Asker Morning Routine

Morning routines are important. Why? Some of us use a routine to ease into the day, it may be a ritual we created some time ago - a habit, or simply the order in which we do things. Whether we know it or not, our routine is a way to achieve small successes. These small wins create a sense of accomplishment first thing in the morning. And this sense of accomplishment creates a positive, forward momentum that can carry us through the whole day.

As askers, what can we do to experience some early morning fundraising success?

Give the routine below a go. Perform it in the prescribed order to launch yourself into your day with energy and flow.

1. Calendar
   What's on the docket for the day? Check you calendar quickly to see if anything has been added or rescheduled.
   
2. Email
   For better or worse, email is our main communication channel these days. Make your inbox the second stop of your day and reply to two important fundraising emails. Knowing I have tackled something important early in the day that could lead to something good always helps me approach the rest of my day with a bit of excitement.
   
3. RE NXT Work Center
   The Work Center in RE NXT (in the menu bar go to Fundraising>Work) is what I like to call an expanded portfolio. It's a one-stop shop to check fundraising goals and stats for Constituents, Actions, Gifts, and Opportunities. Making this your third stop of the morning will help you see where you've been, where you need to go, and what your plan should be for the day.
4. RE NXT Lists
   If you can work with Lists in RE NXT (in the menu bar go to Lists), you can get around the rest of the system with ease. This is where you dig into more detail on what you saw in your Work Center. You can create custom Action, Constituent, Gift, and Opportunity lists.
5. RE NXT Standard Dashboards
   After you have a plan for your fundraising activities via your Work Center and Lists, check out your standard dashboards (in the menu bar go to Fundraising>Reporting). This will give you a higher level view of your fundraising progress within a date range of your choosing. You can see your progress by, among other ways, Campaigns, Funds, and/or Appeals.

Our objective here is to create a series of small wins. For askers who aren't in the database much the win might be, "Hey! I logged into the database and did some stuff." For askers who do work in the system more often the win might be, "Hey. I get to cross my dashboard review off my list for the day." Regardless of the type of win, the energy created by it can help create a state of fundraising flow, momentum.

This morning routine lives mainly in RE NXT, but you can build a fundraising hub or expanded portfolio in most, if not all, modern donor management systems.

Our goals unfold as small wins over time. Anything we do to ensure these small wins helps us move closer to our ultimate objective of raising money in support of our organization's mission...in a state of fundraising flow.