The Wicked Mistress of Fall 2021

Is that frogs we see raining from the sky? 

No – that’s just the Fall wreaking continued havoc on all of our best-laid plans. 

An always anticipated and often revered time of year for fundraisers everywhere, this year the Fall season is really outdoing itself! (Though let’s be honest, would we expect anything else from 2020’s evil stepsister 2021?)

While seasoned professionals know they should expect the unexpected, especially at this crazy time of year, in 2021 we are navigating through more disruptors than normal, which are not only unprecedented but also have major implications to cost, timelines, and the all-important year-end cashflow.   

Some of the areas most impacted include:

• Supplier pool and reduced availability. The supply chain for paper continues to be a challenge. This begins at the paper mills, but it extends across suppliers in the industry. Many are already short staffed (or doors have shut) and then managing additional shortages as folks continue to get sick with COVID. A few examples of specific impacts that we are navigating through are:

  • Envelope shortages and managing extensive lead times – with the current timeline after proof approval upwards of 5 weeks for delivery.

  • Stock shortages - with manufacturing volumes on the decline from staffing shortages, not only are we seeing an increase in pricing for standard stock but there are shortages of less utilized stock (and don’t even think about canary or other colored stock!) and label stock.

• Freight challenges. Not only is availability and reliability a challenge, but costs are also on the rise. This is not only impacting ground freight within the US, but there are also limits of what is able to come through from Canada and China with border and port closures.

• Volumes in mail and increased demand are compounding the above challenges which are then even further compounded when long-time trusted vendors have staffing shortages when someone is out with COVID. Our partners are extremely busy, working on new accounts to navigate shortages and moving work along very rapidly. So, despite our regimented QC processes, we are all seeing slips in quality or items being missed due to sheer volume alone.

Why, you may ask, is this happening?  And while there are likely many reasons that can be correlated to these challenges, they all point back to the prolonged and protracted impact that COVID has brought to our lives.

It is true that the pandemic has touched almost every corner of our lives, and now it is messing with our calendar-year-end fundraising plans.  And while these challenges most certainly represent additional obstacles to overcome, all is not lost.  There are things that we can do to pivot and adjust.  Stay tuned next week when we will share specific steps and strategies you can prepare with to minimize the negative impact of these disruptors.

Until then, keep calm, grab a pumpkin spice latte, light an autumn candle, and continue fundraising!