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Managing email and what it can teach fundraisers. 1

Fundraising | Adrian Beney | 29 Jan 2009

I think I learned a lesson this week: it’s more of a time management lesson than a fundraising one, but it has important implication for fundraisers.

Before Christmas I had a couple of weeks away from work during which time the inbox stacked up. Quite badly.  And most of the incoming email needed answers too; my current email address has remained mercifully free of spam, and I don’t use it for all those friendly marketing messages from people like Mr Johnnie Boden (although I do get the Charity News Alert from those nice people at Plaza Publishing).

So then there was Christmas, and the resolution to deal with the inbox between then and New Year was soon lost in the melee of Nine Lessons and Carols in Durham Cathedral (twice),  three children, seeing relatives, walking the dog and so on.

As January 5th arrived and my clients got back to work in earnest, the inbox got worse. 110 emails and some of them not even read, let alone answered. Oh for my wife’s Mac which neatly highlights emails which are related to each other (I know Outlook has different ways of viewing email but none of it as nice as the Mac.)  It was time to bite the bullet. I worked out how to view the email grouped by sender. That helped.

Then – revelation – I decided not to answer a lot of the emails at all.  Instead I picked up the phone and dealt with four emails at once by having one conversation with the person who had sent me four different emails about four different things.  And even better – they didn’t email me back.  There are still 16 emails in my inbox, but none of these are unread, and everything is in hand.

So what have I learned from this?

Firstly, ordering email by sender (or subject) is really quite an efficient way of dealing with the incoming stuff.  But much more importantly, even in this digital age with photos of aeroplanes landing in the Hudson twittered around the world in seconds, there’s still no substitute for having a conversation with someone in real time. It’s more efficient (I can talk faster than I type), it’s more personal and it’s more fun.

And the lessons for fundraisers?  Don’t be afraid of talking to people.  If a direct mail gift comes in that’s bigger than average, pick up the phone and thank the donor.  If a complaint comes in by letter or email, pick up the phone and talk to the person, if a board member wants a briefing on something, do it in person.  

I’m an enthusiast for all that digital communication gives us, (this was written on the train and posted using National Express’s free WiFi service)  but it can de-personalise us too.

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