Author: David Allen

  7 May 2024   By David Allen, Development for Conservation   The secret to successful fundraising is asking. The secret to effective asking is follow-up. And the secret to effective follow-up is timing. Take a look at your 12-month renewal rate. How many households made a gift in any 365-day...

  30 April 2024   By David Allen, Development for Conservation   I fielded a question about premiums again last week. I get these periodically, because it seems intuitive that if someone is going to join, or give, or upgrade, or renew, they need to get “something” in return. In fact,...

  23 April 2024   By David Allen, Development for Conservation   Since 2017, about this time every year, 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...

  16 April 2024   By David Allen, Development for Conservation   In my practice, I have come to make several nomenclature distinctions. These are oversimplified, to be sure, but they serve to help ensure my clients and I are talking about the same things when we use the same...

  2 April 2024   By David Allen, Development for Conservation   In a perfect world we would know – really know – every single donor who gives money. We would know how they found the land trust in the first place. We would know how old they are and...

  5 March 2024   By David Allen, Development for Conservation   One of the more common entry points for me when working with new organizations is a Development Audit (or Assessment). The audit looks critically at everything an organization is doing to raise money. One of the standard features of...