Donor Cultivation

27 Oct First Take – Fundraising Planning for 2016

Posted at 05:52h in Development Audit, Donor Cultivation, Featured, Foundations, Membership, Plans and Budgets, Staff Development, Uncategorized 0 Comments

By November, you should have most of your fall fundraising pretty well dialed – hopefully, anyway. So now it’s time to start looking ahead to 2016. BEFORE your program people come to you asking if you can raise X or increase giving by Y%, here...

13 Oct Taking Stock – Q3

Posted at 04:19h in Board Development, Communication, Development Audit, Donor Cultivation, Featured, Foundations, Membership, Plans and Budgets, Staff Development, Uncategorized 1 Comment

The forecasting question is simply this: Given what I know right now about what foundations, corporations, and individuals have committed, and what I know right now about what requests are still out there, and what I know right now about the requests I will yet...

06 Oct Donor Appreciation Events

Posted at 04:24h in Board Development, Donor Cultivation, Featured, Membership, Plans and Budgets, Staff Development, Uncategorized 0 Comments

What are you doing to show appreciation for your donors? I have helped many organizations create donor clubs and appreciation events. Here are some lessons I’ve learned along the way...

29 Sep Lapsed Members and Five-Wednesday Months

Posted at 05:18h in Board Development, Communication, Development Audit, Donor Cultivation, Featured, Membership, Uncategorized 0 Comments

Are you keeping track of your lapsed members? This is one of those five-Wednesday months I referred to in April , which means it’s a good time to review where you are with your 2015 renewals. Looking back on all the individuals who gave you...

22 Sep Filing/Data Entry

Posted at 05:19h in Communication, Donor Cultivation, Featured, Membership, Staff Development, Uncategorized 0 Comments

Many land trusts use Board members or other volunteers to write personal messages on select fall appeal letters. The note conveys that we all know this is a form letter, but at least one person is paying special attention to how you, in particular, respond....

15 Sep Good News

Posted at 05:43h in Board Development, Communication, Donor Cultivation, Featured, Membership, Staff Development, Uncategorized 0 Comments

From now until Christmas, everything you do with members and donors should be coordinated. And everything they see should appear coordinated as well....

10 Sep Getting the Most from your Fundraising Events

Posted at 05:49h in Board Development, Communication, Donor Cultivation, Featured, Membership, Staff Development, Uncategorized 0 Comments

Getting the most out of your fall fundraising events - you want to capture as much information from the evening as possible. And to set it all up, you need to get organized now...

02 Sep Handwritten Letters

Posted at 06:05h in Board Development, Communication, Donor Cultivation, Featured, Membership, Plans and Budgets, Uncategorized 0 Comments

This year write your fundraising letters to your most important donors longhand. Actually make this a board activity with each board member writing 3-5 letters....

25 Aug Join Yourself

Posted at 20:15h in Board Development, Communication, Development Audit, Donor Cultivation, Featured, Membership, Staff Development, Uncategorized 0 Comments

Replace your ability to narrate in the third person with an ability to testify in the first person. So with that in mind, I suggest that you join the organization you support....

18 Aug Membership Drives

Posted at 06:04h in Communication, Development Audit, Donor Cultivation, Featured, Membership, Staff Development, Uncategorized 0 Comments

I have yet to meet a land trust that felt it had enough members. On the one hand, it’s both difficult to argue with and hardly surprising. On the other hand, recruiting new members can become an obsession that results in serious neglect of the...