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It’s kind of an uncomfortable question: Have you ever failed? Has your campaign missed the mark? Did you ever have to scramble for a Plan B – or Plan C? I’ve been there. And while it hurts like heck in the moment, you learn as much, or more, from failures than success. What have I learned?

As a cyclist, I have never really looked forward to the winter months. I’m fine with riding in cold weather (it’s all about the layers), but the real challenge comes from the shorter hours of daylight. Night riding on the roads of New Jersey is unsafe and unnerving to say the least!

One of the more challenging aspects of annual fundraising for a nonprofit never fails to surprise me, and it’s a by-product of past success.

Being a fundraising volunteer isn’t easy. One of the main reasons why is that it is so personal. It’s you, connecting with your peers, possibly even your friends or family, to ask them to be generous towards a cause you believe in. For even the most passionate volunteer, the experience can be a little nerve-wracking.

A lifetime of personal and professional goal setting has taught me that it is critically important to properly define success before setting goals or making resolutions.

A lot of the nonprofits we work with are well-established organizations. They have a good grip on best practices and they execute the basic principles of fundraising well. But just as a start up can shake up a whole industry, so can a new nonprofit teach all of us old hands a few things.

I’m not great at resolutions. I have great intentions, just lousy follow through. After all my years I have learned that the higher I set my sights, the less opportunity I have to succeed. So I keep expectations low and generally feel better about how things turn out. I may not be a better or healthier person, but I won’t have failed so often in my goals.

There is no shortage of things to read in this day and age. Sometimes I feel like I’m drinking from a fire hydrant of information! I am constantly scanning the digital inbox for the next report due date, meeting confirmation, or to-do project. Then, I move to the newsletters, blogs and websites. Too often I find myself hitting delete even though the content may be valuable, or relocating to a folder with plans to read later. And then there’s all the reading material that still comes in my real mailbox!

A few summers back while on vacation with friends I learned a great lesson. Well…two actually. The first was that cell phones and salt water don’t mix (and that phone insurance is a good thing). The second lesson came a few days later, about 48 hours after the phone-meets-ocean thing.

This January, the Donor By Design Team is offering a series of resolutions: Strategies and commitments to enhance your ability to connect with donors and generate support for your important work. 

Fifty years ago, Charles Schultz gave us kids something special, “A Charlie Brown Christmas.” And some five decades later, three or more generations continue to watch Charlie Brown’s droopy tree finally stand upright.