I hope you found Part 1 of this series helpful in understanding how goals can go bad. In it, we discussed the negative consequences that will happen if management doesn’t take into account the full picture of what is going on with each portfolio of donors.
Whenever we start working with a new client to help straighten out their major gift program, we start talking about goals – and most of the time the MGOs get really nervous. Why? Because over their career, they have been “beaten up” by managers who use goals to punish. In that “punishment culture” you create all kinds of dysfunction, like MGOs trying to figure out how to make it look like they’ve met their goals when they really haven’t.
My goodness, we’ve seen some elaborate ways to “cook the books.” Now, obviously that’s not good, but it’s most likely happening because the leadership of the non-profit has created this dysfunctional culture.
Can you please stop it? Instead, try to understand this about goal setting:

1. You need them. Setting goals helps the organization to budget. It also allows you to have a basis for your plans and the resources it will take to make your goals. Management needs to budget, and appropriate goal setting will feed into it.
2. They have to be reasonable. Goals have to be based on something: previous giving behavior, understanding the donor’s intent for the next year, capacity of the donor, etc. Many MGOs get into trouble when they bite off more than they can chew. Don’t fall into this trap.
3. You have to set goals you cannot attain. What? Doesn’t this contradict point #2? Think of it as YES/AND. Yes, they need to be reasonable goals, AND you also need a stretch goal that only you and one other person know about. It’s the kind of goal where, if you could really know the passion and interest of the donor and could match that up with a great program, you could realize that great gift.
4. You need to cash-flow them. Why? Because this allows both the MGO and the manager to understand on a monthly basis where the MGO is, in relation to the goal. It also allows everyone to ask, “Why are you or why are you not on goal? Not in a way to make the MGO defensive, but to have a reasonable, adult conversation. And it allows the manager to know how to manage the MGO, giving them insight to know if the MGO is really working the plan.
5. In Major Gifts, goals can easily be surpassed or not met. What I mean is that in major gifts, revenue can be volatile. Someone on your caseload receives an inheritance, and their one huge gift has you surpassing your goal. That’s not real. Or one of your donors who gives $100k per year suddenly dies. You don’t make your goal. That’s not real either. Performance of an MGO cannot solely be about attaining the revenue goal.
6. Goals should be your friend If you can look at goal setting as a positive way for you to be successful, you will be successful. I know it – I’ve seen it happen over and over. Embrace goal setting within the context of all that is going on around your donors.

Gosh, I hope Katherine (the MGO whose story I told in Part 1) doesn’t get too discouraged and quit this profession. She is so good. She may need to leave that manager if he doesn’t wise up, but I don’t want to see good people leave the profession because someone used goal setting all wrong.
Be smart, use goal setting the right way, and you will see good things happen.
Jeff