Over the last 37 years, I have witnessed thousands of small and medium-sized nonprofits struggle with growing or even sustaining support for absolutely wonderful missions due to lack of any true professional fundraising training. Even worse, the tidbits of knowledge they picked up were often wives tales or really bad [...]
One of the happiest and most fulfilling results of providing database technology to the nonprofit sector for nearly four decades has been being able to witness the overwhelming majority of those new customers raise more dollars each year to fund their mission. In the last seven years at Bloomerang we [...]
The recently released Fundraising Effectiveness Project Report summarizing the fourth quarter of 2018 provides numerous insights, that not only put the full year of 2018 into perspective, but also sheds insight into what 2019 should bring for the fundraising profession. The Fundraising Effectiveness Project continues to be the most reliable [...]
Keeping it simple is most often the first step to success in any endeavor. Improving donor retention is no different, especially for organizations without an effective strategy already in place. Establishing a strong foundation of simple stewardship practices should be a top priority before investigating the latest shiny object being [...]
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 [...]