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 For the last several years, about this time, I have posted about a metric I’ve wanted to collect data on – the 5-year-value of new members. I’ve been asking everyone to look back at the donors who made first gifts (ever)...
8 February 2022 By David Allen, Development for Conservation “Your guidance on the direct mail has been spot on. I got a few complaints about "asking for specific amounts of money," but I haven't worried about it too much because we are crushing our fundraising goals. (Also,...
1 February 2022 By David Allen, Development for Conservation A: A donor continues to give when the event is cancelled. I’m noticing a number of Board members recently who have seriously curbed their giving in 2020 and 2021 or who have stopped giving at all. When I’ve asked...
25 January 2022 By David Allen, Development for Conservation It’s hard to believe now, but there was once a time, years ago, when the primary germ concerns were about washing your hands before dinner. Killer pandemics were the stuff of Stephen King and Michael Crichton novels. Before COVID...
18 January 2022 By David Allen, Development for Conservation I’m getting a number of requests for help fundraising from land trusts who need to build their stewardship endowments. Some of this is undoubtedly related to land trust accreditation, which has brought both new awareness and new urgency...
11 January 2022 Last week I wrote about planning individual solicitations for your Board members and a selection of 30 or so donors: How to Make a Donor Plan. I suggested starting with a list of everyone who gave money in 2020 before pulling your Board members...
4 January 2022 There’s something you can do this week that will make a HUGE difference in how much money you will raise this year. It may take several hours to do it right, or maybe even a couple of days. And you probably won’t enjoy doing...
28 December 2021 Looking for something to do this week? Try picking up the phone. I get teased every year by somebody who tells me they are NOT taking this week off, because “someone” advised them to make themselves available to donors who might need to talk...
21 December 2021 “Action on behalf of life transforms. Because the relationship between self and the world is reciprocal, it is not a question of first getting enlightened or saved and then acting. As we work to heal the earth, the earth heals us.” Robin Wall...
14 December 2021 By David Allen, Development for Conservation Tomorrow is the 15th of December. Which means that today is the day for an annual reminder that all fundraisers should be available all week this week for the people you serve. Hopefully, this is all review! Sorry about...