Are you ready for November? Are you getting the most out of the magic three months when 50-70% of all your gifts for the year will be committed? Here’s what I’m thinking about. What are YOU thinking about?...
Dr. Stan Temple was a board member with whom I worked closely at both The Nature Conservancy and Sand County Foundation. He shared with me that once upon a time, his doctoral students did all their research work in the Library. Today, virtually no one...
I doubt there is any donor segment more confusing to plan for than corporate/business. It’s confusing because of the stories we make up about why particular companies SHOULD give us money. It’s confusing because of United Way. ...
Your whole fundraising year comes down to the next four months. Are you ready? Here’s what I’m thinking about in October. For a significant number of organizations, donors giving at least $1,000 as their membership gift account for less than 10% of the donor base...
The planning idea behind segmenting is that you identify separate groups for separate consideration such that they are then removed completely from the larger prospect group. This is an important consideration because it forces you to plan in a way that is donor-centric instead of...
When I start to describe a major gift development program to clients who do not have an active program already, I often use a pipeline analogy as follows. Imagine there are four “chambers” in a pipeline, labeled D, C, B, and A. You should be...
Thursday is September the 1st – where has the summer gone? As we cruise toward the Autumnal Equinox, here’s what I’m thinking about for September. What are YOU thinking about?...
One of the donor segments that should be pulled out for special attention is the Major Gift Prospect segment. I call it the Top 100, even though the actual number of donors you cultivate at this level may not actually number 100. Each donor in...
This week I want to look at the organization from the Board member’s point of view, and ask this question: Have we adequately laid the groundwork for asking Board members for significant or even stretch gifts?...
Make a fundraising plan for the first – and arguably most important – segment: the Board members. The first thing we need to do is to set a Goal....