26 October 2021 By David Allen, Development for Conservation In the past twelve years, I’ve worked with more than 100 land trusts across the country. To be honest most of them are struggling with very similar issues. And they need very similar things. You’d think I’d get bored. Nope. Everywhere...
18 May 2021 By David Allen, Development for Conservation I need to get something off my chest. Major gift fundraising is the most important fundraising you can do. OK - that feels better. Major gift fundraising is NOT dependent on the scale of the projects being funded, and it’s not...
20 April 2021 By David Allen, Development for Conservation HAPPY EARTH DAY! Before I start this week, I want to put in a plug for donor stories. I am beginning to hear heartwarming stories about gifts that have been motivated in part by how much the land...
19 January 2021 By David Allen, Development for Conservation I’ve been thinking about motivation. Why do donors give? Why will donors say YES? We spend WAAAY too much time imagining people saying NO to the point that we are terrified of that possibility. What would happen if we...
12 January 2021 By David Allen, Development for Conservation Have you challenged yourself for 2021? Lose 5 pounds, paint the house, learn Spanish. What about organizational challenges? Secure an Americorps Volunteer, achieve accreditation. How about start a major gift program? Nationally, more than 80% of charitable giving comes from individuals....
8 December 2020 By David Allen, Development for Conservation One of the workshops I have most enjoyed doing for the last several years was called Development Committee Makeover. The point of the workshop was to show, using before and after scripts, how Development Committees could address their...
10 November 2020 By David Allen, Development for Conservation OK – Election is over – time to return our attention to fundraising. Think back to the last time you spent (or at least committed) a great deal of money on something you really wanted. A car for example. And...
8 September 2020 By David Allen, Development for Conservation Readers, I’d like you to meet my new friend RGF. RGF stands for Realty Gift Fund, and they buy and sell real estate for nonprofits. RGF, I’d like you to meet Readers. These are some of my best friends...
28 July 2020 By David Allen, Development for Conservation I’ve spent a great deal of time on this blog opining about getting back to fundraising fundamentals. Chasing shiny new objects has its place, but not at the expense of doing the things we know are fundamentally sound. But...
By David Allen, Development for Conservation I’m intrigued this week by the idea that donors give for their own reasons much more so than for ours. This paradigm shift – from the notion that they are helping us do our work to one that we are helping...