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.
12 August 2024 By David Allen, Development for Conservation When you sit down to write your appeal letter (or renewal letter), who are you writing to? The general public? The membership? The donors? Or to someone specifically? As if you knew them really well. Just sharing good news...
6 August 2024 By David Allen, Development for Conservation I seem to collect books that I never find the time to read. I’m probably not alone in that. I have good intentions. Some are purchased, some are gifted. But all of the hold some significant level of...
30 July 2024 By David Allen, Development for Conservation Many land trusts renew their members in the Fall and many are now scrambling to produce renewal letters. And let’s not get hung up on the word “member.” If your organization doesn’t have “members,” you still want people...
23 July 2024 By David Allen, Development for Conservation I started raising money as a canvasser in Eugene Oregon. It was to be a summer job in 1983, and it turned into a career. It’s safe to say I had no idea what I was getting myself...
16 July 2024 By David Allen, Development for Conservation I just got back from an engaging land trust conference hosted by the Coalition of Oregon Land Trusts and the Washington Association of Land Trusts called Land Camp. I go to conferences as a presenter, to see and...
9 July 2024 By David Allen, Development for Conservation A couple of weeks ago, I posted about working your appeal letters around the election this year: Let’s Answer the Election Question. In it, I offered three different timelines for mailing, depending on whether you intend to offer...
2 July 2024 By David Allen, Development for Conservation Some land trusts are supported by fewer than 100 donors. A few are supported by fewer than 50. For context, consider that most conservation organizations, regardless of the community in which they work, can attract at least 50 new...
25 June 2024 By David Allen, Development for Conservation When I get challenged on the advice I provide in this blog and in various seminars and workshops, it’s usually related to not being able to cite studies and peer-reviewed papers that prove the opinion I espouse. For the...
18 June 2024 By David Allen, Development for Conservation At some point during your next organizational event, imagine yourself being between 45 and 60-years-old. You Gen-Xers out there won’t have trouble with this. Now wrap yourself in a cloak of objectivity and look around the event. Characterize it....
11 June 2024 By David Allen, Development for Conservation Somewhat lost in all the kerfuffle in the conservation community about anything and everything named in honor of Muir, Audubon, or Leopold is the more important call to think carefully about how we name anything and especially so...