There’s no shortage of things the experts say fundraisers should be doing: handwritten notes, donor visits, thank you phone calls, bequest marketing; the list goes on and on. It can be overwhelming when you’re bogged down planning an event that your leadership team insists on, or when you’re simply trying [...]
Meet Sarah Willey, Director of Development at Great Rivers Environmental Law Center and my new fundraising hero. She's out here fighting for Missouri's environment while showing off her donor communications skills. I don't know why she attended one of my recent webinars on donor retention (because she should be the [...]
Did you know that bequest marketing produces the most ROI (return on investment) of any fundraising activity? In fact, it’s “kind of off the charts” according to Tom Ahern. While a good major gifts officer can bring in 10 to 20 times her salary, the average major gift is smaller [...]
The other day I receive a donation appeal that contained a curious sentence. It read: "Whether you donated today, previously have given, or still plan to give, we thank you for your ongoing support in our mission." I had seen it before; this practice of listing all the possible reasons [...]
Randy Hawthorne and I have a lot in common. We both run a blog, a conference and a webinar series for fundraisers, and we both opened up co-working spaces for nonprofits. What I lack is his fashion sense, a print magazine, and a podcast - like his excellent Hubcast from [...]
The short answer is all of them. But that's not always possible, especially if you have a high gift volume. Few doubt the power of thank you phone calls. McConkey International UK found that first-time donors who get a personal thank you within 48 hours are 4x more likely to [...]
Prospect research is difficult. Asking for upgrades, major gifts and bequests is something that every fundraiser wants to do. But identifying the best supporters in your lists for those types of asks can be an even bigger challenge than the ask itself. Oftentimes we look only to the wealthy. But [...]
There's little argument that long-term, loyal donors are your best prospects for things like major gifts and planned gifts. Monthly donors, active volunteers, current and former service recipients, and the securely retired (especially the childless and empty-nesters) are also great prospects. But who else might be lurking in your donor [...]
Asking your donors why they are passionate about the cause is always a good idea. But how often do you ask them how they feel about your organization? It might be a better idea than you think. Roger Craver of The Agitator and DonorVoice fame has developed a simple donor [...]
Social media is great for connecting with true friends and close family members, but it also creates awkward situations when a friend request comes through from a person who we might not went to let into our private lives just yet. A co-worker, a distant cousin, a new acquaintance. What [...]
Lapsed donors are complicated. Some stopped because life got in the way. Some stopped because you got in the way. Some aren't even actually lapsed, even if you think they are. While prevention is the best strategy for tackling low donor retention rates, there's a lot of value in taking [...]
Well, it's happened again. Facebook has updated the algorithm that controls the visibility of content on the news feed (that center column of content users see when they log in). What is the update? Today we use signals like how many people react to, comment on or share posts to [...]