6 September 2022 By David Allen, Development for Conservation Every year in September, I start thinking about how just about every single member or donor who has given us money in recent memory will be solicited between now and year’s end. The entire year comes down to...
9 August 2022 By David Allen, Development for Conservation It’s primary election day in Wisconsin, and I am a pollworker, so I am reprising my set of fundraising letter “rules” from several years ago. The set is based on a book by Jeff Brooks that should probably...
2 August 2022 By David Allen, Development for Conservation This week I’m thinking about what someone might need to know to make a major gift. In this sense, I am staying with my soapbox premise that the word “major” should describe the decision to give and not...
19 July 2022 By David Allen, Development for Conservation It’s a common lament. All-volunteer organizations looking to hire their first staff position. Much larger organizations feeling everything would balance out if they just had that administrative position, or another land steward, or a Fundraising Manager, or … Well...
28 June 2022 By David Allen, Development for Conservation It’s a conundrum as old as the oldest land trust out there. How do you raise money for projects that haven’t happened yet? And when they do happen, how do you raise money fast enough to close without...
21 June 2022 By David Allen, Development for Conservation A few weeks ago, Vu Le posted an excellent piece on his blog Consultants, are you actually making the sector worse? Here are some questions to ask yourselves – Nonprofit AF about questions consultants should ask themselves through...
29 March 2022 By David Allen, Development for Conservation If there is one word in land trust language that would benefit the most from tighter definition, it’s probably the word “outreach.” We have Outreach Committees, Directors of Membership and Outreach, Outreach Strategies, Outreach Events, and so on. I’m...
18 January 2022 By David Allen, Development for Conservation I’m getting a number of requests for help fundraising from land trusts who need to build their stewardship endowments. Some of this is undoubtedly related to land trust accreditation, which has brought both new awareness and new urgency...
21 December 2021 “Action on behalf of life transforms. Because the relationship between self and the world is reciprocal, it is not a question of first getting enlightened or saved and then acting. As we work to heal the earth, the earth heals us.” Robin Wall...
14 September 2021 By David Allen, Development for Conservation There was a moment in time when I thought writing appeals letters would be a substantial part of my consulting work. I felt like I was good at it, and my letters seemed to hold their own and...