First Thing Tuesday

13 Sep Development Planning from Scratch – Annual Giving Leaders

Posted at 06:16h in Board Development, Communication, Development Audit, Donor Cultivation, Featured, Membership, Plans and Budgets, Staff Development, Uncategorized 0 Comments

The planning idea behind segmenting is that you identify separate groups for separate consideration such that they are then removed completely from the larger prospect group. This is an important consideration because it forces you to plan in a way that is donor-centric instead of...

06 Sep Q&A from my In-Box

Posted at 05:14h in Board Development, Communication, Donor Cultivation, Featured, Membership, Staff Development, Uncategorized 0 Comments

When I start to describe a major gift development program to clients who do not have an active program already, I often use a pipeline analogy as follows. Imagine there are four “chambers” in a pipeline, labeled D, C, B, and A. You should be...

30 Aug Are You Ready for September?

Posted at 05:56h in Board Development, Communication, Development Audit, Donor Cultivation, Featured, Membership, Plans and Budgets, Staff Development, Uncategorized 2 Comments

Thursday is September the 1st – where has the summer gone? As we cruise toward the Autumnal Equinox, here’s what I’m thinking about for September. What are YOU thinking about?...

23 Aug Development Planning from Scratch – Cultivating Top 100 Donors

Posted at 06:25h in Board Development, Communication, Development Audit, Donor Cultivation, Featured, Membership, Staff Development, Uncategorized 0 Comments

One of the donor segments that should be pulled out for special attention is the Major Gift Prospect segment. I call it the Top 100, even though the actual number of donors you cultivate at this level may not actually number 100. Each donor in...

16 Aug Development Planning from Scratch – Cultivating the Board

Posted at 04:20h in Board Development, Communication, Donor Cultivation, Featured, Plans and Budgets, Staff Development, Uncategorized 0 Comments

This week I want to look at the organization from the Board member’s point of view, and ask this question: Have we adequately laid the groundwork for asking Board members for significant or even stretch gifts?...

09 Aug Development Planning from Scratch – Soliciting the Board

Posted at 05:50h in Board Development, Communication, Development Audit, Donor Cultivation, Featured, Plans and Budgets, Staff Development, Uncategorized 0 Comments

Make a fundraising plan for the first – and arguably most important – segment: the Board members. The first thing we need to do is to set a Goal....

02 Aug Development Planning from Scratch – Segmenting

Posted at 05:48h in Development Audit, Donor Cultivation, Featured, Foundations, Membership, Plans and Budgets, Staff Development, Uncategorized 0 Comments

A few weeks ago, I started a series on planning (See Development Planning from Scratch – The BIG Picture). In that post, I emphasized the importance of starting with a GOAL. If the purpose of fundraising activity is to return a Net to Program, it...

26 Jul Are You Ready for August?

Posted at 06:17h in Board Development, Communication, Development Audit, Donor Cultivation, Featured, Membership, Plans and Budgets, Staff Development, Uncategorized 0 Comments

Over the next several months, I will be focusing blog content on comprehensive fundraising planning. Last week’s post launched this series, and the next four will continue the series. Monday next week is August the 1st – where has the summer gone? As we cruise...

19 Jul Development Planning From Scratch – The BIG Picture

Posted at 06:07h in Development Audit, Featured, Plans and Budgets, Uncategorized 0 Comments

I have 2 new clients whose fundraising has plateaued, so I’ve started thinking about how to do development planning from scratch to help them grow to a new level of funding....

12 Jul What will you do with 15 minutes today?

Posted at 05:17h in Board Development, Communication, Development Audit, Donor Cultivation, Featured, Foundations, Membership, Plans and Budgets, Staff Development, Uncategorized 5 Comments

Think about this scenario: You’re at the office, and it’s 11:30 in the morning. You have a lunch appointment for which you’ll need to leave in 15 minutes. Not enough time to start something new, but too much time to waste. What will you do?...