Are you sitting down?

I don’t want to shock you, but you are halfway through the year.

Yes, we only have 6 months left in the year (WHAT?). If you feel like you’ve fallen behind with your goals or you need a game plan for the coming months, then this episode is for you.

In this episode, I’ll walk you through the 7 steps to take in your mid-year check-up to ensure you’re set up for a successful last 2 quarters of the year.

Or walk through your mid-year checkup here:

1. Where are you with your annual goals?

Open up that dusty notebook. Or that Google Sheet you saved somewhere. Try not to cringe too much. Where are you with your annual goals?

Have you connected with your donors as consistently as you wanted to?
Was your goal to recruit 47 volunteers a bit of a stretch?
Did you stick with your communications plan?
Where are your finances?

Goal setting isn’t a perfect science. Many of us set unrealistic expectations of ourselves and underestimate how long progress takes. Try not to use this time for reflection as an excuse to beat yourself down (or kick yourself for not working 7 days a week or 14 hours a day). We’re not walking through this checkup to doubt ourselves or decide to quit everything—we’re taking stock of how things are going so we can learn and pivot as needed.

2. How did the first two quarters go?

Now it’s time to put our critical thinking cap on. How is the year going so far?

What can you improve?

Let’s start with what could’ve gone better in the first two quarters (I know this is where your head went right away anyway—we love kicking ourselves). Where are there areas for growth?

What do you wish you prioritized more?
What do you wish you delegated?
What do you think you can do better next time?

If your spring campaign didn’t move mountains like you thought it would, what will you change next year?

What’s gone RIGHT this year?

I want you to list out EVERY WIN you’ve had this year. Tiny wins are as important as the big ones.

That new $8/month donor? Count it.
14 new followers on Instagram? Count it.
Hiring your first VA? Count it.

Now, list out what you personally did right. Did you…

Take control of your calendar?
Set up a thank you letter system?
Systematize some of your finances?

Allow yourself to celebrate (or at least APPRECIATE) all of your hard work and how far you’ve come.

4. How is your team feeling?

Retention is more than a donor metric; volunteers, board members, and staff all need to be retained too. And the key to retention? Asking for feedback and making changes as necessary.

Share a quick Google Form or hop on a call with your team to find out how they’re feeling.

How are they feeling about their work?
What do they think is going right this year?
What could be better?
What ideas do they have?

Getting feedback always feels a little nerve-wracking. Try to flip the switch: think of feedback as empowering your team members. Giving your team space to reflect helps everyone take ownership of their work (plus you’re showing them how much you value their perspective!). See? It’s not about YOU. Feedback is all about helping your team feel supported and valued.

5. What do you NEED to accomplish in the next 6 months?

Now that you’ve taken some time to reflect and gotten some feedback, look back at your original goals. What goals absolutely NEED to be completed by the end of the year?

Maybe it’s...

Creating a memorable End of Year campaign
Developing your annual impact report
Replacing 2 board members

Once you highlight the MOST IMPORTANT goals, you’ll be able to find clarity about how to spend your time in the coming months.

6. What would you be most PROUD of accomplishing by December?

Here’s your “super special BONUS” goal. It’s the goal that you’re really excited about, but it usually falls by the wayside with everything else going on.

Have you been dreaming about creating a series of volunteer training videos?
Want a three-part welcome series for new subscribers running on autopilot?
Hoping to create a contractor role to help manage donor and development data?

Pick just ONE dream goal. And what I want you to do is block out time on your calendar AT LEAST once a month to work on that goal.

7. How will you reach your new goals?

Planning and reflecting feels so productive, doesn’t it? Once you have your list of goals together, it’s like all your problems go away in a snap. Then another month goes by and you remember planning doesn’t move you forward. ACTION DOES. It’s those small steps that matter. The sometimes mundane—or dare I say annoying—tasks are often what makes the most progress happen.

So here’s the hardest part in our mid-year checkup: planning for action.

What do you need to delegate?
What do you need to adjust?
What do you need to say “no” to?
When will you work on these goals?

At some point, you gotta STOP PLANNING and START DOING. Delegate, plan, and keep your calendar sacred. You SO got this.

8. Track your progress.

Yeah, yeah, I know. Progress schmrogress. Tracking is that thing we all mean to do but often forget (sometimes on purpose). It can be a pain, but it makes a huge difference in your productivity.

Monthly

At the end of every month, evaluate how you and your team spent your time and whether there’s anything that needs to be changed for next month. Look back at your calendar and your project management system and check:

What to-do list items kept getting pushed to the back burner?
How did you spend most of your time?
What task do you wish you’d hurry up and accomplish?

Now, if a task or project keeps getting ignored, ask yourself why that might be. Is it not a priority? Is something else more important? Or, are you avoiding the task because of a mindset block? Maybe you’re worried the project will fail so you’d rather not touch it. Find out WHY you keep avoiding the task and adjust as you need—whether that means putting your mindset in check or removing it from your list altogether.

Quarterly

Mark your calendar for the end of September or the beginning of October (just before the End of Year rush). Spend an hour or two checking in with yourself and your progress towards your goals. Ask yourself what could be better in the last couple of months of the year and tweak as needed. (Again: without kicking yourself).

One step back, two steps forward

We all want to go FULL SPEED AHEAD and do ALL THE THINGS. But to give yourself the momentum you need for this next half of the year, you need to take a step back. Figure out what’s working, what’s not working, and how you can make small tweaks to make a big impact.

The mid-year checkup for nonprofits