Whether you are a nonprofit organization or a for profit business, your true motives, and thereby your core values are reflected more strongly by actions than by press releases! Everyone has heard the old adage “Actions speak louder than words.” Yet, time and time again the very actions undertaken seem [...]
Evidence is piling up from more than one source in the world of philanthropy regarding the reduction in small and medium-sized gifts. In the past year, both Giving USA and the Fundraising Effectiveness Project report have reported that the level of giving from small and medium gifts is dropping. [...]
Bloomerang was proud to join Pursuant and The Institute for Conversational Fundraising to support The Philanthropy Centre in its landmark study on just how massively important saying thank you really is. The report is chock-full of interesting experiments, each with tangible takeaways for all fundraisers, including a simple method that [...]
Year-end brings the largest flurry of direct mail within the nonprofit sector. Most charities rely on the final two months of each year to achieve more than 50% of the funding of their mission. New research confirms a course of action that can increase the results of those year-end [...]
Recently over lunch with a major donor of a local charity, whose board I serve upon, someone posed the question in the title of this post when the subject of donor retention arose. The discussion become so vigorous I immediately knew others would be curious. My hope in creating this [...]
At a recent board meeting for a national association focused on collecting immense data for the charity sector, the discussion drifted to DAFs (donor advised funds). The consensus prediction was that within the next five years the top five charities in the United States, and possibly the world, based upon [...]
One of my favorite volunteer activities in the nonprofit sector is serving on the Fundraising Effectiveness Project’s Growth in Giving Steering Committee. The face-to-face meetings and conference calls are always insightful and thought provoking. This is especially true when those insights are cutting edge and timely in nature. This week’s [...]
Tom Ahern, a dear friend and Bloomerang’s Communications Coach recently released a free downloadable eBook that can literally change your charity’s donor communications forever. More importantly, for many nonprofit organizations the level of funding for your mission could be increased significantly based upon the knowledge gained and the best practices [...]
As Labor Day approaches in the United States, you will read about and be invited to many webinars helping you and your fundraising team prepare your year-end appeals. In addition, there will just as much stating you need to prepare for your Giving Tuesday appeal(s). However, very seldom (if ever) [...]
This outstanding article mentioned in the title and linked to below outlines most of the reasons every nonprofit board member should consider before even thinking about going to the next board meeting. Honestly, if everyone read the article found here, at least a few people would resign from a nonprofit board [...]
Ever since my very first Professional Fundraising Conference in 1983, where I met Jerry Panas for the first time, until just last year, Jerry was a fixture at nearly every single one! It was so easy to spot him. Why? He was always the person nearly everyone else went to [...]
It's a little known fact that planned giving has one of the highest ROIs (return on investment) of any fundraising activity, contributing to the fact that pursuing gifts from wills and trusts is rarely a key mission funding practice among the average American nonprofit. Why is this the case? In [...]