23 Mar Aging Donor Base?
We should be aiming our communications, and especially our donor communications, at current donors in their 50s, 60s, and 70s – the donors we actually HAVE instead of the donors we think we WANT....
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.
17 Mar Memberships and Membership Committees
Many organizations have moved away from using membership language for reasons I don’t fully understand and won’t argue here. It’s only a consequential mistake if donors no longer feel connected and therefore have less invested in renewing. In other words, if it ends up costing...
10 Mar How old is your computer?
The Nonprofit Starvation Cycle was coined (as far as I know) by Ann Goggins and Don Howard in a post published in the Stanford Social Innovation Review way back in 2009. The point in their post was that nonprofits were NOT spending enough on information...
02 Mar Is Your Acknowledgement Process like a Torn Seat Cover?
I have always believed that an official acknowledgement of receipt can be different from more personal expressions of gratitude. The receipt should be sent immediately. The actual thank you can be produced on a more reasonable 2-3-week busy-person schedule – especially in a small office....
23 Feb Stories that Donors Can Tell
We ask our communications and engagement events to help educate people about the importance of conservation work. But we don’t ask our communications to help donors talk about conservation and the need for conservation investors....
16 Feb Greater Than Zero
Board members who give money and never show up themselves to volunteer would not be tolerated very long. No one ever questions this. So why do we question it when it comes to giving time and never giving money? ...
09 Feb Board Member Fundraising Campaigns
Annual one-on-one interviews with directors is a sign of good leadership. It can open channels of communication, alleviate anxiety, improve organizational comradery and morale, recognize performance, and improve efficiency and effectiveness. ...
02 Feb Don’t Back Away from the Call to Action
You WANT donors and non-donors alike to attend your events. You want donors to feel some level of pride in the mission successes you are delivering. And you want non-donors to wonder what they’re missing. So, differentiate between current donors and non-donors at the events....
26 Jan Do Your Donors Know How Much They Mean to You?
I think the first step would be to recognize organizational donors as an important audience for your communications. This audience needs messaging and media that helps them understand clearly that their gifts were valued. That they made a difference. ...
20 Jan Two questions and Two Responses
In my perfect land trust world, membership would ALWAYS be a gift. And the denomination of the gift would ALWAYS be determined by the giver, not by the organization. So $5 would be a membership. And $5,000 would be a membership....