One of my favorite authors, Walt Wangerin Jr., is a man after my own heart, especially when he’s talking about the weather and seasons. He’s been known to say, “I distrust spring.” I fully empathize with Walt as we live in similar climates. He lives in Indiana and I am right next door in Illinois.

This is the April issue of Donor Focus, which means you are receiving it in a highly unpredictable weather month in the Northern Tier of the United States and Canada. I can literally look out my office window and see it snowing sideways, raining heavily, and even enjoy beautiful sun . . . all in the same day!

So, to the uninitiated, it may seem an odd time to be considering the perils of “Summer Slump” in the world of fundraising. But this is exactly the right time of year to be finalizing your summer fundraising strategies . . . while you still have time to do something to impact those warm, lazy, and lean giving months.

In this issue, our SVPs of Client Services, Christa Huff and Keith Cleghorn, weigh in. Christa encourages you to bolster your summer giving through Five Key Pieces to integrating a summer campaign and Keith, joined by our Director of Data Services, Mark Mangin, helps you Prepare Your Data for Summer Success.

But there’s more!

Our Seattle based Creative Director considers summer in his article It’s a Good Time to Get Your Donors Back. This is a very helpful article on how to reactivate lapsed donors.

My own contribution to this issue is Rule #7 from The Rules of Fundraising, The Only Thing That Matters Is Does It Work? Here I offer a strategy that, if your back is to the wall, will raise significant donations in a short time.

Bringing up the rear is our own Wiley Stinnett. If you’re a frequent reader of Donor Focus, you already know our reigning veteran fundraiser always delivers and he does it again in his article Keep Your Major Donor Relationships SIZZLING.

May the Lord bless you with your best summer of giving ever!