I’m here with some truth bombs. “The season to give is not a reason to give.” Want the #1 way to ensure your donors give and give generously to your cause this holiday season? Tell them now what kind of impact their most recent gift had. Tell them even if [...]
Imagine this scenario: Your organization received a donation from a donor once or twice but have not received anything this year. Some nonprofit professionals may say well that donor is gone, time to find a new one. WRONG! Studies show that it costs less to retain, or re-engage, a lapsed [...]
Our own Steven Shattuck recently joined our good friend Jeff Jowdy on his Beacon Podcast to discuss creative ways nonprofits can engage with donors. You can listen to the full conversation here. Be sure to check out previous episodes of The Beacon Podcast here >> Full Transcript: Announcer: Welcome to [...]
Current donors are warm leads. When a donor has given to you once, you at least know they have some sort of linkage, interest or connection to what you do. They’re not with you for the long term yet, but getting them to give again isn’t like making a “cold [...]
What would it be like if you knew all your supporters, and they knew you? It would be fan-fricking-tastic! Gosh darn it; don’t you get tired of being one of the anonymous masses? Your donors feel that way too! Don’t you just love it when you feel personally welcomed? When [...]
When the concept of ‘personalization’ first came into vogue, it was due to a reason: People were tired of being treated all the same. Personalization is related to specialization. People tired of sameness long ago. In 1962 Malvina Richards wrote a song called Little Boxes. It was about social conformity [...]
Successful nonprofit events -- fundraising events, galas, friendraisers, 2-for-1 kitten adoption meetups -- can be great ways to boost awareness of a nonprofit’s mission, recruit new members/donors/directors, and supplement direct fundraising efforts. But they can also be expensive, time-consuming, and more cost than benefit if attendance and engagement are poor. [...]
Have you ever been blown away by an off-the-wall question from a donor or board member? You know, the one that makes you wonder if they even know what your organization does? I hear this often. On the flip-side, one of my favorite things about my business is that I [...]
Ever wonder what your donors are thinking? Sometimes, we slip into a mindset of “them and us.” Where we’re the insiders who work and donors are the outsiders who give. And while both are important, they must be different, right? Maybe not so much. And your fundraising success may depend [...]
In our industry, we spend a lot of time telling. We do a great deal of storyTELLING. Heart-wrenching stories about the community we serve. We TELL about our mission. We TELL about our need for funds -- both why we need funds and how we plan to use them. As [...]
Divide and conquer may be a good strategy on the battlefield. For nonprofit fundraising, not so much. If you want to succeed with donor-centered communications you need to stop fighting and start inviting. I mean this in two important ways: Stop fighting donors by trying to ‘hit them up’ and [...]
When fundraisers get together to talk about donor-centric fundraising strategy they tend to focus a lot on giving gratitude and engaging in cultivation. Rightfully so. However, if that’s all you do, you’re missing something HUGELY important. There’s something more donor-centric than wooing. Asking! In fact, I run a fundraising training [...]