What To Do When You Hit Your Goal Early

by Bill Scott
The Bill Scott Group

I travel throughout the year doing a lot of fundraisers through Share Media Services. Whatever you decide to call your fundraiser, pledge drive, donor drive, sharathon, we want your money drive etc... The dream at each event that I go to is to reach the goal early. This Spring I was blessed to be at a few sharathons that hit their goal early.

As great as it is to hit your goal early it does bring up the question...what now? What you do next could be huge for your station, both good or bad.

You have to learn to read your fundraiser in order to make the right decision should the time come that you hit your goal early and hopefully you will.

• It's the last day of your fundraiser, you are going to 6pm and it's 3pm. You hit the goal but you hit it with few listeners on the phone giving but praise God you made it through the finish line. I have had station managers ask me what do we do now? We still have three or four hours to go. My response; Pack it up and end with a huge victory. Why? Because you just coasted past the finish line. It wasn't an explosion. You can go from a huge victory, ending early, as a historic event and move on or watch it fall flat on its face because you continue and have listeners remember that you didn't hit your goal. I know it was your second goal, your special project, but people will just remember the goal was missed. This turns a victory into a failure and that is something you and your station don't want.
• Ok, lets take the same scenario: It's the last day, you are going to 6pm, it's three in the afternoon but this time as you are about to go through the finish line, the phones are packed out. The energy for giving is amazing. You can tell your donor pool goes deep and you have yet to reach the bottom. You hit the goal, the staff goes wild and yet the phones continue to ring. That shows me that there's more pent up giving. I would quickly set up an obtainable goal to take you to the very end of sharathon. Find a special project that your listeners can connect too. Look at what you have been raising for the last couple of hours. Knowing this can help guide you to what is possible for your special project. Now your station can have a double win.

Everybody wants to be part of a winning team. That's why it's so important to know what to do when the goal is hit early.

I would love to hear your feedback as always. Have you hit the goal early? What did you do that worked, or failed.

The good news is, as the new fundraising season begins this September, stations have been hitting their goals around the country. Listeners are giving. I'll be doing a lot of fundraisers this fall through Share Media and I expect a wonderful season of fundraising ahead. Continue to plant the seeds now so there is something to harvest this fall.