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.
May is a month when you turn the corner from the campaigns of the spring to outdoor activities in the summer and plans for the fall. Build in some time for reflection for sure, but realize that it’s not too early to begin planning for...
This is the week you should send out your Spring Appeal. I’ve been asked by several clients about timing of the appeal. You can send out an appeal letter until the Tuesday before Memorial Day (the 19th) and still do relatively well. Every day you...
We’re looking for rich people who already know us and understand why what we’re doing is important. And on whatever economic scale our current supporters represent, we’re looking for the top 10 percent (or so)....
If you organize your work around weekly systems, you end up with months like this one – April – with five Wednesdays instead of just four. (We also have five-Wednesday months in July, September, and December this year.) I suggest you have a plan for...
In our zeal to reduce paper and digitize everything, we have made it harder to “know” anything about our donors. I think there should be a place where you can go and relatively quickly learn the key points about a donor and their entire...
The most persistent barrier to successful major gift fundraising is that board members do not know the donors and donors don’t know the board. Two underused strategies for overcoming those barriers are Good News and Save the Date events....
Let’s nominate April as “Foundation Month” – the month where you lay out all your plans for the next twelve months related to foundations and corporate foundations....
Right now, you know every member who will be renewing this year (assuming, of course, that you have members who renew every year). You know what they gave last year about this time. And you know what you will be asking them to give this...
This week, we’ll take a longer look at a specific editing process for appeal letters. Much of it is counter-intuitive, so close your eyes and trust the advice....
First, think of a Spring Appeal as more of a member communication than a fundraising letter. Spring Appeals tend to be more challenging, but sending them and making them attractive enough to get opened can have significant communications benefits beyond simply asking for a donation....