23 November 2020 By David Allen, Development for Conservation Last year’s post from Thanksgiving week referenced Larry Smith’s Op-Ed from the NY Times asking readers to use the six-word form to make sense of 2020. The six-word story form idea was reportedly born at Mr. Smith’s Thanksgiving...
16 November 2021 By David Allen, Development for Conservation In Wisconsin, one of the coveted event venues is the Governor’s mansion. Non-profits from all over the state, but especially from Madison, compete for open calendar slots. And more than one organization has had their event pulled in...
17 August 2021 By David Allen, Development for Conservation Consider the following two paragraphs: The Conservancy celebrated the opening of its 9th nature preserve on Saturday with a brief ceremony and ribbon-cutting. At 264 acres, the Sykes Ridge Preserve is now the Conservancy’s largest preserve. It is home...
10 August 2021 By David Allen, Development for Conservation If you are a Board member of a land trust or any other nonprofit, this post is directed at you. If you are on staff, please send it to your Board members. In my workshops and seminars and even...
27 July 2021 By David Allen, Development for Conservation We are environmental organizations! We need to STOP sending so much stuff to our donors. They feel overwhelmed! Especially in the mail. Think about this: the average American household receives 2,000 pieces of “junk” mail every year! If we...
9 March 2021 By David Allen, Development for Conservation Several years ago, Vu Le (Non-Profit AF) wrote a critique of donor-centric fundraising. In the several weeks that followed, I wrote a critique of his critique, arguing that Le’s definition of donor-centric fundraising was based on several inaccuracies....
By David Allen, Development for Conservation Happy New Year! Time to start again. January of another year. 2020 is over. (Thank Goodness!) Probably wasn’t what you thought it was going to be last year at this time. (There’s an understatement!) But now, it’s finally over. History. Fa, sol, la, ti,...
27 October 2020 By David Allen, Development for Conservation Last week, I ended my post with the words: We are the ones we have been waiting for. They weren’t original. They are from a poem that had been passed to me through enough hands that I needed further research...
20 October 2020 By David Allen, Development for Conservation As a fundraiser, I can honestly say that the future has never seemed more uncertain than it is right now. In many ways, it feels like we are teetering on the edge of something truly horrible (great depression?,...
11 August 2020 By David Allen, Development for Conservation It’s Election Day in Wisconsin – the Partisan Primary. We’ll be voting for our party’s candidates for everything from Congressional Representative to State Senator to County Clerk of Deeds. So, I’m off early to work the polls. So, I’ll need...