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.
by David Allen, Development for Conservation If we could change our collective thinking in just one way, we would all raise more money – and not by just a little bit. That shift in thinking goes like this: Donors give because they want to. It sounds simple and intuitive,...
Board members who don’t give themselves will not be effective fundraisers. But Board members should not give money because they are Board members. They should give because they believe that what you are doing is worth doing – they should give because they believe in...
By David Allen, Development for Conservation Thinking about hiring a consultant? (Thinking about hiring me?) I’ve been consulting now since 2004 and full-time since 2009. In that time, I have responded to several hundred requests for proposals, and I have formed some specific opinions about how the...
by David Allen, Development for Conservation It’s time to think about what’s going to happen this Fall. At the very least, we’re in for a whale of an election, and it’s shaping up to be one of the most expensive election seasons in history. (Late October might...
Frankly, they get stuck because they are comfortable and unchallenged at that level. We become “one of their $1,000 charities.” To get donors to move off of their chosen level, we have to first understand that it is their level as much as it is...
A Qualified Major Gift Prospect is a donor we are actively building a relationship with - intentionally cultivating for a $5,000 (or more) ask within the next three years in support of a specific project, program, or outcome....
MOST are probably capable of giving $1,000 every year. The litmus test is what they choose to spend discretionary money on now – cable TV, smart phones, internet service, annual beer and wine, a new bike – MANY, many things cost $1,000 or $1,000 every...
When significant windfalls do occur, they often occur suddenly and unexpectedly. They can catch people and organizations unaware. And they have the potential to turn perfectly ordinary people stupid. ...
My accounting friend Dana says that every Board director should know how much money the organization has that is unrestricted – that it can spend on operations – and exactly how each restricted gift was spent. That would be an improvement for most land trusts...
By David Allen, Development for Conservation One of the people I met this last year at Rally was the Corporate Partnerships Manager for Access Fund, a national organization dedicated to protecting access for climbers to some of the nation’s best rock walls. She told me that...