Making Your Newsletter into a Profit Center
Is your paper newsletter a budget expense? A corporate report? A burden? Something to get through in between more important tasks? Are you one of the hundreds of land trusts that have gone completely paperless? Replacing “old-fashioned” paper newsletters with E-News substitutes using the logic that you are saving both money and paper? Or is your paper newsletter a profit center? Does it make money? Does it make so much money, in fact, that you are considering increasing its publication? OK, so truth be told, I don’t know any land trusts in the latter category. I suspect we’re all...
Read MoreThe Search for Renewal
Among the data points I get back from my website each week is the number of “page hits” I get from the top twenty or so most popular pages. The most popular page right now is a 2015 post of Writing Renewal Letters. And it has been for about the last month. If the popularity of that page somehow reflects how many of you are spending your time in November and December, let me point out that one of the points of that post was a recommendation to write your renewal letters for the year in February. Get that activity out of the end-of-year flurry! Let me also provide this quick reminder primer:...
Read MoreWill Your Fall Appeal Get Hit by a Hurricane?
Last year’s fundraising appeal challenges had names: Trump and Clinton. We watched as money poured into not only the presidential race, but lots of House and Senate races as well. And at least prior to November 8, we wondered how the election would affect year-end fundraising. Were donors going to keep giving to us also? On November 9, we started worrying about how the election results might affect fundraising. Planned Parenthood received 80,000 donations in the three days following the election. ACLU raised more than $24 million online. Meals on Wheels and Sierra Club weren’t far behind....
Read MorePS Notes
Two weeks ago, I wrote about how important the opening paragraph and the PS note were to the success of fundraising letters – because of the way people actually read them. (See The Hidden Fact That Will Change the Way You Write Appeal Letters.) Both last week and this, I’m on vacation, so I pre-programmed this post as a follow-up. Over the course of time, I join many organizations – always at the $50 level – specifically so I can see their fundraising material later. And I see a lot of bad and ugly – as well as quite a lot of good to great. Last week, I posted a series of opening lines that...
Read MoreOpening Lines
Last week I wrote about how important the opening paragraph and the PS note were to the success of fundraising letters – because of the way people actually read them. (See The Hidden Fact That Will Change the Way You Write Appeal Letters.) This week, I’m on vacation, so I pre-programmed this post as a follow-up. Over the course of time, I join many organizations – always at the $50 level – specifically so I can see their fundraising material later. And I see a lot of bad and ugly – as well as quite a lot of good to great. What I’ve collected here are some opening lines for appeals that I...
Read MoreDavid Allen, Development for Conservation LLC
I am a fundraising consultant who has devoted the majority of my professional career to the service of land conservation. This blog is intended to help conservation organizations and land trusts pursue excellence in all aspects of their conservation endeavors. I welcome your comments and feedback to these posts. 