Bill Littlejohn, head of the Sharp HealthCare Foundation, a San Diego organization that raises money for a network of hospitals, is taking the long view in this bad economy—and that’s what more fund raisers need to do, he says. (See our two previous posts in the “Breaking the Rules” series, on fund raising in hard times and on changing the way boards operate.)

Too many fund raisers get caught up in meeting annual fund-raising goals, he says, and then have no cushion when times are bad.

Mr. Littlejohn decided it would be better to act more like grant makers, who decide how much to spend each year based on the average value of their assets over the previous three years. That way a big increase or decrease in assets during a single year doesn’t cause a big change in how much they give away.

Mr. Littlejohn adjusted that approach to fit fund raising: He looks at the next five years with the idea of ensuring that his organization can provide at least $10-million every year to Sharp HealthCare.

To do that, he focuses on booking not just gifts for the current year but also multiyear pledges, gift annuities, and other types of donations that might be raised this year but will flow in over the next five years. That way, if fund raising came to a halt, as it did for many charities during the downturn, he could always guarantee a minimum cash flow to the hospital network. And in years when giving is better, the foundation could decide it was safe to provide more than $10-million.

The approach seems to be working well: New contributions were $13.1-million in 2010, and enough payments were coming in from gifts booked in previous years that the foundation decided it could afford to give $14.6-million last year and still meet a target of at least $10-million in 2011.

“We feel pretty good about weathering the storm,” Mr. Littlejohn says. “We like sustained performance better than up-or down-volatility.”