• A slick four-color multi-page brochure from an arts organization proudly announced that one of its shows was running November 1-December 39.
• An event invitation – one color, clearly printed on a budget – included a separate piece, business-card size, listing RSVP information. I checked the main invitation. Sure enough, the RSVP info wasn’t there.

Proportionately, leaving the RSVP off the invitation was probably the bigger uh-oh for the much smaller organization that perpetrated it. Printing and “blowing in” that card added half again to the printing cost.

The larger organization’s boo-boo may not have cost much. People who want to subscribe to the season probably will do so anyway, and if they want to go to this particular show in late December, they’ll call or go to the website to confirm the closing date.

But, boy, it sure makes the organization look dumb.

One day is all it would have taken to save the one nonprofit a hit to its print budget and the other a hit to its credibility.

I know just how it happened. You’ve probably been there too.

The piece should have gone out already, but some of the details haven’t been confirmed. We send it to the designer with placeholders, and then we scramble to get the last pieces in place before we go to press. Maybe a couple of things are still missing when we send it to the printer, but we can always drop them in.

And that’s how a last-minute change from December 29 to December 30 (or vice versa) becomes December 39.

In the case of the invitation, the designer was probably told to pick up last year’s piece. The event planners were working out who would handle RSVPs, so they told the designer to leave the RSVP blank – and the designer took out the whole line. Two weeks later, the piece went to print without RSVP information.

In both cases, one day could have made the difference.

All this time you’ve been rushing to make up for delays you couldn’t control. Now, take one day. Stop, look, and think.

Yes, the piece should have gone out two weeks or a month ago. Add one more day to that, and what happens? You get the chance to ensure that everything is as it should be, that’s what. Nothing more.

Put the invitation or brochure aside until tomorrow, and then look at it again with fresh eyes.

• Double-check dates and names.
• Triple-check donor names, if applicable, plus the most recent changes you made.
• Follow my 6 + 6 ways to save face.

I know, I know: Your executive director or program or marketing director is breathing down your neck. Dig in your heels. You won’t be fired over one day.

If you are the ED or program director, stop breathing down people’s necks already. Give the poor harried person in charge of the brochure or invitation the one day she needs. You’ll be glad you did – if not this time, then the next or the next.