wild-horses

First Thing Tuesday

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.

  24 October 2023   By David Allen, Development for Conservation   A question I often ask clients preparing for an individual donor visit is: “Why will this person say Yes to the request?”   It can be helpful to ask the same question when writing appeal letters and emails. Why will...

  10 October 2023   By David Allen, Development for Conservation   I’ve noticed a number of hits on old blog posts related to writing Fall Appeal Letters, and a couple of folks have even called asking specific questions. It appears that some of you are looking for last minute...

  3 October 2023   By David Allen, Development for Conservation   OK – so call me a purist. I think that capital campaign fundraising should be about private, charitable gifts for specific project outcomes. It’s not a $5.0 million capital campaign if $3.0 million comes from taxpayers. That would be...

  19 September 2023   By David Allen, Development for Conservation   I have my own ideas, of course, but I also did a little research into the current data on recurring giving. And discovered that there’s a lot of crap out there. I looked at Network for Good, Classy,...

  12 September 2023   By David Allen, Development for Conservation   Perfect weather. Great food. The largest gathering of land trust staff and Board directors ever. How was your Rally? I always recommend measuring conference experiences by finding one idea that you can bring back and make a difference right...

  5 September 2023   By David Allen, Development for Conservation   It’s Rally week! And I hope that you will find a way to visit me at my table and/or attend my Fundraising 101 workshop. See you in Portland!   Instead of writing something fresh, I’m going to reprise a theme...

  29 August 2023   By David Allen, Development for Conservation   So what is your retention rate? Count the number of unique households who gave money in 2021. And count the number of THOSE households who gave money again in 2022. Divide the 2022 number by the 2021 number and...

  22 August 2023   By David Allen, Development for Conservation   I was amused recently by another Vu Le blog post. It was written in response to an article in the Chronicle of Philanthropy (Why I Stopped Donating to Your Organization), written from the perspective of a donor, in...