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 [...]
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 [...]
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) [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
When my twins were toddlers and we played hide and seek they covered their eyes to hide. Or crawled under the living room rug. Not a great hiding place! They thought that if they couldn’t see me I couldn’t see them. As fundraisers, we often play an adult version [...]
Aside from helping to identify prospective major donors, boosting your nonprofit’s rate of donor response is the key purpose of donor research. If you’re struggling to secure a prospect’s support, it’s time to double down with your data! You already put careful thought into your communication strategies to keep your [...]
If you’re not actively engaging with folks online in today’s digitally-revolutionized zeitgeist, you’re missing a huge opportunity. One of the best ways to engage with folks online is through content marketing. In Part 1 of this three-part series we looked at how you can create a value-for-value exchange with [...]
Potential major gift donors (like all donors) have philanthropic motivations. But have you asked them what they are? As a fundraiser, the way you build trust with donors is by getting to know them. The best way to do that is by asking them questions. Do you know: why they [...]
Crowdfunding is a bold, new and sometimes surprising, if not dangerous, world when it comes to donor relations, fees, receiving funds and other aspects of the process. Few fundraisers who have embraced it knew exactly what they were getting into when utilizing a crowdfunding provider. The 26 questions listed below [...]
Ask not what your donor can do for you, but what you can do for your donor. The donor is always right. The donor’s priorities are our priorities. These are adages for the modern age in which nonprofits compete with for profits in a service-oriented digital economy. It’s one of [...]