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.
14 June 2022 By David Allen, Development for Conservation Two core fundraising ideas come together in this post. The first is that we raise money from people who already give us money. Marketing efforts to bring in new people frequently cost more money than they raise. The second...
7 June 2022 By David Allen, Development for Conservation (Most of this post was originally published in June of 2017.) Imagine a day when someone walks in the door of your land trust and offers to pay for everything you need to accomplish your mission. Not an invitation...
31 May 2022 By David Allen, Development for Conservation If you were starting a new restaurant in town, its long-term viability would depend on getting people to try it right away – within the first couple of months. That means they would need to hear about it...
24 May 2022 By David Allen, Development for Conservation Last week, I promised you a blog about strategies for recruiting new donors. I’m still going to post that, but I’m putting it off a week. Because the stock market is down 20%. And I’m sensing a level of concern...
17 May 2022 By David Allen, Development for Conservation A few weeks ago, someone asked for a post about recruiting new members. This post (and next week’s) is for them and for anyone else looking for the same information. For the purposes of this post, I am defining...
10 May 2022 By David Allen, Development for Conservation There’s a spot in Nebraska on top of a little rise where you can see grass all the way to the horizon in every direction. What you can’t see is any sign of human life. No roads. No...
3 May 2022 By David Allen, Development for Conservation Note: Most of this post was originally published in 2017. My workshop was about major gift fundraising (of course), and I had come to the part where Board members need to give themselves first. How can we ask...
26 April 2022 By David Allen, Development for Conservation Quick – make the case for me about why I should join your land trust organization as a Benefactor instead of a Patron. Or a Steward instead of a Caretaker. Or even a Family instead of a Friend. Many land trusts...
19 April 2022 By David Allen, Development for Conservation For the last couple of weeks, I’ve been writing about communicating with donors. We’re Outreaching; Are We Succeeding? Communicating with “People Who Give Money” Four Common Communications Failures I See Too Frequently And as I explained last week, communication has been on...
12 April 2022 By David Allen, Development for Conservation For the last couple of weeks, I’ve been writing about communicating with donors. We’re Outreaching; Are We Succeeding? Communicating with “People Who Give Money” It’s been on my mind because I’ve been doing a whole series of Development Audits – comprehensive...