I’ve often wondered why New Year’s Resolutions come so closely after the busy Christmas holiday season. All the time and energy that goes into selecting presents, cooking wonderful food, and decorating like Martha Stewart, not to mention year-end appeals, Christmas celebrations for students, and all the crises that the holidays invariably bring, who has time to really consider what and how we want to live this new year differently? Alas, New Year’s Day has come and gone and my resolutions are still in my head floating around, waiting to find life for themselves on paper. This deadline is forcing me to put them into workable goals. It’s my hope that you can take these resolutions and make them yours for 2011 also.

1. I resolve to set a schedule and stick to it. With all the other things that you have to do, it’s easy to push writing aside, but if your fundraising writing is procrastinated enough, you may miss a month entirely and that always leads to a drop in donations for the month. It actually is less stressful to have a schedule for the entire year and know what’s ahead.
2. I resolve to tell more stories. Story telling isn’t a new concept, but a well-developed story that others want to retell is the most successful form of social media, whether it’s spread face-to-face, using facebook, or twitter. Start with a conflict, develop the conflict, and resolve the conflict; the basic formula for stories, novels, and movies is the most powerful way to capture attention and motivate your audience to act.
3. I resolve to talk about people, not problems. Your donors know they can’t stop all drug abuse in the United States, but they know they can help change a life. Show them a life that has been changed by talking about a person, not how many drug users are in the US.
4. I resolve to be more emotional. We are emotional people, no matter how some may claim differently. Facts and figures play into some of the decision process, but it’s the emotional appeal that causes people to act.
5. I resolve to be a person, not a ministry. The letter needs to be personal, from an actual person. People relate to people, not institutions or committees. Use singular pronouns; I or me, not us or we.
6. I resolve to be less modest (about what God is doing through Teen Challenge). Use an active voice, and action verbs instead of passive text. Teen Challenge has lots of wonderful people working with our students. When telling the stories, use their names; it makes the stories more real.
7. I resolve to write to an individual. Always address your donor as an individual. Remember you’re one person writing a personal  letter to another person. Use the pronoun you a lot!
8. I resolve to tell what a donation buys. Anytime you can explain specifically what the donation will do, it increases the likely-hood of receiving a donation. Donors like concrete specifics, not abstracts. “Help with our Christmas Outreach” is an abstract concept, but “A gift of $35.00 buys a Christmas gift for one of our student’s children” is a concrete example of what their donation buys.
9. I resolve to use more pictures and less text as a presenter. Whenever you have an opportunity to speak to a group, remember that YOU are the most important thing in front of the crowd. Your Power Point presentation should use mostly pictures with you telling the story, not text. If you have text in front of the audience many times they will tune you out and read.  Don’t insult their intelligence by reading slides to them. Your visuals should support you, not the other way around. If you must give large amounts of facts and figures, consider a handout after the presentation; you don’t want them flipping through it during your presentation.
10. I resolve to work to be more healthy! Make little changes to eat healthier and start moving more! Do something nice for someone and for yourself.  Ok, this one may not sound like it fits in for your ministry goals, but if you’re not taking care of yourself who is going to check to see how you stuck to your resolutions when 2012 rolls around next year!