You gotta start where you're at

You gotta start where you're at.

That may sound overly simplistic, but my experience is that many people, especially in fundraising, want to start way ahead of where they actually are.

Here's some of the things I've heard: she gives everything away... Don't undervalue your program... You should be able to get at least $10,000 for that.

The truth is what you are selling is worth exactly what people are willing to pay and not a penny more.

A few years ago, I was selling sponsorships in the County's annual Outlook Calendar. Each sponsor got an ad across the bottom of a month in the calendar.

Before I started working there, someone had assigned a value for each sponsorship at $550.

The prior year's calendar only had one ad in it so, theoretically, the calendar only generated $550 - hardly enough to offset the cost of printing, which was the point of having ads in the first place.

I decided I was going to do whatever I had to do to sell each and every month.

I started selling them for $100 each, two for one, an ad bundled with an event sponsorship... Whatever I had to do to fill those slots.

I sold them all. I think I ended up raising about $2200 for that calendar - not a lot, but a 300% increase over the previous year.

But if I had stuck with the initial estimated value of $550 a page, I probably wouldn't have sold any of them.

I had to start where I was at to set. That way, I could set myself up for a fantastic finish.