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.
15 March 2022 By David Allen, Development for Conservation Don’t know whether you’re paying attention, but there is a TON of churn in the conservation community right now. Executive Directors, having come into land trust positions as a wave in the 1990s and early 2000s are now...
8 March 2022 By David Allen, Development for Conservation [The bulk of this post originally appeared in March of 2016] Recently, I conducted a training session with a land trust. I had to fly to get there, so whereas I brought a projector, handouts, and so on, I...
1 March 2022 By David Allen, Development for Conservation Two weeks ago, I asked you for data related to the value of your “first-gift” donors from 2017: Isolate the members and donors you have who made a first gifts to your organization at some point – any...
By David Allen, Development for Conservation Before I get into today’s topic, I want to remind you that I am still looking for data from your new members in 2017. Next week, I’ll report out what I’ve learned to that point – the collective 5-year value...
By David Allen, Development for Conservation For the last several years, about this time, I have posted about a metric I’ve wanted to collect data on – the 5-year-value of new members. I’ve been asking everyone to look back at the donors who made first gifts (ever)...
8 February 2022 By David Allen, Development for Conservation “Your guidance on the direct mail has been spot on. I got a few complaints about "asking for specific amounts of money," but I haven't worried about it too much because we are crushing our fundraising goals. (Also,...
1 February 2022 By David Allen, Development for Conservation A: A donor continues to give when the event is cancelled. I’m noticing a number of Board members recently who have seriously curbed their giving in 2020 and 2021 or who have stopped giving at all. When I’ve asked...
25 January 2022 By David Allen, Development for Conservation It’s hard to believe now, but there was once a time, years ago, when the primary germ concerns were about washing your hands before dinner. Killer pandemics were the stuff of Stephen King and Michael Crichton novels. Before COVID...
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...
11 January 2022 Last week I wrote about planning individual solicitations for your Board members and a selection of 30 or so donors: How to Make a Donor Plan. I suggested starting with a list of everyone who gave money in 2020 before pulling your Board members...