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...
9 April 2024 By David Allen, Development for Conservation Last year in December, I wrote a blog post about how land trusts might be able to get younger. The post seemed to resonate and was even picked up in the most recent issue of the Alliance’s Saving...
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...
26 March 2024 By David Allen, Development for Conservation How did you come to be on the Board? Well, I’ve known _______ for years, and when she asked me to be on the Board, it sounded like fun. Think back on that conversation. Did she ask you to fill...
19 March 2024 By David Allen, Development for Conservation I read a lot of land trust appeal mail. You should, too. I recommend it. Some of it is really good. A lot of it is not. But what I notice more often than not is that the letters...
12 March 2024 By David Allen, Development for Conservation My formative years in conservation were all with The Nature Conservancy. I learned how to raise money, and why raising money for land conservation was important, from some of the best practitioners available. That imprinting came in many...
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...
27 February 2024 By David Allen, Development for Conservation I once worked with an organization that had more board committees than board members. Just related to fundraising and communications, the organization had a Development Committee, a Corporate Relations Committee, a Fundraising Committee, a Membership Committee, a Newsletter...
20 February 2024 By David Allen, Development for Conservation Last week and this, I am drawing a distinction between the form and content of two types of fundraising letters: renewals and appeals. Last week’s post focused on writing letters to people who gave you money last year...