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.
Eliminating term limits for board directors is a bad idea. Boards without term limits have no incentive to recruit, and without the constant stimulation new recruits bring, organizations can get stale and inbred over time and fail to grow. Furthermore, organizations that are growing have...
An important concept in fundraising is that of “access” to current and potential donors. Access in fundraising means that if you send someone an email or leave a voice message, it will be returned. Each of us has a circle of friends, family, business colleagues,...
I encourage all board members to regularly deliver their elevator speech to the entire board, as a form of ritualized practice. Practicing is just good "practice" anyway, but hearing what others say can help you refine and hone your own message. Delivering such a speech...
At a designated board meeting, s/he reports formally on the Standard, noting all the practices and policies underneath it, and offering an opinion as to the degree to which the organization is currently compliant. S/he offers recommendations for improvement or wording changes as appropriate. Any...
As a practical matter, most smaller organizations need a Marketing Plan and a Fundraising Plan. The Marketing Plan should include elements of branding and especially visual identity, but the effort and resources should be very strongly focused on bringing new people under the tent. The...
The debate got me thinking: Why don’t we do a direct mail appeal asking for volunteers?...
There is a more subtle point here. Donor clubs are not recognition strategies; they are solicitation strategies, employed to encourage members to make larger and larger annual investments in the organization. In that context, donor club decisions and decisions about recognizing long-term donors should be...
The case I meant to make is that $1,000 is not a lot of money in today's world. $84 a month, $21 a week. Think about all the things we buy without thinking that fall into that category: restaurant meals, designer coffee, wine/beer, internet/cable service,...
The most important branding element for your donor club is the list itself. Like a social register, people like to find their own name and look for those of their friends. Make sure you spell everyone’s name correctly! ...
You can raise more money from your members just by systematically asking for more money. Donor clubs can help, and a significant side benefit is that the annual solicitations provide a useful way for board members to get more involved in fundraising....