{"id":75101,"date":"2026-05-06T12:01:42","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T16:01:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nonprofitpro.com\/?post_type=article&p=75101"},"modified":"2026-05-06T12:01:42","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T16:01:42","slug":"top-fundraisers-dont-do-more-they-do-less-on-purpose","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/www.nonprofitpro.com\/article\/top-fundraisers-dont-do-more-they-do-less-on-purpose\/","title":{"rendered":"Top Fundraisers Don\u2019t Do More \u2014 They Do Less on Purpose"},"content":{"rendered":"

In most fundraising shops, the calendar is packed — but the results don’t always match the activity. Reports get written. Events get planned. Meetings fill the day. But it’s harder to say what actually moved a donor.<\/span><\/p>\n

That disconnect — between visible effort and real impact — was at the center of the session, “How Top Fundraisers Work Differently (And How You Can Too),” at <\/span>AFP ICON 2026<\/span><\/a> with Alice Ferris, ACFRE, CFRE, partner at <\/span>GoalBusters Consulting<\/span><\/a> and Chad Barger, ACFRE, CFRE, owner and chief strategist at <\/span>Productive Fundraising<\/span><\/a>. Top fundraisers, they<\/span> argued, don’t win by doing more. They win by protecting their capacity, eliminating low-value work, and building systems they can sustain.<\/span><\/p>\n

“In fundraising, we do a lot of stuff,” Barger said. “We’re not really sure if it’s the right stuff.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Start With What’s Actually Broken\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n

To be productive, fundraisers need time, energy, and attention — and when one is missing, the work breaks down.<\/span><\/p>\n

“I’m usually [lacking] attention,” Barger said. “[I have] pretty good self care, have OK time, but sometimes I just sit down and I just can’t get it done.”<\/span><\/p>\n

“For me, it’s usually energy because I’m constantly on the little hamster wheel, and I am very bad about taking time for rest and re-energizing,” Ferris added.<\/span><\/p>\n

1. Time — Control Your Capacity<\/span><\/h3>\n

The first shift top fundraisers make is treating their capacity as finite. Ferris recommends a simple one-week time audit to understand where your time actually goes.<\/span><\/p>\n

Personally, Ferris learned how often she had played Gardenscapes on her phone.<\/span><\/p>\n

“And so I uninstalled it, and it was amazing how many hours I got back,” she said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

For others, Barger said, the usual outcome is how much time is spent in meetings.<\/span><\/p>\n

The fix isn’t complicated. Every meeting should have a decision to make. If it doesn’t, speak up.<\/span><\/p>\n

“If you see this happening, simply say, ‘It looks like we need a little bit more information here,” he said. “‘Something’s missing. We don’t have it. We need to make this decision. Who’s going to do what by when to ensure that when we meet again, we can move it forward?’”<\/span><\/p>\n

From there, top fundraisers schedule donor work like it matters — because it does. Time blocking has helped Ferris write development assessment reports for 20 public radio stations that had lost federal funding. Otherwise, she admits, she wouldn’t have waited until the day they were due.<\/span><\/p>\n

“Does that mean I bumped some meetings? Yes, it did,” she said. “Does it mean that there were things that I didn’t take on because the time was blocked out? Absolutely.”<\/span><\/p>\n

2. Attention — Eliminate Pseudo-Fundraising Boondoggles<\/span><\/h3>\n

The second shift is harder, but top fundraisers can let go of work that looks productive but isn’t.<\/span><\/p>\n

Barger calls it “pseudo-fundraising,” borrowing from<\/span> Cal Newport’s concept of pseudo-productivity<\/span><\/a> — “the illusion of progress through visible but ineffective effort.”<\/span><\/p>\n

In nonprofit terms, that includes:<\/span><\/p>\n