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 Last year at Thanksgiving, I wrote about the differences between gratitude and gratefulness. (See Gratitude and Gratefulness) The word grateful is not necessarily focused on a source. We are grateful for stuff – health, material gifts, sunshine, rest – that is...
By David Allen, Development for Conservation I have spent quite a bit of time recently pounding on the We-Need-To-Be-More-Scientific-In-Our-Fundraising drum. That was a primary message in the Rally workshop on Fundraising Metrics, and I’ve written about it often on this blog. Here’s a concrete example related to...
By David Allen, Development for Conservation In the early 2000s, I had the great privilege of observing a local election held in Zambia. The community, apparently defined as the number of people who could still hear each other when seated under a tree, was conducting its...
By David Allen, Development for Conservation Things would be so different if they were not as they are. - Anna Russell Jeff Brooks posted a guest blog by Christiana Stergiou speculating on the unquantifiable – opportunity costs. An “opportunity cost” is the amount of money we leave behind...
By David Allen, Development for Conservation If you’re like me, you won’t be mailing your appeal letters and/or renewals after this week and until after the election. If you’re like me, you will calculate that the national mood will be seriously distracted by the election. I...
By David Allen, Development for Conservation In my groups and workshops, I always ask how many people are First Timers. It gives me a chance to repeat my best advice for newbies: Rally (and any conference) can be overwhelming the first time. Your job then is to...
By David Allen, Development for Conservation Whether we understand and acknowledge it or not, we all have an interesting relationship with neuroscience, neurolinguistics, and neurolinguistic programming. These terms describe the possibility that how human beings react to certain decision-making triggers can be studied and understood. Many of...
By David Allen, Development for Conservation We know that people give from the heart. We know that their decision to give is an emotional one. And sometimes irrational. Donors may decide what to give and when to give and even what to give to – using their...
By David Allen, Development for Conservation I spent a lovely week last week in McAllen, Texas at the Summit conference for Nature Center Administrators. I learned a lot and met some terrific folks involved in nature education all over the country. Among the many stories I heard,...
By David Allen, Development for Conservation OK, so let’s talk about Fundraising Metrics. As I mentioned last week(See On Metrics, Data, Information, Science, and How We Use Them – Part 1), I will be doing a workshop on Fundraising Metrics this year at Rally. What to count....