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.
13 September 2022 By David Allen, Development for Conservation I’m heading to Rally today, and it seemed timely to pull out this post from 2017 and update it. After all, it’s been a while, and we might be out of practice. If you are heading to New...
6 September 2022 By David Allen, Development for Conservation Every year in September, I start thinking about how just about every single member or donor who has given us money in recent memory will be solicited between now and year’s end. The entire year comes down to...
30 August 2022 By David Allen, Development for Conservation One of the more frustrating parts of a fundraiser’s job happens when people don’t actually do what they said they would do. OK – any job. Donors promise a reply by Tuesday and Friday rolls around without a word. ...
23 August 2022 By David Allen, Development for Conservation I was recently forwarded a blog post from Cross & Crown, a digital marketing firm based in Pennsylvania whose tagline says they “strive to help educate, advocate, and thrive in a digital world.” The post, Conservation Land Trust...
16 August 2022 By David Allen, Development for Conservation Every so often I get significant pushback from readers either questioning or taking exception to something I have written. I love it when it happens. It causes me to re-examine something I may believe so matter-of-factly that I...
9 August 2022 By David Allen, Development for Conservation It’s primary election day in Wisconsin, and I am a pollworker, so I am reprising my set of fundraising letter “rules” from several years ago. The set is based on a book by Jeff Brooks that should probably...
2 August 2022 By David Allen, Development for Conservation This week I’m thinking about what someone might need to know to make a major gift. In this sense, I am staying with my soapbox premise that the word “major” should describe the decision to give and not...
26 July 2022 By David Allen, Development for Conservation It’s a little hard to believe, but there are very few things that can go completely wrong when asking for money. Assuming that the person you are asking has heard about the organization. Assuming that the organization is...
19 July 2022 By David Allen, Development for Conservation It’s a common lament. All-volunteer organizations looking to hire their first staff position. Much larger organizations feeling everything would balance out if they just had that administrative position, or another land steward, or a Fundraising Manager, or … Well...
12 July 2022 By David Allen, Development for Conservation A couple of blinks from now, it will be August the 1st – where has the summer gone? As we cruise toward Labor Day, here’s what I’m thinking about for August. What are YOU thinking about? Getting Out of...