Six Fundraising Travel Headaches Gift Officers Can Say Goodbye to Forever
Everyone is familiar with these issues that pop up trip after trip. Well, not everyone. If you’ve never taken a trip explicitly to fundraise from one or more people, honestly we’re not sure why you’d have ever clicked on this article. It’s a pretty unique industry.
But for those of you that HAVE been on a fundraising trip, we’re here to compare notes and share our miseries.
And then find better ways of doing things.
Someone canceled. Now you’ve got a few hours. But…what should you do?
Alright, well, that was unexpected. Except, you’ve been on fundraising trips before so actually you absolutely expected one of your meetings would get canceled. At least. Anyway, now you’ve got time to kill. Do you:
- Twiddle your thumbs
- Find a coffee shop
- Half-heartedly scroll through Instagram
- Find a bar
All valid options. On a given day, any of could be your preferred move.
The Fix: With the EverTrue mobile app you can take that cancellation in stride. When time opens on your calendar, run a location search to find constituents in your area. Fire off a couple emails and you can schedule a new meeting to replace the one that fell through.
Who even is this person I’m talking to?
Great. You’ve got a meeting on the books. But, umm, who is this person you’re going to talk to exactly? You’re not really sure what they like about your institution. You think they can give a decent gift, but, if you’re being honest with yourself, that’s just a hunch.
The Fix: Instead of just a name on your calendar, get a full view of who you’re talking to before you walk into the room. Scan their profile page on EverTrue to get a full picture of their life: job, giving history, capacity, interactions with your institution and more.
Well. This is awkward.
There they are, across the table from you. And here you are, looking right at them. This potential donor definitely exists. And they might even have something to say…if you could ever find some common ground to get a conversation going. But no matter what you try, you just can’t get a rise out of them. After trying a dozen different topics, you’re beginning to think this whole thing was a waste of time and start scanning for the nearest exit.
The Fix: Know what they’re interested in and start a conversation that will resonate with them. EverTrue displays what social posts from your institution they’ve liked or commented on, so you know if they’re interested in the basketball team, medical research initiatives or new construction projects on campus.
No one at the office knows where you are or what you’re doing.
You’re not on vacation. You know it because your feet are definitely not in the sand and there are no crashing waves anywhere in site. But your office? They’re not so sure. No one is totally sure what you’re doing and why you’re not at your desk. And when you stroll back in a week later, they all double take and whisper to each other, “I guess he still works here after all?”
The Fix: At the touch of a button you can share your whole trip, including notes from all your meetings, with your boss or anyone else at the office. They’ll know exactly where you’re at and who you’re meeting with and get full insight into the progress you’re making on the trip. And soon, we’re adding stage tracking so they can the results of your travel after the trip is over.
Where’s the itinerary? Oh that’s right, it’s everywhere.
You’ve got a poorly-organized list of constituents in a folder. You’ve got a hotel reservation memorized. You could’ve sworn there was a very loose itinerary with directions on how to get from place to place around here a second ago.
The Fix: With EverTrue’s trip planning features you can consolidate all those logistical loose ends into one central hub for your trip, eliminating a whole bunch of toggling, saving yourself some hassle and (probably) eliminating some cursing under your breath. Leave the calendar, constituent files, directions and list of addresses behind; it’s all in EverTrue now.
Pretty sure I’m just driving around this city aimlessly.
When it’s your first time in a new city, everything is uncharted territory. You’re unfamiliar with shortcuts or traffic patterns and, honestly, all these blocks look exactly the same to you. When it comes down to it, we’ve all simply crossed our fingers and hoped we’d make it to the next meeting on time more than once.
The Fix: The EverTrue mobile app has Google Maps and Waze built right into it, so you can pull all your meetings on to one map and get directions between each one. No more toggling between apps or simply hoping you’ll get there on time. You’ll know exactly how long it takes to get from location to location.
