How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. Let this favorite love poem by Elizabeth Barrett Browning be your template for sending a little #donorlove to your supporters this February 14th! Valentine’s Day offers the perfect opportunity for donor stewardship! And you’ve still got time to send a [...]
Would you apply for a job without researching the company? When looking for a new job, we scour the company website for information and history. We check LinkedIn to learn more about the people we’ll be meeting in the interview process. We check review sites to learn what other employees [...]
If we want donors to understand us, we have to start by understanding them. Donors give for their reasons, not ours. Doing great discovery dramatically deepens donor relationships and sets up a successful ask. That's why I've teamed up with Bloomerang to put together this free guide: The Lucrative Art [...]
How to be a better leader, AND get better donor relationships? It’s all about the questions. Recently I was chiding a friend of mine for not asking better questions. THEN I realized that I had been ashamed myself, for not asking better questions, for literally years. I had a friend [...]
In article #1 of this four-part series on donor retention and gratitude we discussed the benefits of thanking donors in a manner that resonates with them personally. In article #2 we looked at what will make your thank you stand out. In article #3 we looked at how donor retention [...]
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 [...]
What is it that drives donor loyalty? What are the determinants of longer term value? These are questions we’re often asked at Bloomerang and we’ve been working to develop measures that all our clients can use to track how well they are doing at bolstering future donor retention. We know [...]
The other day I received a solicitation in the mail from an organization I made a donation to a few years back. I have yet to make a second donation. Let me tell you the story. A few years ago, when I was finishing my MBA, one of my professors [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]