You may be able to raise the minimum $350 for the Trek Tri Island, just be going out and talking with a few friends. And if that's your goal, then you may not need to do much planning. But to raise significant amounts of money, particularly if you're working on the Climb for Clean Air, then taking a few minutes to outline the steps you will take to get you to your goal will help. Once you know what specific steps you can take, the whole task will look less daunting because you can focus on taking the first steps.

Setting out a simple plan that maps the steps you will take, and roughly when you will take them, will prove to be a very helpful thing to do in several ways. First, it breaks the task up into manageable "chunks." Many people find that standing back looking at the whole task of raising $3500 for the Climb for Clean Air seems overwhelming. But simply drafting a letter is something you can accomplish immediately. Further, completing each task in your plan will provide a sense of accomplishment, even when money isn't flowing in (and there may be dry spells). Third, when you get bogged down and begin to feel a bit lost, going back and just taking a step, making three phone calls to set up lunch dates, for example, will help get you started again.

Once you decide which strategic resources are likely to be most helpful to you, then decide specifically how you will go about working with each. A letter followed by a phone call, or perhaps lunch with each person on your list of personal contacts is probably your first general approach. So when will you write the letter? When will you begin making phone calls? With whom will you start?

If making a tight written plan with steps spelled out and deadlines works for you, then by all means make one. If you're more of a "back of the envelop" planner, that will work as well. The form of the plan is less important than that it be well thought out and provide you with the specific steps you need to take to accomplish your goal. As long as, at any point in time, you know what your next step is, you've got the plan you need.

Planning Outline

1. Strategic Resource
2. Steps required to utilize the resource.
3. Timeline - when will each step be accomplished (look out, here, for interdependencies: what needs to go before what)?
4. Who is responsible? (Remember if you're going to depend on someone else to do something, then the first step is you asking them to do it.)

With a plan in place, now look at ways of expanding your contacts through Six Degrees of Separation, develop some specific fundraising ideas for further exploration, or check out the sample letters to give you some ideas about writing your own.