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.
The expectation is that a Development Director is meeting with two donors, on average, every week. So what constitutes a “contact”? Contacts count when they are in-person or on the telephone, written-up with a clearly defined follow-up course of action, and filed in the donor...
In a little bit, I will argue for the latter, but first I want to make the case that most land trusts need a Development Coordinator before they need a Development Director. Let’s look carefully at what a Development Director does. A skilled Development Director...
The most important driver of dedication and longevity in the position is a deeply rooted commitment to your mission. Hiring passion and training for skills is easier and more reliable than hiring skills and experience and expecting the candidate to fall in love with you....
I thoroughly enjoyed your seminar at the recent Rally and wanted to share with you an "AHA" moment that I have had since returning from Milwaukee. ...
The point is that the Board Development Committee should be looking at least 7-10 years out. What kind of person do we need to cultivate (or get to know) NOW, so they are ready to come onto the Board in 2-3 years - so they...
Nonetheless, anonymity rarely serves the organization, and that is increasingly true as the value of the gift grows. Anonymity, in the case study above, robbed the organization of the donor confidence that comes when 75% of the money for a particular project has been raised....
On the one hand, 15 percent is a terrific response and much better than the 1 percent response typical of direct mail recruitment. On the other hand, many of these same members might have responded earlier if they had been asked....
Consider starting with a single, time-limited campaign that’s very specific. This is pretty good advice. Tie your blog, Facebook posts, and/or tweets to a single topic (phenological events for example, or a work party or other volunteer event) over a specific, limited period of time....
Here’s the bottom line: There are far more people are willing to make gifts than there are Board members willing to ask. You will hurt your organization more quickly by failing to ask than by asking for too much. ...
Several clients have asked me recently about establishing donor clubs based on cumulative giving. In general I recommend against it, unless the organization already has a well-established system for recognizing annual donors....