Your donor database is a junk drawer. Names from 2014. Bouncing emails. A $10,000 donor getting the same letter as a raffle ticket buyer from 2017. You're spending energy on people who aren't there and underinvesting in the ones who are. Three steps: audit who's actually here, fill in the gaps (and make it a touchpoint), and sort everyone into buckets. Your list IS the sexy. Time to clean it.

If your nonprofit board won't fundraise, your donors are ghosting you, and you're running a one-person shop on fumes—you're not failing. You might just be in MAYDAY mode. Here's what to do about it.