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.
21 February 2023 By David Allen, Development for Conservation Recently I attended a webinar presented by Tom Ahern. Ahern is a well-known figure in nonprofit direct response fundraising and has written several books related to communicating with donors: Turning Doubters Into Donors, How to Write Fundraising Materials...
14 February 2023 By David Allen, Development for Conservation Happy Valentine's Day! (Love your donors. They will love you back.) This post will have nothing to do with Valentine's Day. But I hope you have a lovely day, regardless! For the last several years, about this time, I...
7 February 2023 By David Allen, Development for Conservation Last week’s post – On Membership Levels and Data Retention – hit a chord with a lot of people. Great questions and what-ifs were posted in the comments and in my email both. So I promised a follow-up...
31 January 2023 By David Allen, Development for Conservation Two questions came through my inbox this week. I answered both in due course, but I get asked these a lot, and it occurred to me that I should share them here as well. The first question: We’re redoing...
24 January 2023 By David Allen, Development for Conservation There’s a fun story about three bricklayers who are asked what they are doing. (You've probably heard it.) The first describes laying each brick on top of the others so that the lines are straight in every direction....
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...
10 January 2023 By David Allen, Development for Conservation If you graduated from college, you know that the Alumni Association from your alma mater started calling you and writing you about ten minutes later. And in return for your annual gift, you get a copy of the...
3 January 2023 By David Allen, Development for Conservation Happy New Year! Time to start again. January of another year. 2022 is over. Fa, sol, la, ti, Done. And that brings us ‘round again “to Do.” 2023 yawns before us. It could be anything. It definitely will be something. What will...
27 December 2022 By David Allen, Development for Conservation A good friend was asked recently to prepare a few remarks for his church on the subject of Hope. As I had just completed my annual Holiday messages with a theme of Optimism, it started me thinking about...
20 December 2022 “To be a conservationist is to be an eternal optimist. Pessimism serves no purpose, not when you are trying to change the world.” Jan Deblieu, Meant to Be Wild I think the same is true for fundraisers - that eternal optimism is a requirement; that pessimism...