18 June 2024 By David Allen, Development for Conservation At some point during your next organizational event, imagine yourself being between 45 and 60-years-old. You Gen-Xers out there won’t have trouble with this. Now wrap yourself in a cloak of objectivity and look around the event. Characterize it....
17 January 2023 By David Allen, Development for Conservation I’m not a huge fan of fundraising events. So I’m going to give you a bunch of ideas about how to get the most from them, but I’m going to preface the tips by enumerating my list of...
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...
9 November 2021 By David Allen, Development for Conservation I was informed last year that one of my clients had raised $6,000 from Giving Tuesday, which turned out to be 20% or so more than in 2019. Woohoo! Given the work they put into it, I estimated...
21 September 2021 By David Allen, Development for Conservation The organizations I am working with are generally going ahead with plans to host Fall events in person. Some have moved their events outside while others are requesting proof of vaccination for admittance. I’d be interested in some feedback...
1 June 2021 By David Allen, Development for Conservation As a broad generalization, organizations that were dependent on fundraising events did not fare as well in 2020 as organizations that were not. For some, this was related to the transactional nature of events – when the event...
17 November 2020 By David Allen, Development for Conservation Cold water time. Ready? Nobody cares about your birthday more than you do. (Not even your mother.) In fact, for the vast majority of people you have met during the years since your actual birth day, your annual celebration doesn’t...
By David Allen, Development for Conservation I have several unrelated thoughts for you this week, none of which warrant an entire blog by themselves. Love to hear your thoughts! Great Video Simon Sinek has a new video interview on Millennials that is well worth the sixteen minutes it...
By David Allen, Development for Conservation Events are part of fundraising. From field trips to galas, we are in the event business as much as we are anything else. Which means (at least): pre-planning, logistics, permissions, venues, caterers, invitations and reminders, site volunteers, parking concerns, nametags, photography,...
By David Allen, Development for Conservation Over the years, I have worked with more than a few land trusts that are significantly dependent on revenue from a large, annual fundraising event – including one conservancy that was getting more than half of its annual unrestricted revenue...