It’s that time of the year when you might rely on checklists to ensure you complete all of your “must do” items. Hey, Santa isn’t the only one who needs project management help! While your fiscal calendars are likely more aligned with your funding sources than the calendar year, here are some important tasks you can complete to wrap up 2023.
Nonprofit End-of-Year Checklist:
Thank Your Donors
November can’t expect to be the only month when we focus on gratitude. Pull updated mailing lists for donor thank you messages. What would we do without our generous donors?
Bring Your Data to Life
Find your best stories! Look for clients you can feature in End of the Year appeals. Work with your organization to capture anecdotal stories or quotes to make your data come to life.
Use Salesforce to Measure Impact
Measure how many clients you served in 2023 and assess your impact across programs to share out in materials. Put Salesforce to work for you!
Get Your Annual Report Ready
Work with staff to ensure all data is up-to-date for end-of-year reports. Even if you are on a different fiscal year, you may need to put out an Annual Report on the calendar year. Prepare important data metrics, such as the targets you reached.
Look Back at Your Annual Plans
Many times the calendar year end is a halfway point to measure against annual plans and annual budgets. This is a good time to “true-up” the plan and make any necessary changes.
Secure Funding & Foundation Awards
Remember that mailing list? Get that ready for appeals. According to Nonprofits Source, 30% of all annual giving occurs in December, and 10% of that happens within the last three days of the year. (https://nonprofitssource.com/online-giving-statistics/). It is also the time of year to secure large foundation awards that often run on a calendar year. (https://nonprofitssource.com/online-giving-statistics/). It is also the time of year to secure large foundation awards that often run on a calendar year.
Aside from checking items off your list, please remember to reflect upon all the amazing work you and your colleagues have done this year. We at Provisio thank you for your dedication; your work inspires us – not just at the end of the year, but every single day.
“To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.”
― Ralph Waldo Emerson
Marjorie lives in Saint Louis, Missouri. She received her Master’s degree in English from Truman State University. Her responsibilities at Provisio Partners include content creation and technical writing.