Consistent Planned Giving success is a long-term proposition.

That makes short-term goal setting so important.

To be clear, I’m not referring to dollar-figure targets. Those are for mature Planned Giving programs.

I’m talking about incremental goals to get your new Planned Giving program off the ground — and on a steady trajectory to success.

Here are 5 achievable goals to set your sights on:

Identify your Top Prospects: I spend a lot of time in the early phase of Planned Giving Accelerator talking about how to zero in on your best prospects. These are your folks most likely to convert from prospect to donor.

Solicit a select group of Top Prospects: Identify a certain number of top prospects you will solicit over a set period of time. Think quality over quantity. Be thoughtful, not scattershot. Eventually, you’ll get to everyone.

Identify your Tier II Prospects: Establish a target number to identify within a specific timeframe. Once complete, you’ll solicit these folks as a group, typically by direct mail or email.

Brief your board: Commit to updating your board every six months or so. Getting this meeting on the calendar motivates you to stay on track with your other goals, helping insure progress.

Launch your recognition society: Even if you have not received any Planned Giving commitments, it’s not too early to start thinking about how you will recognize your donors when gift commitments start coming. But, you don’t need your recognition society in place to begin identifying and soliciting your prospects.

The bottom line: Taking a step-by-step, goal-oriented approach early on, will put you on a path to consistent Planned Giving success over time.

We talk about all of this, methodically, in Planned Giving Accelerator.

Thanks for being with me.