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 When I was first learning about major gift fundraising, the “must-see” teacher of the craft was Bill Sturtevant. He and the late author Jerry Panas ran the consulting practice called the Institute for Charitable Giving. Both Sturtevant and the Institute...
By David Allen, Development for Conservation I get asked about crowdfunding, and other forms of social media campaigns a lot. I have an opinion, which I am not shy about sharing, but my essential answer is this: “Sure, if you are doing everything you can to build...
By David Allen, Development for Conservation Your land trust probably uses events for all sorts of reasons. You might have an annual “olly-olly-oxen-free” member meeting. Maybe an annual fundraising event, gala, or auction. Maybe an event just to show donors how much you appreciate them. And then...
By David Allen, Development for Conservation Planned gifts can be a game changer for your land trust when they come in unexpectedly and are not restricted by the donor. Ninety-plus percent of all planned gifts are bequests or named beneficiaries on various insurance policies. So, if you...
By David Allen, Development for Conservation As I reported in my study of five-year values, (see 5Yr Value: The Metric that Tells You the Most About Your Fundraising), organizations with a higher-than median five-year value (2014 donors) tended to be actively engaged in raising money (from...
By David Allen, Development for Conservation Last week I attended the Pennsylvania Land Conservation Conference about an hour up into the Poconos from Scranton. (Gorgeous spot!) One of the rules I live by is to always attend a workshop on social media and fundraising if I...
By David Allen, Development for Conservation This week, I’m continuing a series about recruitment strategies. The series stems from a post I wrote two weeks ago called the 300-Member trap – the phenomenon that many organizations face where they have essentially the same number of members...
By David Allen, Development for Conservation Last week, I wrote about the 300-Member trap – the phenomenon that many organizations face where they have essentially the same number of members each year – about 300 – regardless of what they do to grow. The trap exists because...
By David Allen, Development for Conservation I’m closing in on ten years in the consulting business. Along the way, I have worked with dozens of land trusts, and doing so has afforded me an interesting vertical window into the land trust community. In other words, because I...
By David Allen, Development for Conservation As soon as I learn what the fundraising goal is, my brain kicks into overdrive. OK, we’re going to need three gifts of this amount and 5 gifts of that amount. Sam could do $$$$, and Jill will probably come in...