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 [...]
The following is an excerpt from Robots Make Bad Fundraisers – How Nonprofits Can Maintain the Heart in the Digital Age by Steven Shattuck, published by Bold & Bright Media. Meet Sarah Willey, Director of Development at Great Rivers Environmental Law Center and my new fundraising hero. She's out here fighting for [...]
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 following is an excerpt from Robots Make Bad Fundraisers - How Nonprofits Can Maintain the Heart in the Digital Age by Steven Shattuck, published by Bold & Bright Media. The other day I receive a donation appeal that contained a curious sentence. It read: "Whether you donated today, previously have [...]
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. There is a lot of evidence to suggest that phone calls make an impact on new donors. McConkey International UK found that first-time donors who get a personal thank you within 48 hours are 4x more likely to give a second gift. Penelope [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
There's no shortage of learning opportunities for fundraisers: blog posts, webinars, seminars and conferences. It can be a full time job keeping up with all of them, let alone identifying the ones that are most appropriate for your current role. Conferences are particularly tough since they often require travel expenses [...]