Every nonprofit is busy. We almost wear our resource constraints like a badge – recognizing how much we can get done with so little. But, it’s important to remember we are able to accomplish so much through exceptional planning. Every day we assess how to best manage resources, navigate the calendar and anticipate factors that could impact our best-laid plans.

When embarking on a major project, such as replacing your fundraising system, general ledger or other mission-critical system, we must apply the same diligence to the project as we would to our work throughout the year. Time and time again, we see the same critical variables to project timeline go unaccounted for. We underestimate the level of effort to run the project, do not double-check the calendar against the work or miss vendor dependencies, and our project timelines suffer.

Here are five critical timeline variables to consider:

1. Account for fundraising cycles

Fundraising is a year-round activity, but for most of us there are significant peaks. We might have an event season, end-of-year fundraising or we might simply have a steady stream of appeals throughout the year. Assessing the impact of the fundraising calendar is critical to accurately determining the project timeline as key resources will be unavailable or downtime of mission-critical systems will be unacceptable.

When building your project timeline we would recommend baking major fundraising milestones directly into the project plan. While not technically project activities, this approach will help you navigate resources around key fundraising periods and proactively mitigate the impact on the project.

2. Understand your project management capacity

Time required to manage a project well is almost always underestimated. There are the regular meetings – weekly team meetings, monthly executive meetings and immersive discovery, design and testing sessions. There is a flood of communication that, even if exceptionally well organized, will require quick attention to stay on top. And there are periodic, proactive efforts such as managing or monitoring risk.

Few nonprofit organizations have a dedicated Project Management Office with the skills and experience to manage a complex project. Without this experience, organizations need to account for the learning curve of the individual designated to manage the project. They will need time to ramp-up on project management practices.

3. Plan for resource lead-time (especially on vendor-side)

Projects can take a long time to get approved. But, once approved the expectation is often that work will commence immediately. After months – or even years – of waiting, everything must begin tomorrow. Unfortunately, this is not how project resourcing happens, especially if you are engaging an external vendor who will require resource lead-time. (See: Four Things to Know About Vendor Resource Challenges)

We would recommend building 4-6 weeks into the front of the project prior to formally kicking off the project to account for resource lead-time. As a project manager you can make great use of this time by bolstering your project plan with additional risk response planning, shoring up your project governance model and filling in any gray areas in the project management plan.

4. Plan for summer and the holidays

Every year I find myself looking at the slow summer months or holidays as an opportunity to catch-up. Fewer people in the office somehow equates to getting more done. And then one of two things happens. I either decide the best thing for my own work-life-balance is to step away from the office and enjoy the season. Or, I arrive at work extra early and realize that to get things done I actually needed more people to be in the office.

It is better to account for slow-time in the calendar for what it is – slow time.

In the months leading up to the summer or holiday we recommend asking project participants for vacation schedules and just embracing the fact that it will impact your timeline. This was going to happen anyway. Planning for it is a better option than reacting to it.

It is also a good idea to consider how to streamline decision-making during this period. Typically, your project governance structure will nominate a chair for committees (ex. Executive Sponsor Chairs the Executive Committee). Consider allowing a vice chair or alternate to continue with oversight responsibilities in the absence of the chair or other decision-makers. Cancelling a meeting altogether that only meets once a month or once a quarter is likely to add more timeline risk to the project than having a streamlined decision-making structure for a brief period.

5. Anticipate lead-time on data availability

It does not behoove your legacy vendor to expedite requests for your entire data file. If you are moving your entire data set out of their system they are likely losing you as a customer. While we hope that good business practices would not sour a relationship as it ends, it is wise to build additional time into any requests for data.

Early in the project you should ask for a commitment on data turnaround time from your legacy vendor. Ask about any formal processes (ex. Completing specific documentation) that will be required to gain the data. And, add a generous margin onto the anticipated lead-time. Having resources sitting and waiting for data almost guarantees your timeline is in jeopardy.

Conclusion

We are able to accomplish as much as we can with as few resources as we have through excellent planning. On a project it is critical to apply this same rigor to planning – to anticipate those variables that could have a critical impact on our timeline. Being engaged in a project is just like a regular job – except more intense. Our best chance at success is to fully account for the calendar, resource availability and our own capability.