First Thing Tuesday

14 Jul Board Screening of Foundation Officers

Posted at 05:48h in Board Development, Development Audit, Featured, Foundations, Staff Development, Uncategorized 0 Comments

Foundation grants should be written by the person closest to the project - the project manager or land steward. Board members have a role to play here as well, because (hopefully!) they are well connected in the community and know key decision-makers. Now – in...

07 Jul Fall Appeal Planning

Posted at 04:23h in Communication, Donor Cultivation, Featured, Membership, Plans and Budgets, Staff Development, Uncategorized 0 Comments

For many organizations, as much as seventy percent of operations funding is raised in the fall, and a healthy percentage of that comes from the fall appeal campaign. Planning NOW will help you get the most from your campaign and will help you from going...

30 Jun Lapsed Member Letters

Posted at 05:49h in Communication, Featured, Membership, Staff Development, Uncategorized 0 Comments

After sending out three or four letters asking the donor to renew, I recommend simply dropping the issue for a full year. In other words, I treat them exactly as if they had renewed their membership for a full year. And a year later, I...

23 Jun Filing/Data Entry

Posted at 05:33h in Communication, Featured, Membership, Staff Development, Uncategorized 1 Comment

If you’re like me, keeping your paper files organized and up-to-date is a task that frequently falls off the table. So here we are in June – now is a great time for catching up with data entry, too....

16 Jun Good News

Posted at 05:54h in Communication, Donor Cultivation, Featured, Membership, Staff Development, Uncategorized 0 Comments

June is a good time to share Good News as a specific strategy for advancing donor cultivation. Find something that has recently happened and that hasn’t yet been publicized otherwise. Something that you can share with your donors that they won’t have already heard elsewhere....

10 Jun Annual Report DOs and DON’Ts

Posted at 20:15h in Communication, Donor Cultivation, Featured, Membership, Staff Development, Uncategorized 0 Comments

The most important value for an Annual Report is as a sales piece. Keep that in mind and make sure it tells your story in the way you want it told. Here are some DOs and DON’Ts for Annual Reports....

03 Jun Plan the Board HandWriting Event for August

Posted at 05:46h in Board Development, Communication, Donor Cultivation, Featured, Membership, Plans and Budgets, Staff Development, Uncategorized 0 Comments

Donor clubs are a perfect group to solicit using a letter that is entirely written longhand. If you want to mail these letters in late September or early October – which would be ideal – you need to have the letters written in August. And...

27 May Spring Appeal 2nd Drop

Posted at 04:29h in Communication, Donor Cultivation, Featured, Membership, Staff Development, Uncategorized 0 Comments

Now that Memorial Day is behind us, there’s still time this week to mail a reminder letter for the Spring Appeal. But hurry, before school lets out and vacation season starts in earnest. There are several competing theories about second appeal letters. The first suggests...

19 May Taking Stock

Posted at 05:37h in Board Development, Communication, Development Audit, Donor Cultivation, Featured, Membership, Plans and Budgets, Staff Development, Uncategorized 0 Comments

There’s a problem with measuring your year in twelfths. It works for expenses like rent, which is the same each month. But it doesn’t work for insurance which sits at 0% of budget until the month it’s due and then zooms all the way to...

12 May Donor Event Planning

Posted at 05:32h in Board Development, Communication, Donor Cultivation, Featured, Membership, Staff Development, Uncategorized 0 Comments

Donor events can take many forms, from field trips to coffees or luncheons, house parties, open houses at the office, and so on. In general, I separate them functionally as follows: Introductory Event, Cultivation Events, and Appreciation Events....