Summer Slowdown or Strategic Advantage?

Welcome back to NPQ’s fundraising advice column, Ask Rhea. Rhea Wong is a fundraising expert and professional coach, exuberant author of Get That Money, Honey!, host of the Nonprofit Lowdown podcast, and an unfailingly encouraging voice in a sometimes-bleak landscape. Rhea wants you to succeed, and she’s here to answer your questions.

In today’s issue, Rhea talks about why the quiet months are actually your biggest strategic advantage, and the three things you should be doing right now to set up a strong fall.

Have a fundraising question? Send it to this submission form and choose “Fundraising“ from the drop-down menu.

Dear Rhea,

Every summer, my fundraising grinds to a halt. Donors are on vacation, my board is off the grid, and I can’t get a meeting to save my life. Part of me thinks I should just accept it, catch up on paperwork, and pick things back up after Labor Day.

What do I actually do in the summertime?

It feels like fundraising is taking a break, and I’m honestly not sure if I should, too.

Summertime Stressin’

Dear Summertime Stressin’,

Donors don’t disappear in the summer. Fundraisers do.

I know the story. The autoreplies start in June, the Board goes quiet, and everyone in the sector collectively decides that nothing happens until September. So, we all stop reaching out around the same time, and then wonder why the fall feels like a cold start.

Flip it around.

If every other nonprofit in your donors’ lives goes silent for eight weeks, the fundraiser who shows up in July has the whole field to themself. No gala invitations competing for attention. No year-end appeal pileup. Just you, a donor with a lighter calendar, and time to talk.

The gifts that close in December are built in July. The major gift you close in November started with a summer conversation. That’s not magic. That’s lead time.

I learned this the hard way. When I ran Breakthrough New York, summer wasn’t slow for us. It was our busiest season because we ran summer programs. I spent July up to my eyeballs delivering pizzas and t-shirts to kids, which felt urgent and mission-critical—and honestly kind of fun. What I was not doing was preparing for the fall. When September hit, I was already starting the fundraising year exhausted and behind.

This happened just about every year.

Don’t make my mistake.

Whether your summer is dead quiet or slammed with programming, the trap is identical: fall prep doesn’t happen, and you pay for it in Q4. Because the gifts that close in December are built in July. The major gift you close in November started with a summer conversation. That’s not magic. That’s lead time.

The math maths. A major gift takes months of genuine relationship to close well. If you wait until October to start, you’re not cultivating. You’re begging on a deadline.

The Summertime Strategy

So no, you don’t take the summer off. You use it—and here are three things you can do right now.

1. Run a portfolio review.

Before you make a single call, look at your caseload with cold eyes. Who is advancing toward a gift? Who has been sitting in “cultivation” for two years with nothing to show for it? Who do you keep meeting with because they’re nice, not because they’re moving?

Water the flowers, not the weeds. Pull your list and sort it into three buckets:

• Advancing
• Stalled
• Polite dead weight

Then cut (or park) the bottom third and reinvest that time in your top 25. Fewer relationships, deeper attention, bigger gifts. This is the single highest-value thing you can do in a quiet week, and almost nobody does it because it never feels urgent.

If it’s not on the scorecard, it didn’t happen. Your summer portfolio review is the scorecard reset for the back half of the year.

2. Book the fall before the fall arrives.

Here’s what kills me: fundraisers spend September scrambling to fill October, and October scrambling to fill November. By the time the calendar fills, the year is over.

Do it backwards. Use July to lock in your August and September meetings. Warm prospects only, no cold outreach. Aim for eight to 12 donor calls a week and a simple target: 15 to 20 donor meetings on the books by September 1.

Summer meetings should be easier to get, not harder. Donors have breathing room. Suggest iced coffee, a walk, a call from the porch. Low stakes meetings. No asks, only connection.

“I’d love to catch up before the fall craziness hits,” is one of the easiest meeting requests you will ever send.

3. Steward like it’s December.

Summer is for gratitude with no strings attached. Send the mid-year impact update. Write the handwritten note. Make the five-minute call that says “your gift did this, and I wanted you to hear it from me.” Take the time to provide the proof that you see them as a person, not an ATM.

Then, with your best prospects, do one more thing: ask permission for the fall conversation. Something like, “We’re planning something big for next year and I’d value your perspective. Can I come to you in September to share it?” Now your October meeting isn’t an ambush. It’s an appointment they agreed to. Consent before the ask, every time.

One more thing: Do take your vacation. Rest is part of the job, and a burned-out fundraiser in December helps no one.

But remember that rest and disappearance are two different things. So, block your mornings for calls, take your afternoons at the lake, and come back to a fall calendar that’s already full.

The fundraisers who close big gifts in December are the ones who did the unglamorous work in July while your competition went quiet.

Get loud,

Rhea

You can find more insights and resources from Rhea at rheawong.com.