spreading yourself evenly as wide as possible. Eventually, you will break down from the stress if you spread yourself out.