Effective communication with donors and prospects is critical to your organization’s success. This can take the form of vehicles like written mail, face-to-face or phone conversations, electronic communications, or any combination of these. In fact, campaigns that use direct mail plus one or more digital media component like email have [...]
Do you have a major gift program, but not a planned or legacy gift program? Do you focus time and energy on planned giving prospects but not major gift prospects? Or perhaps you have the latter but not the former? Do you wonder if there’s really a distinguishing difference between [...]
Exercise and fundraising. What do these activities have in common? At first glance, very little. But they take on a special meaning for a client of mine named Thea Wood, founder and President of Backstage Chats Foundation, a wonderful organization doing transformative work around music and gender equality. She groups [...]
“What’s keeping you from growing your nonprofit’s funding?” That was the first question on a survey I conducted before I spoke at a workshop for nonprofit Executive Directors earlier this year. I wasn’t surprised by the answers -- they were the same things I hear from leaders all over the [...]
In this webinar, Jeff Brooks will share some of the most deadly — yet commonly believed — myths in fundraising that chase away your donors and squash your fundraising revenue. Full Transcript: Steven: All right, Jeff, my watch just struck 2:00. Is it okay if I go ahead and get [...]
Storytelling is an innate part of fundraising. Whether or not we do it intentionally, we are always in the midst of constructing a narrative about our organization, its work and why people should support it. During year-end fundraising campaigns, organizations tend to step up their storytelling efforts ten-fold. Some campaigns [...]
Bequests account for 9% of all fundraising per Giving USA. Have you allocated at least 9% of your development budget towards promoting bequests? If not, have you allocated any budget at all to this supremely cost-effective fundraising strategy? Have you been meaning to get around to doing more about building [...]
There is this great scene near the start of the movie, Hoosiers. Coach Dale comes in to his first practice and the volunteer coach tries to tell him how things are run (the way they always have). Coach Dale stops practice and says it is not about how well they [...]
In this webinar, Rachel Clemens and Caroline Fothergill of Mighty Citizen will walk through inspiring real-world examples of how nonprofit organizations are using dynamic campaigns to reach Millennials and to generate mission-fueling revenue. Full Transcript: Steven: All right. Rachel, Caroline, is it okay if I go ahead and get this [...]
From sports to engineering to romance, this question gets raised a lot: Does size really matter? When it comes to plans for recruiting and engaging a nonprofit board of directors, the answer varies. If a nonprofit has steady sources of funding such as fees, endowment, and/or government grants, its board’s [...]
My husband and I recently returned from an amazing trip to Ireland. Along with a group of 22 friends, we traveled near Galway through 8 small towns in 8 days — all on bikes. The scenery was breathtaking and the Irish people were completely charming. We averaged 30 miles a [...]
Don’t delay. The end of the calendar year is when most folks engage in philanthropy. This is the time when your annual fundraising goals will likely be met, surpassed or put on life support. Give yourself ample time to plan all the elements of your year-end campaign. Create your strategy, [...]