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 Start again. January of another year. 2018 is over. History. Fa, sol, la, ti, Done. And January brings us ‘round again “to Do.” 2019 yawns before us. It could be anything. What will it be for you? January is a good time for reflection....
By David Allen, Development for Conservation Do not let selfish men or greedy interests skin your country of its beauty, its riches or its romance. - Theodore Roosevelt I sincerely hope that this New Year’s message finds you warm and comfortable, surrounded by family and good...
By David Allen, Development for Conservation Yesterday was December 17th. I marked the day, because there are exactly 14 days left in the charitable giving year. So this post will serve as a reminder that these two weeks are NOT weeks you should be taking off. Just as...
By David Allen, Development for Conservation As you probably know, Alaska residents receive a check in the mail from the State of Alaska, representing a distribution of oil royalties earned during the year. It’s called the Permanent Fund Dividend and has ranged from $300 to more...
By David Allen, Development for Conservation From my In-Box this week: I still get a lot of one-page letters with graphics and donation tear-off sections at the bottom. In fact, I donate to these groups and lean towards this letter because it is short, concise and to...
By David Allen, Development for Conservation Among the notable passings in 2018 was one Jerold (Jerry) Panas. Jerry’s was one of the most recognizable names in fundraising. Author of twenty books on fundraising, Panas was also a regular contributor to blogs and magazines about the topic....
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 2000's, 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...