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 Those of you who read this blog regularly know that I am a real fan of the blogger Vu Le and his Nonprofit AF blog. Le’s writing is fresh, humorous, (usually) well thought out, and provocative and covers the entire...
By David Allen, Development for Conservation Two quick thoughts for you this week – I’m running short on time – it being the season for fundraising and all. The first is this: We’re all in on Boomers. They are on our Boards. They represent the majority of...
By David Allen, Development for Conservation For many organizations, Fall is the time for planning and budgeting (which doesn’t really work out so well for fundraisers who need to be busy raising money!). The default seems to be starting with assumptions about what WE did last...
By David Allen, Development for Conservation Over the years, I have worked with more than a few land trusts that are significantly dependent on revenue from a large, annual fundraising event – including one conservancy that was getting more than half of its annual unrestricted revenue...
By David Allen, Development for Conservation I don’t have enough time! There are two problems with taking that statement on its face. The first is that it is almost never literally true – there is usually plenty of time. We’re just using it to do other things. A...
By David Allen, Development for Conservation Several weeks ago, I posted an imaginary conversation with “Well-Meaning Tom” about a person who had made a gift of land to a land trust and subsequently hadn’t given anything at all. (See It’s OK to Ask.) In fact, I...
By David Allen, Development for Conservation This week, I want to tell you about Scotland. The first island we visited was just ten miles long and two miles wide. Its name is Colonsay, and it was the ancestral home of the MacPhee clan – as in...
“Donor-Centric” fundraising is fundraising that brings the donor into the center where the action is. Instead of being “out there” supporting the stuff “we’re” doing, Donor-centric fundraising invites donors into the center. And I think that’s a good thing. ...
Writing and editing fundraising letters is better thought of as an exercise in technical writing, than as writing actual letters. There are techniques, rules, and form to the exercise that, if followed closely, will help you raise more money. Many of these techniques are counter-intuitive....
By David Allen, Development for Conservation DA: So Tom, tell me about these donors – Pulen and Tumany Weeds. Well-Meaning Tom: What do you want to know? They’re not from around here. DA: I figured that out. Well-Meaning Tom: Kind of exotic. DA: I’ll bet. Well-Meaning Tom: She’s a gardener. DA: STOP...