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.
4 August 2020 By David Allen, Development for Conservation A few years ago in mid-November, a client asked me whether they could just use the same appeal letter they used last year. That appeal letter had done reasonably well and had surpassed the fundraising results from previous...
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...
21 July 2020 By David Allen, Development for Conservation It’s hard to believe, but we’re going to blink and find ourselves in August. And the blur that is the Fall each year for fundraisers will be upon us. Are you ready? How will your fundraising plan for Fall 2020...
14 July 2020 By David Allen, Development for Conservation Among the many hats I wore for a time at The Nature Conservancy was that of Volunteer Coordinator. And frankly, I wasn’t very good at it. It always seemed that it took more time to teach and supervise...
7 July 2020 By David Allen, Development for Conservation Planning 101: Take a close and honest look at where you are right now. Visualize where you want to be. Brainstorm the various possible ways of getting there. Prioritize and choose a course of action. Suggest metrics and...
30 June 2020 By David Allen, Development for Conservation Vitaliy Katsenelson is a philosopher-investor who writes an interesting blog on life, classical music, and the fundamentals of investing. He recently offered a metaphor for what’s going on that is based on the game of chess. (The Fischer...
23 June 2020 By David Allen, Development for Conservation The late Jerry Panas was quoted as having said that “No organization will rise above the strength and commitment of its Board,” though the quote may not be originally attributable to him. I keep coming back to that quote...
16 June 2020 By David Allen, Development for Conservation This topic comes from a Reader Question, which in turn came from a discussion thread on the Alliance’s Learning Center: The discussion regarded using a "membership" framework in direct mail, etc. I hesitate to get rid of it because...
9 June 2020 By David Allen, Development for Conservation I can't write about fundraising this week - I - Just - Can't. Fundraising will be back next week. I have been interested in recent days and weeks to see all the companies and nonprofits – overwhelmingly white –...
2 June 2020 By David Allen, Development for Conservation I am not a gardener. We live in an urban home on just shy of an acre, and we are busily converting anything that is now grass into something else – trees, flowers, vegetables, and so on – that...