5 April 2022 By David Allen, Development for Conservation In a by-the-book communications plan, you would define a small set of audiences with whom you want to communicate, identify the medium or media to which they are known to respond, identify the messages you wish to get...
29 March 2022 By David Allen, Development for Conservation If there is one word in land trust language that would benefit the most from tighter definition, it’s probably the word “outreach.” We have Outreach Committees, Directors of Membership and Outreach, Outreach Strategies, Outreach Events, and so on. I’m...
22 March 2022 By David Allen, Development for Conservation Somebody out there is going to laugh at this, but I just heard about Kaye Sprinkel Grace’s “AAA” Board a few weeks ago. And fell in love with it. Every Board I’ve ever met has been populated by a majority...
15 March 2022 By David Allen, Development for Conservation Don’t know whether you’re paying attention, but there is a TON of churn in the conservation community right now. Executive Directors, having come into land trust positions as a wave in the 1990s and early 2000s are now...
8 March 2022 By David Allen, Development for Conservation [The bulk of this post originally appeared in March of 2016] Recently, I conducted a training session with a land trust. I had to fly to get there, so whereas I brought a projector, handouts, and so on, I...
1 March 2022 By David Allen, Development for Conservation Two weeks ago, I asked you for data related to the value of your “first-gift” donors from 2017: Isolate the members and donors you have who made a first gifts to your organization at some point – any...
By David Allen, Development for Conservation Before I get into today’s topic, I want to remind you that I am still looking for data from your new members in 2017. Next week, I’ll report out what I’ve learned to that point – the collective 5-year value...
By David Allen, Development for Conservation For the last several years, about this time, I have posted about a metric I’ve wanted to collect data on – the 5-year-value of new members. I’ve been asking everyone to look back at the donors who made first gifts (ever)...
8 February 2022 By David Allen, Development for Conservation “Your guidance on the direct mail has been spot on. I got a few complaints about "asking for specific amounts of money," but I haven't worried about it too much because we are crushing our fundraising goals. (Also,...
1 February 2022 By David Allen, Development for Conservation A: A donor continues to give when the event is cancelled. I’m noticing a number of Board members recently who have seriously curbed their giving in 2020 and 2021 or who have stopped giving at all. When I’ve asked...