Even better

Here in north Texas, at the local non-profit where I serve on the board, we wrapped up our big annual fundraiser, weekend before last.

Imagine my pleasure to get this email from our executive office this morning:

Congratulations on another successful Starfish Benefit! We've received many positive reviews from attendees.

We would appreciate your feedback on the event. Please share your thoughts with me so I can compile them for our next board meeting ...

Well! Someone here understands the value of a post-operation review!

Sure, there's the question of whether we’ve met our fundraising goals for the event (final numbers are still pending, but we're at least very close). That's always important.

But I see something that's potentially even more valuable:

Capturing lessons learned from the entire event — from planning to execution to follow-up — to make it even more likely that we'll hit our goals on future events.

That's part of the value of aiming for measurable goals, whether it’s fundraising or anything else: not just measuring whether you've met the goal, but learning what you did right, what you did wrong, and (right or wrong) what you could do even better.

All the best,
A.